Carbon to Value Initiative launches business accelerator for carbontech startups
Most business accelerators focus on community economic development. But the new six-month Carbon to Value Initiative (C2V) acceleration program is all about ways to capture and convert carbon dioxide into something useful. The Urban Future Lab at the NYU Tandon School of Engineering, Greentown Labs and Fraunhofer USA collaborated to pick the first cohort. This program is the first of its kind.
Pat Sapinsley, managing director of clean-tech initiatives at the Urban Future Lab / ACRE at NYU Tandon School of Engineering explained that, launched in 2020 by The Urban Future Lab at New York University-Tandon, Greentown Labs and the Fraunhofer USA TechBridge Program, the Carbon to Value (C2V) Initiative is a unique partnership driving the creation of a thriving innovation ecosystem for the commercialization of carbontech — technologies that capture and convert carbon dioxide (CO2) into valuable end products or services. The C2V Initiative is supported by the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority (NYSERDA) and the Consulate General of Canada in New York (CNGNY).
The initiative follows Governor Andrew M. Cuomo’s State of the State speech in 2019, in which he proposed the idea that New York should address the issue of atmospheric carbon removal and proposed the Climate Leadership and Community Protection Act, requiring reductions in statewide greenhouse gas emissions to 60% of 1990 levels by 2030 and 15% of 1990 levels by 2050.
