Our reliance on technology combined with technology's drain on our planet's natural resources is a bit of a problem. The technology industry alone is responsible for two to three percent of greenhouse gas emissions. But, with sustainability at the core of technology design and production, tech can be an essential tool for tackling climate change in all industries.
When sustainable tech companies are brought up, your first thoughts probably focus on clean energy like solar and wind power. Renewable energy is definitely important, but that's far from everything the biggest greentech companies have to offer! To show you just how amazing environmental companies can be, we're going to be covering the following:
First things first, though. What makes businesses green technology companies?
What is a green tech company?
Green tech companies and startups have sustainability and positive environmental impact at the core of their mission. The specifics of their goals will be different, but their products, services, and solutions should aim to improve both the earth and the lives of the people living here.
Since these companies are also in the technology industry, many of them focus on providing sustainable products or services that people can use to enhance their own experiences while helping the planet. Think home improvements that improve energy and cost savings, products that help you reduce your waste, or companies that focus on creating an ethical supply chain.
Check out the top 25 eco-friendly companies of 2022 here
22 best green technology companies to watch out for
This list of greentech companies was hand-picked for their efficient products, innovative solutions, and positive impact on the environment and their customers. Each of these businesses provides some product or service that will enhance your life, and you can feel proud to support any one of them!
1. Pela
Image credit: Pela
Founded: 2010
Headquarters: Kelowna, British Columbia
What they do: Pela is making a significant positive impact in two ways: with Pela Case–their compostable phone cases, and with their electric kitchen composter, Lomi. Gone are the days of the plastic phone case that will just end up in the landfill when you're done with it. Instead, you can use it to nourish the earth at the end of its life. In fact, you can even break it down in your Lomi. With your own electric composter, you can break down far more than just your Pela Case, making it extremely easy to reduce your own kitchen waste.
How they are making a difference: Pela's mission is to reduce the billions of tons of waste going to landfills all over the world. Because of their innovative products, Pela and its customers have already thousands of pounds of plastic from entering the waste stream. This puts them well on their way toward their goal of preventing at least one billion pounds of plastic from entering the waste stream. To help in every way possible, Pela also donates extra funds to local community partners working to support the environment in their own ways.
You can learn more about Pela’s sustainability strategy here.
2. Lettuce Grow
Founded: 2017
Headquarters: Los Angeles, California
What they do: Lettuce grow designed the Farmstand, which is a self-watering and self-fertilizing vertical hydroponic gardener. Essentially, that means the Farmstand takes the space, time, and energy out of growing your own food. All you need to do is spend 5 minutes every week tending to your thriving plants to grow your own fresh produce.
How they are making a difference: Lettuce Grow's mission is to provide sustainable food for life. By making growing food easier and more accessible to everyone, especially those who wouldn't normally have space for a garden, they're enabling everyone to produce their own food, forever.
3. Bluapple
Founded: 2009
Headquarters: Woods Cross, Utah
What they do: One contributor to food waste is our produce not lasting anywhere near as long as we expect them to. Bluapple is solving this issue with a simple and affordable product. With their Bluapple technology, all you have to do is put it in your fridge with the rest of your produce. It works by trapping the ethylene gas released by your produce, slowing down the spoiling process, and keeping your food fresh for much longer!
How they are making a difference: Bluapple is committed to providing an accessible method for everyone to maintain fresh and healthy produce for longer. To do this, they're delivering quality products at an affordable rate that will reliably preserve your food.
4. Sealed
Founded: 2014
Headquarters: New York City, New York
What they do: Inefficient HVAC systems can quickly use up far more energy than necessary, and are costly in the process. Sealed is a home wellness company that will upgrade your home's HVAC, reducing energy use by up to three times while making your home more comfortable. Not only do they make this process quick and simple, but Sealed also covers the upfront costs of the upgrades.
How they are making a difference: Sealed is dedicated to making homes healthy, comfortable, and better for the environment. A climate-controlled home doesn't have to be a wasteful one. To get this service to as many homes as possible, they offer a risk-free and affordable payment plan.
5. Inspire
Founded: 2013
Headquarters: Los Angeles, California
What they do: Even if homes are designed and built to be as energy-efficient as possible, most energy providers still burn fossil fuels to get that electricity. If you'd rather be hooked up to nothing but clean energy, then look for green energy tech companies like Inspire. Signing up with Inspire gets you 100% reliable and renewable energy for your home.
How they are making a difference: Inspire knows that renewable energy is the way to a cleaner and brighter future. With the help of their customers, they've already avoided over five million pounds of carbon emissions being released into our atmosphere. They also understand the importance of available energy for everyone, which is why they're dedicated to getting renewable energy out to remote villages across the world. They also help tackle climate change in their own backyard with their local community partners.
6. Dandelion Energy
Founded: 2017
Headquarters: Peekskill, New York
What they do: Dandelion Energy is another environmental tech company dedicated to providing homes with clean energy. In their case, they replace fossil-fuel-reliant heating and cooling systems with geothermal heat pumps. This provides homeowners with a reliable source of renewable heating and cooling year-round.
