1 Year of Pique 🎉🥳🥂

Pique officially launched our first video one year ago! Since then, we’ve produced more than 400 unique videos, profiled nearly 50 companies, and had more than 11 million views and over 100k hours of watch time.

On one hand, the more I learn about the science of climate change and what could lie ahead, the more scared I become. But on the other hand, the deeper that I get into solutions and innovations, the more optimistic I am that we can profoundly shift the direction that we’re going and mitigate human suffering. We can do this, together.

I founded Pique because we’re all tired of seeing polar bears float out to sea on melting glaciers, flooding, and fires. It isn’t galvanizing anyone. We believe that telling the stories of the people innovating and building solutions can help to change the narrative. We’re going to tell thousands of stories, connect people to what they can do, and we’re going to help write the new story of what we believe will ultimately be a better future.

A big thank you to all of our readers, watchers, evangelists, and supporters! You’re on this journey with us, and we are deeply grateful. We admit that the climate crisis is scary, but it’s way less scary when we share, and share often because we’re in this together.

— Kip Pastor, founder & CEO

If you’re getting this newsletter in your inbox, you probably already know that Pique Action is the opposite of doom scrolling. We believe that climate change is a critical problem affecting our planet and people - and the solutions that will save us are coming from the planet and its people as well.

This is why we tell stories on climate solutions and the innovative individuals scaling them. We’ve covered some pretty stellar startups as part of our NextNow series over the last 365 days. Here are some of our favorites:

💡 Cydee

It’s the story of most entrepreneurs - Monika Jha saw a problem, and built a solution. The lack of reliable street lighting in the neighborhood made it unsafe to go out at night, and energy efficiency rates were poor. So, in her last year of college, she invented a new lighting concept that would save money and energy.

We’re drawn to this story because it’s an example of a local climate solution that can improve the lives of people in a wider community. Too often we hold up the big moonshots instead of praising and recognizing the steady progress being made all around us. Cydee’s lighting concept can save 30% on energy consumption and 40% on cost. With high dispersion LED lighting concepts, three Cydee lights can replace five conventional lights to illuminate the same stretch of road.

As Monika says in the film: “It is important that we realize if it’s not powered by sustainable sources, then we must consider that we are stealing it from future generations.”

Watch our video on Cydee here to learn more about this climate solution.

🥬 Genecis

Every year, over 3 trillion pounds of food scraps are wasted. That waste is the third-largest source of methane, equivalent to 7% of global GHG emissions. At the same time, 18 billion pounds of plastic pollute our oceans annually.

This is a dual crisis, and Genecis is killing two birds with one stone - taking food waste and converting it into compostable and marine-biodegradable plastics that break down within 12 months.

Best of all, this can be a solution to the growing issue of microplastics that are finding their way into our water, food, and even newborn babies. While we won’t get rid of our plastic addiction anytime soon, at the very least, Genecis might have a solution to produce it from better sources.

Watch our video on Genecis here.

🚚 Remora

Capturing emissions from a truck’s tailpipe: it’s conceptually a simple solution to climate change, but logistically it’s quite challenging.

With 2 million semi-trucks in the U.S. contributing to nearly 5% of the country’s emissions, we knew Remora's story was one we had to tell.

The company’s revolutionary device can be mounted between the tractor and the trailer of a semi-truck. By taking in at least 80% of its carbon emissions, the device captures over 135 metric tons of CO2 per year. That’s equivalent to planting 6,200 trees. This device has a minimal impact on payload compared to what a battery would and offers fleet operators a low-cost approach to decarbonizing immediately.

Watch our video on Remora here.

🧀 Formo

We’re cheese lovers, yet our taste for burrata and brie comes into conflict with our desire for a cleaner future. Dairy is responsible for 4% of global GHG emissions, roughly equivalent to emissions from the aviation and shipping industry, combined

Naturally, we found ourselves particularly excited when we were introduced to a pair of Berlin founders, Raffael Wohlgensinger and Dr. Britta Winterberg, who also share our love for cheese and harbor a strong desire for a more sustainable food system.

Through precision fermentation, Formo uses cellular agriculture to develop cultivated, animal-free dairy products. That means real, gooey, great-tasting cheese without the lactose, questions regarding animal cruelty, or substantial environmental impact. It’s a solution that drastically cuts emissions, saves water, and preserves land use compared to typical cheese production.

Watch our video on Formo here.

🏢 75F

When it comes to deploying technology to tackle climate change, the conversation tends to range from scaling up renewable energy to futuristic carbon removal ideas. Yet compared to renewables, energy efficiency practices are about 6x cheaper to implement and, most importantly, it’s something we can do immediately.

Commercial buildings are the fourth largest emitter of CO2 worldwide, with 67% of their emissions coming from heating, ventilation, and air conditioning (aka HVAC). Yet so many of our buildings have fewer controls than our cars.

Deepinder Singh and the 75F team have built a series of automated sensors and controls that leverage machine learning and cloud computing to enable more granular control over small areas. The result is a reduction in both emissions and costs — a winning formula that will surely appeal to even the biggest climate laggards.

According to the 75F team, if they were deployed across the US, it would have an impact equivalent to taking nearly 70 million cars off the road and avoiding 336 million tons of CO2 emissions! By making “dumb” buildings smarter, Singh and 75F are turning efficiency into major cost savings and significant emissions reductions. Smart, right?

Watch our video on 75F here.

🏭 CarbonCure

If you're inside right now, there's a pretty good chance that the building you're in is made up of concrete. That's because it's the most abundant building material on the planet. Yet one of the core ingredients to make concrete, cement, is a major driver of climate change. In fact, 7% of all greenhouse gas emissions result from the production of cement. The rate of growth for the cement industry isn’t slowing anytime soon; we’re adding the equivalent of a new Manhattan every single month until 2060.

This is a massive problem that’s only getting larger by the day, making it a story we had to tell. This is why CarbonCure, which injects CO2 into its concrete mix and reduces the amount of cement content, is such a fascinating climate solution. In addition to sequestering CO2, the concrete comes out even stronger.

Founded 10 years ago by Rob Niven, concrete producers around the world have delivered over 1.7 million truckloads of concrete made with CarbonCure’s technology.

Watch our video on CarbonCure here.

📱Pique’s Climate Creators

We’ve been fortunate enough to share the perspectives of a global team of climate creators. From nature-based solutions, to individual action, to best economic policies and practices - they’ve helped answer our most pressing climate questions.

Check them out on Pique’s TikTok and Instagram, and on their personal pages:

Alaina Wood

Dezz McGill

Gabrielle Langhorn

Hazel Thayer

Carissa Cabrera