Submitted by I. McKeever on Thu, 30/01/2025 - 11:28
30 January 2025 - Meet the businesses who are pushing boundaries in sustainable innovation.
The Cambridge Institute for Sustainability Leadership’s (CISL) Canopy is a vibrant network of purpose-driven innovators and entrepreneurs dedicated to building ventures that put sustainability at the heart of their work and focus on tackling global sustainability challenges. Here we profile some of the recent companies and individuals who have joined.
This growing community spans local and international stratup and scaleup companies who are pioneering change in areas ranging from sustainable design to transformative agricultural practices. The latest members, who have joined over the past 3-4 months, bring fresh perspectives and groundbreaking ideas to this dynamic network, adding to the collective drive to place people, nature, and climate at the heart of business and innovation. We look forward to showcasing more of their work throughout 2025, and watching their ventures go from strength to strength.
Decent Energy - Tom Cox & Sally Sattary
Decent Energy believes everyone should have access to affordable, sustainable energy. They’re rethinking how energy is generated, shared and consumed. Their mission is to optimise and integrate decentralised energy assets, providing access to energy at the lowest possible cost in both currency and carbon. By maximising the use of green energy, they aim to accelerate the decarbonisation of demand.
Based on their simulations, the product they are developing could help users save an average of 25% on their electricity bills.
Tom, the founder of Decent Energy, is a leading figure in the energy sector, working at the forefront of sustainable energy solutions. He focuses on integrating renewable energy sources and advocating for energy efficiency.
Sally, co-founder, brings a robust background in meteorology and energy systems to Decent Energy. Driven by a commitment to sustainability and energy equity, she leverages her expertise in project management, engineering operations, and atmospheric science to reimagine how energy is generated, shared, and consumed.
Protonera - Jack Chengzhi Guo
Protonera’s groundbreaking technology enables low grade plastic waste to be recycled cost-effectively, with green hydrogen as a by-product. While the primary focus is plastic recycling, the green hydrogen produced also holds significant potential. The company’s initial target customers are plastic recyclers, intending to provide them with a scalable solution to enhance their operations.
The green hydrogen, although not yet produced at the scale needed to serve as a widespread energy alternative, can be used in other industries, such as semiconductor manufacturing. Protonera’s process also allows plastic to be broken down at ambient temperatures using sunlight, significantly reducing the carbon footprint of recycling.
Jack has a PhD in Biochemistry from the University of Cambridge (UoC), and is the CEO of Protonera, which he co-founded with UoC Professor Erwin Reisner and Technology Advisor Professor Florian Hollfelder. He has been supported in building this venture by Cambridge Enterprise and recently was a member of a impressive cohort from Founders.
Chloris Geospatial – Cristina Calatayud
Chloris Geospatial is a leading provider of trustworthy forest carbon insights, leveraging artificial intelligence and machine learning to create innovative solutions that drive business value. The technology helps businesses make informed decisions and improve operations through scalable and cost-effective actionable insights maximising funds for action on the ground.
Chloris Geospatial are head quartered in Boston, US, and their UK based Forest Carbon Manager Cristina Calatayud works from our Canopy workspace in Cambridge.
John Pearce
CEO of Made in Britian, John is a champion of the circular economy andbrings invaluable business expertise to the Canopy network. As a member of the UNGC UK Network Working Group, he’s helping businesses align with sustainability goals and build pathways to a greener future.
John has led Made in Britain's growth since 2015, transforming it into an influential trade body of more than 2,020 members today. Under his leadership, the Made in Britain mark has become a renowned symbol of British provenance and high standards. He is committed to raising awareness of the strengths of British manufacturing both in the wider business community and with the public, supporting more sustainable business models and processes, and to ensuring that the sector's challenges are addressed at government level.