How they are making a difference: Dandelion Energy and their customers are preventing tons of GHG emissions every year by transforming energy use in homes. In fact, adopting a geothermal solution can reduce a home's carbon emissions by up to 80% while also saving money.
7. Molekule
Founded: 2014
Headquarters: San Francisco, California
What they do: Clean and healthy air is essential for everyone, everywhere. That's the sentiment that Molekule is built on, and why their product, Air, is so effective. They've designed an air purifier that not only traps pollutants, but destroys them. They will deliver clean air and freshen the environment while being both quiet and highly energy efficient.
How they are making a difference: Molekule is dedicated to cleaning the air everywhere - not just in our homes, but in public transportation, businesses, hospitals, and anywhere else people need to spend indoors. They understand that a healthy environment is important for everyone, not just those that can afford a fancy air purifier.
8. Span
Founded: 2018
Headquarters: San Francisco, California
What they do: Span is bringing more power to the people with their next generation smart electrical panels. Instead of a regular old electrical panel that you need to deal with manually, SPAN panels can be controlled through your phone anywhere, anytime. This direct control enables utilities to be used far more efficiently and conservatively. Even more, a SPAN panel makes connecting new energy-saving appliances to your home's electric circuit simpler than ever.
How they are making a difference: Span believes that powering homes with clean energy should be a simple and delightful experience. True to their beliefs, the SPAN panel is advancing clean energy adoption by making the process straightforward and human-centered.
9. Back Market
Founded: 2014
Headquarters: Brooklyn, New York
What they do: Back Market has created an online platform where anyone can sell their old devices. Those devices are then refurbished by experts, and sold back to the community at second-hand prices. Essentially, Back Market has created a circular economy for device consumption.
How they are making a difference: The founders of Back Market created this organization in order to deal with the staggering amounts of e-waste in the world. Refurbishing old devices rather than creating new ones helps in two ways: it reduces overall waste, and it prevents GHG emissions by reducing the need for new devices to be produced.
10. Facedrive
Founded: 2016
Headquarters: Toronto, Ontario
What they do: Facedrive provides socially responsible and environmentally friendly services with a focus on transportation, such as rideshare, food delivery, and even non-emergency medical transportation.
How they are making a difference: What sets Facedrive apart from the rest of the rideshare services is its commitment to encouraging eco-friendly options. Riders are given the choice of hybrid and electric vehicles for their rides, and drivers are paid premiums for owning those vehicles. On top of all that, they plant trees to actively offset their carbon footprint.
11. Zipcar
Founded: 2000
Headquarters: Boston, Massachusetts
What they do: If you need a vehicle for the short-term, but don't like ridesharing, Zipcar is the solution for you. With Zipcar, you can book cars on demand through their app for whatever kind of trip you need. The service is swift - it's easy to grab a car whenever you need it and then just leave it in one of its parking spaces when you're done with it.
How they are making a difference: Since their founding, Zipcar has been dedicated to improving neighborhoods by reducing carbon emissions, reducing traffic, and promoting multi-modal travelling. With their flexible service, each Zipcar is able to remove the need for 13 personally owned vehicles, easily making their goals a reality.
12. Sunday
Founded: 2018
Headquarters: Boulder, Colorado
What they do: Sunday is delivering high-quality and custom-tailored lawn and garden solutions. Their lawn plans start with a free soil analysis, after which they provide a plan specifically for your lawn. Even after receiving your plan and supplies, they'll provide you with one-on-one expert support for any questions you have.
How they are making a difference: Sunday stands out from the lawn-care crowd because of their dedication to using completely healthy and natural solutions for your lawn. Instead of using toxic and chemical pesticides on your grass, they enrich it naturally and cultivate the lawn's ecosystem.
13. Nature’s Fynd
Founded: 2012
Headquarters: Chicago, Illinois
What they do: Nature's Fynd develops Fy, a complete and nutritional fungi protein that can be used to create meatless versions of food we know and love, such as breakfast patties and cream cheese. On top of being nutritious and delicious, Fy doesn't require anywhere near as much land, water, or energy as traditional animal farming.
How they are making a difference: Nature's Fynd is committed to feeding the world in a more sustainable way than traditional animal farming. Understanding that we need the nutrients traditionally found in animal farming, they developed this sustainable alternative. Fy is made even more accessible by turning into the food many of us find difficult to give up, creating an easier path away from animal consumption.
14. Grove Collaborative
Founded: 2012
Headquarters: San Francisco, California
What they do: We all need to have clean homes, but we don't always think about where our cleaners are coming from, and whether or not they're healthy or sustainable. Grove Collaborative takes all the guesswork out of it, providing nothing but household products from a sustainable supply chain.
