ECOVATIVE wins $750,000 PICNIC GREEN CHALLENGE PRIZE—International Competition Challenges Entrepreneurs to Reduce CO2 with New Products or Services for Consumers
Troy, NY (October 2, 2008)— Ecovative was awarded the coveted prize in Amsterdam last week, with an international jury endorsing Ecovative’s vision that their Greensulate™ material could revolutionize an entire industry and simultaneously decrease carbon emissions on a globally significant scale. The jury noted that Ecovative “combined creativity and sustainability with true entrepreneurship.” Greensulate TM is an insulating material that provides competitive performance to existing products, while consuming five times less energy to produce, and generating ten times lower CO2 emissions.
Ecovative Design, LLC., captured the 2008 PICNIC Green Challenge in Amsterdam last week. The annual international creative competition, sponsored by the Dutch Postcode Lottery and cross-media event PICNIC, challenges entrepreneurs worldwide to create greenhouse-gas-reducing products or services and encourages consumers to adopt a sustainable lifestyle. Lodewijk Asscher, Amsterdam's Deputy Mayor presented Ecovative with the €500,000 (US$750,000) prize that will assist the U.S. startup in executing its vision.
Greensulate™, is a direct replacement for expanded polystyrene (EPS) products. Composed of renewable agricultural waste resources and mycelium fibers, Greensulate™ is produced without petroleum or light, requires no significant heat, is non-allergenic, and is less expensive to produce than foam products. It can be produced at room temperature, in a wide range of benign environments, and is less expensive to produce than petroleum based foam products. “This win is a great validation of Ecovative's technology and an important validation of our vision to provide a sustainable alternative to synthetics, such as plastics and foams, which can be produced locally, around the world," said Eben Bayer, CEO and cofounder of Ecovative Design.
In addition to functioning as an insulator, initial testing to American Society for Testing and Materials (ASTM) Standards has shown Greensulate™ to have a greater compressive and flexural strength than EPS, and also act as a firewall. Ecovative will continue material optimization and compliance testing throughout 2009 with a target date set for mid-2010 to offer a commercially available insulation product. Other Greensulate™ based materials, including Negative Volume packaging, will be available sooner in mid 2009.
"The PICNIC Green Challenge is an amazing event, uniting creative thinkers from around the world in a common cause—drastically reducing CO2 emissions and energy consumption through innovation. This award will help us to continue to build our team and expertise, while also advancing our material development schedule," added Bayer.
About Ecovative Headquartered in Troy, New York, Ecovative is a biomaterials start-up company pioneering new ways of thinking about the products we use. Its first product, Greensulate™, is a direct replacement to expanded polystyrene products with cross-industry applications including recreational, packaging and home building. The company was founded in 2007 and is lead by Eben Bayer, Gavin McIntyre and Ed Browka, graduates of Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute.
For more information on the Green Challenge visit: http://www.greenchallenge.info/web/show/id=68954/contentid=3041
