It doesn’t take much imagination to come up with reasons to live in Colorado. Anyone who grew up here, or moved for school and chose to stay, probably can’t get through a sunny day without noticing something profoundly beautiful. The state also happens to have some of the top job growth prospects in the country, and is a great place to start a business.
Coloradans have always made the environment a top priority, so it’s no coincidence that a lot of local companies put a strong focus on sustainability. Colorado helped define the new energy economy, and is a bustling market for agtech and biotech, so we’re featuring a handful of local startups keeping the Rocky Mountain State green.
Top Sustainability Companies in Colorado
- SRAM
- Crusoe Energy Systems Inc.
- AMP
- Sunrun
- Agribotix
- Coolerado
Scythe Robotics builds autonomous, electric mowers that are able to navigate off-road environments, avoiding people and other obstacles while keeping grass healthy and even. With sustainability positioned as a central focus of its mission, Scythe Robotics produces emissions-free machines that are quieter, come with a lengthy battery life and rely on 360-degree sensors to ensure no spots are missed.
SRAM makes performance components for bicycles, which are used in manufacturing for large bike companies. Founded by cyclists, the company is deeply invested in sustainability and providing an alternative to high carbon-use sedentary lifestyles. The company ethos is based on the ability of bicycles to improve the environment, ease traffic congestion, reduce transportation costs, improve health and reduce obesity.
Crusoe Energy Systems Inc. makes cloud-based energy services for oil and gas companies. By replacing traditional oil and gas operations with technology known as gas flaring, the company converts natural gas into power for energy-intensive computing, such as bitcoin and other cryptocurrency mining. This solution cuts down on greenhouse gas emissions and essentially reuses spent energy for computing.
AMP focuses its robotics engineering on the recycling industry, deploying its tech to increase sustainability, decrease waste and improve efficiency within the recycling chain. It started as a small business with designs on the intersection of machine learning and robotics in the municipal recycling space, and has grown to a roughly 200-person team bringing recycling solutions to businesses, governments and other organizations.
Sunrun is the nation’s largest residential solar, storage and energy services company. They are on a mission to make solar energy affordable for more people. They help people upgrade their home to solar energy without the big upfront costs.
Launched in Boulder in 2013, Agribotix developed a software platform that provides cloud-based data and analysis for precision agriculture. They obtain that data with drones — one of which they designed themselves. They use near infrared image processing to analyze crop health and merge collected intelligence into a ‘geo-referenced mosaic’ that can be accessed through their software, Google Earth, or any platform that supports GeoTiff data.
Back when they started in 2004, Coolerado received a letter from the Department of Energy that said, “Dear Inventors, the design for your energy-efficient air conditioner is not possible. It violates the laws of thermodynamics.” Today, they have an entire line of air conditioning units for light commercial and residential use that expend 90 percent less energy than traditional cooling systems. They’re hailed as revolutionaries in new energy, with a system completely free of chemical refrigerants and compressors.
