Building a Circular Economy for Industrial Fabrics and Plastics with Tony Ehrbar

Hi, climate leaders 👋 

Welcome back to another issue of The Climate Scout!

Today at a glance:

• Introducing Renegade Plastics

• Detailing their business model, tech, traction and team

• Why do we need this now?

• What is the climate impact?

• How you can support them!

-  Angelica 💜

Featured Startup: Renegade Plastics

Today’s climate startup feature is Renegade Plastics. Renegade is building a circular economy for industrial fabrics and plastics that will eliminate toxic chemicals like vinyl chloride, cut industrial carbon emissions, and create a market for nascent carbon negative polymers.

Renegade Fast Facts

Headquarters

Golden, CO & Green Bay, WI

Technology

Renegade wants businesses to be able to avoid harmful materials like PVC plastic and reduce carbon emissions. They have created a new material that is non-toxic, has a lower carbon footprint, and can be recycled by many U.S. recyclers. Renegade also works with customers to create recyclable products and find ways to reuse them. By replacing unsustainable materials like PVC, Renegade can eventually be replaced by more environmentally friendly plastics. This business model has already been successful in industries like tarps, ski area padding, and automotive dunnage, and is growing in other markets too.

Business Model

Renegade is expected to make over $100k in revenue by September 2023. Most of the orders so far have been for prototyping, ranging from $2k to $10k. These orders are laying the groundwork for larger, recurring orders in the future. Renegade’s current business model involves selling rolls of fabric to customers, with the option to generate more revenue by recycling those fabrics based on customer needs. Renegade’s biggest customer right now is a supplier to ski resorts, but they expect to surpass them in revenue by the end of 2023 with customers in the automotive industry. We measure success based on the amount of PVC fabrics replaced, the percentage of sold fabric that is recycled, and our gross margin.

Traction

• Received $595k in funding from private investors, including executives from top companies like Alphabet, Carvana, and McKinsey.

• Advisors: Renegade's investors also serve as advisors, and the person who created the material is their Chief Technology Advisor

• Customers: Renegade works with agricultural companies such as Driscoll's, Cultiva, and The Wonderful Company, who have active pilots

• Strong commercial traction with ski resorts and automotive dunnage manufacturers

• Actively finalizing deals in outdoor equipment, construction, fishing and expect rapid commercial growth in the coming months

• Renegade won the 2022 Clean Tech Open accelerator and pitch competition

• Launching a new consumer product in September 2023 that will demonstrate their circular business model to a broader audience beyond their commercial customers

Founders

Tony Ehrbar: Co-founder and CEO

• Bachelor's in chemistry and an MBA from the University of Michigan

• After working as management consultant at Bain & Co, ZS Associates, and United Airlines, Tony bought an event tent rental business on Craigslist. He since grew that company from $200k in annual revenue to almost $10M. Through that enterprise, he grew concerned with industry's lack of sustainability and set out to build a company to address that problem.

Curran Hughes: Co-founder and President

• Background in food production with a Masters in International Agriculture from the University of California, Davis and experience with USDA, The Wonderful Company and Danone

• Deep roots in corporate strategy, operations consulting, and corporate technology adoption

Together, Renegade’s founding team is passionate about solving the industrial plastic problem and excited to make previously unsustainable industries more environmentally friendly.

Why Now?

Plastics are causing problems in our oceans and environment, and they are also harming human health. Some types of plastics are toxic and can cause cancer, while others have been linked to immune system disorders and obesity. Plastic production is expected to increase, which will lead to more pollution and carbon emissions. Renegade offers a solution that helps companies meet their environmental goals faster.

Climate Impact

The two direct climate impacts that Renegade measures are:

• Renegade will divert approximately 95,000 tons of toxic plastic waste from landfills by 2029 - this accounts for how much PVC fabric we replace with non-toxic materials and then, through their circular economy, divert from the landfill

• Renegade will curtail at least 115,825 megatons of CO2 emissions by 2029 by replacing carbon intensive PVC fabrics to Renegade fabrics - Their fabrics have a minimum 56% lower carbon footprint than PVC coated fabrics

Support Renegade

• Investors - Renegade is raising a $750,000 Seed round and looking to chat with investors

• Talent - Product designers or sustainability leaders at companies that either use industrial coated fabrics or recycled polypropylene resin

• Advisors - looking for an advisor with deep expertise in the plastics recycling industry, someone that can help Renegade expand their growing network of qualified recycling partners

   

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Cool Tools

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• Moonarch - Meet investors for your startup for free

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