Agata Communications - Fernando Gomollón Bel
The main purpose of Agata Communications is to make complicated things simple. They are a multi-talented communications agency focused on delivering research and innovation to the right audiences. Their services include logos, branding, web design, web development, animations, social media, communication strategy, and more. Agata’s unique expertise in transforming complex scientific papers into clear communications, storytelling, and writing makes them particularly valuable in a university town like Cambridge and within the scientific community.
As Director of Agata Communications, Fernando excels in science communication. With a PhD in organic chemistry, he helps organisations share their research and innovation stories. Through strategic storytelling, he is raising public awareness and driving transformative conversations around sustainability. He currently works within the Graphene Flagship, one of the largest EU-funded projects.
PACT - Dr Yudi Ding
PACT create high-performance materials, utilising surplus input to create innovative new materials that are 100% traceable and free of harsh chemicals, setting new sustainability benchmarks for fashion and beyond. . In 2024 PACT completed a successful £9m seed fundraising round, moved into their new 13,000 square foot labs and pilot facility, and launched their advanced material: Oval.
PACT offers designers unparalleled flexibility while minimising environmental footprint across the entire production process. Oval is the first biomaterial of its kind—created from cosmetic-grade collagen, enriched with natural oils and free of harsh chemicals.
CEO and Co-Founder Yudi Ding, Co-Founder and COO Niels Ramay and VP of Growth Candice Koo all joined the Canopy via our second home membership.
Regg3 - Jenny Salazar Zapata and Giovanni Moratti
Regg3 are developing a regenerative impact exchange market and framework, to support businesses to go ‘beyond sustainability’. To support this vision, they have developed a model comprising 12 environmental and social indicators to measure an organisation’s impact on the specific territories in which it operates.
Regg3’s goal is to identify and certify positive impacts in areas such as education, employment, biodiversity, phosphorus use, and material footprint, in order to support and enable the transition to regenerative business models.
Regg3 was co-founder by CISL Masters Alumni Giovanni Moratti, alongside Jenny Salazar Zapata. The team are based in Milan, Italy and have joined the Canopy as Second Home Members.
CYLKA - Saad Alrubaian
CYLKA is an award-winning purpose-driven communication and CSR (corporate social responsibility) company specialising in providing consultancy services and offering innovative solutions.
CYLKA is a certified B Corporation (or B Corp), meaning they have been verified by B Lab UK to meet high standards of social and environmental performance, transparency, and accountability. The company is based in Dubai, but Saad Alrubaian, it’s Cambridge-based founder joins us in the Canopy workspace.
Saad is an experienced social entrepreneur, chartered PR practitioner and comms awards judge. CYLKA helps the non-profit sector - government, and NGOs with an impactful and innovative communication approach.
Basecamp Research - Phoebe Oldach
Phoebe is the Head of the Global Research Programme at Basecamp Research where Phoebe and her team are creating the most extensive biodiversity and ethically sampled database. The company boasts the world’s largest biological database, which they feed to an AI model which allows them to design complete biological systems with controllability, novelty and performance that far exceeds the previous state of the art.
Today, their partners include trail-blazing labs and several of the top 10 biopharma companies. Reach out to explore beyond the confines of your current data.
London Office of Technology and Innovation (LOTI) – Eddie Copeland
LOTI is the London local government’s collaborative innovation team. It helps the boroughs and the Greater London Authority use innovation, data and technology to be high-performing organisations, improve services and tackle London’s biggest challenges together. Net Zero is one of LOTI's strategic areas of focus. LOTI is currently exploring how data can support the delivery of the capital's energy and climate change work and is involved in designing a new energy advice service for Londoners.
Eddie is a specialist in how national and city governments can use innovation, data and technology to improve their operations, services and decision-making. Over the past decade, he has worked with senior officials in the United Nations, European Commission as well as national and local governments around the world to support their digital, data and innovation strategies.
SmartResilience – Harish Pesala
SmartResilience are working across industries to support climate adaptation, helping companies to meet existing regulatory requirements and mitigate risks. They have developed a platform that enables businesses to monitor and minimise the risks and costs of damages caused by the impact of climate change, meeting the regulatory standards at the same time. Their services include advanced modelling of climate impacts, helping organisations understand potential risks and develop robust strategies to mitigate them. They support the management and implementation of adaptive measures. The system has an early warning feature that alerts, allowing businesses to act swiftly.