How they are making a difference: Grove Collaborative is all about a future where our only choices are sustainable ones. Doing their part for that future, every product sold by Grove Collaborative must meet their strict four-point standard: healthy, effective, sustainable production, and 100% cruelty-free.
15. TeknTrash
Founded: 2018
Headquarters: London, England
What they do: Tekntrash is an artificial intelligence company that collects data about a product's end-of-life cycle so they can get that data to those products' companies. The idea is that those companies can use data science to improve their products' end-of-life process. To help gather this data, TeknTrash developed Stipra. Stipra is a service that consumers can use to record how they dispose of their waste, and be rewarded for that effort.
How they are making a difference: Tekntrash is filling in a much-needed data gap about the disposal and end-of-life data for products. That data, as well as Stipra, is being used to incentivize consumers to care for the planet and properly dispose of their trash.
16. Beyond Meat
Founded: 2009
Headquarters: El Segundo, California
What they do: Beyond Meat is developing plant-based meat products and selling those foods through local companies. It's actually quite common now to find Beyond Meat options at fast-food chains, such as A&W. Beyond Meat products are both a delicious and sustainable alternative to meat-based foods.
How they are making a difference: Beyond Meat is looking for a better way to feed our future - a way that's healthier for humans, healthier for the planet, preserves the world's natural resources, and lets animals live better lives. With their products, they're providing us with the food we enjoy without the negative environmental impact.
17. Sparkcharge
Founded: 2017
Headquarters: Buffalo, New York
What they do: Sparkcharge is making electric vehicle (EV) ownership easier and more convenient by building on-demand EV-charging infrastructure. Beyond that, they also produce and sell Roadie, a modular and portable EV charging system. With Roadie, you can charge your electric cars anywhere at any time.
How they are making a difference: Their goal is to create a healthier and more sustainable world by making EV ownership easy. By partnering with companies to build mobile EV charging networks, they're making EV ownership more accessible and reliable all around the world.
18. Ecobee
Founded: 2007
Headquarters: Toronto, Ontario
What they do: Ecobee creates smart home products, including a smart security system and smart thermostats. Ecobee's smart thermostats are built to keep your home comfortable while using less energy and reducing utility costs.
How they are making a difference: Ecobee is looking to change the world for the greener one home at a time. Their thermostats have reduced household energy use at a rate equivalent to removing 3.8 million cars from the road for a whole year. Ecobee is a proud Energy Star partner, doing their part to make the world more healthy and efficient.
19. TAPP Water
Founded: 2016
Headquarters: Barcelona, Cataluña
What they do: Clean water is a necessity for everyone, everywhere. For many, that means buying bottled water, which creates unnecessary waste in the process. Instead, TAPP Water has developed a water filtration system that you can hook up directly to your tap.
How they are making a difference: Their mission is to create affordable and sustainable ways to deliver clean and healthy water to everyone that will eliminate the need for plastic bottles. The TAPP 2 is by far the quickest and easiest way to get clean, fresh water that still has all its essential minerals.
20. Infinity Box
Founded: 2021
Headquarters: Melbourne, Victoria
What they do: Infinity Box has created durable and reusable takeaway boxes that you can opt in to use at participating restaurants. When you order takeout or bring home leftovers from a restaurant, you can store your food in an Infinity Box instead of a flimsy disposable container. Once you're done, you can then return that container to any participating restaurant.
How they are making a difference: Inifinity box hopes to reduce unnecessary waste with the use of this service. By making Inifinity Boxes easy to use, convenient, and free, it's far more simple for us to be eco-conscious consumers.
21. Click & Grow
Founded: 2009
Headquarters: Tartu, Tartumaa
What they do: Click & Grow creates smart gardens to make indoor gardening easier for everyone. Smart gardens are indoor gardeners of various sizes that you can essentially just plug into the wall and let it do most of the work for you!
How they are making a difference: Click & Grow is making gardening more accessible than ever. Smart gardens provide people with the opportunity to grow their own pesticide-free and healthy food, reducing the need to rely on industrial crop production and the environmental impact that comes with that.
22. Kitche
Founded: 2018
Headquarters: London, England
What they do: Kitche has developed a delightful mobile app that keeps track of the food you buy and the food you have at home. This helps ensure you're buying only what you'll eat and that you're actually eating what you buy. When you've got a bunch of food in your fridge that you don't know what to do with, Kitche will even provide recipe suggestions using that food.
How they are making a difference: Kitche is targeting the food waste issue where it's most effective - with prevention. By keeping track of food for households all over the world, Kitche takes advantage of behavioral science to empower its users to make smarter food decisions. Simply by using this app, anyone can be more eco-conscious with their food.
The top greentech startups and companies are out there making a positive difference in the world. By supporting them, you're supporting a greener, healthier future. However, the biggest difference you can make is in your own home. That's why innovative products like Lomi are so important - they put the power to be sustainable in your own hands. You can start making positive changes in your own home by ordering Lomi today.
Written by: Sereana Simpson