Harish Pesala is the CEO, an experienced product manager and a fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineering, UKRI Young Innovator 23, and has been working on SmartResilience for over the last 5 years.
Scope 4 Nature - Jenni Ramos
Scope 4 Nature is a purpose-led company building an ambitious platform to transform how professional and business services firms engage with nature-related risks and opportunities. The £10 trillion nature economy transition is creating new advisory opportunities for professional and business services firms. Services firms are critical enablers of the nature positive transition. They shape corporate behaviour and decision-making across every sector of the economy. The Scope4Nature platform aims to enable service firms to embed nature intelligence into their service provision.
Jenni Ramos, is the director and driving force behind Scope 4 Nature. She has experience in science and sustainability: She chairs the Legal Sustainabilty Alliance's Nature and Biodiversity Working Group, is a UK qualified non-practicing lawyer and has co-authored Biodiversity Risk: Legal Implications for Companies and their Directors and commissioned independent legal opinions clarifying directors' duties at the Commonwealth Climate and Law Initiative, led content development at The Chancery Lane Project, facilitating climate-related contractual clauses, co-developed a Sustainability in Business Law module for a law school and contributed a chapter to the American Bar Association's book on sustainable supply chain contracts.
Zeroute - Steve Freeman, Billy Fitton and Sam Brokie
Zeroute have created an advanced decarbonisation webapp, which enables businesses to plan and manage cost effective and high impact decarbonisation across their scope 1, 2 and 3 emissions. . By integrating advanced technology with real-world logistics to cut waste, lower costs, and reduce carbon footprints.
The Zeroute team brings together a profound knowledge of innovation, optimisation, and real-world technology application. Steve has pioneered impactful initiatives in global businesses, leveraging cutting-edge tech solutions to deliver results at scale. Sam specialises in designing world-leading optimisation tools, previously honed at Delft and Cambridge Universities, to solve complex challenges in a straightforward way. Billy complements this expertise with a strong background in modelling, focusing on implementing these solutions to enhance outcomes for elite, high-performance teams. Together, they are committed to transforming last-mile deliveries into a cleaner, more efficient process for businesses worldwide.
Infraland – Henry Brown, Nick Barber and Harry Sturley
Infraland specialises in identifying, financing, and developing large-scale renewable energy infrastructure. Their work spans site acquisitions for solar, wind, and energy storage projects, guiding landowners and investors from initial feasibility studies through to completion. By bridging the gap between property expertise, financing solutions, and sustainable development, Infraland is accelerating the global shift toward cleaner, low-carbon energy systems.
Nick has over 15 years’ experience in the energy and infrastructure sector, overseeing the development and financing of large-scale solar, wind, and storage projects. Henry is an expert in land identification and acquisition, with a strong taxation and brokerage background. Harry is a Chartered Surveyor who focuses on UK project management, performing site searches and feasibility studies for renewable developments, and coordinating with landowners, grid engineers, and local authorities.
Through CISL’s Canopy innovation community, we seek to accelerate entrepreneurship and innovative solutions to global challenges. We know that technology and business innovation is a key driver for system disruption, which is why the Canopy supports startups and entrepreneurs to scale their impact. The addition of these members highlights the global reach and multidisciplinary approach that define Canopy’s mission. Each of these innovators brings unique expertise and passion to address today’s most pressing sustainability challenges.
Since the launch of our Canopy membership in November 2022, there are now over 115 members, across 50 businesses. In 2024, we were recognised by the Financial Times as one of Europe’s leading startup hubs, with five alumni included in Forbes’ 30 Under 30. Our partnerships with global leaders like UNICEF and BSI Innovation Labs have directly contributed to scaling high-impact startups that are changing industries and driving global progress.
