About this Event
Kick off Raleigh-Durham Climate Week in Chapel Hill. This is the first event of the week. Join founders, investors, researchers and community leaders from across the Triangle to start things off.
Some founders chase trends. Others are in it for the love of the game. They’re driven by a problem they can’t stop thinking about and a belief that the world can be better. But passion alone doesn’t keep the lights on. How do you stay true to your mission while building a company that can last?
Join three climate founders who started with conviction and kept going. They’ll share honest stories from the journey: testing markets, finding the people who believe in their work enough to pay for it, chasing funding, and growing without losing the spark that got them started.
While you’re here, see UNC’s innovation hub. Innovate Carolina Junction is where UNC researchers, student founders, startups and community partners come together to turn ideas into impact. Join a free tour to see the space, meet the team and learn how to plug into Carolina’s innovation community. Also, be sure to check out other upcoming events!
Yes, there’s parking. Forget what you’ve heard about parking in Chapel Hill. A large new parking deck sits directly across the street from the Junction on East Rosemary Street, so you can park and walk right in.
----------
Laura Olson
Founder & CEO, Trashy
Laura Olson is an award-winning industrial designer and Founder and CEO of Trashy. She holds a Master of Industrial Design from NC State University and has a background spanning circular design, systems thinking, organizational transformation, and innovation. She founded Trashy around the belief that circular materials must compete with conventional materials not just environmentally, but in aesthetics, performance, and cost. Prior to Trashy, Laura was an Agile Coach working with software development teams.
Trashy is a materials and design company transforming landfill-bound waste into high-performance architectural concrete.
Trashy develops proprietary concrete mixes using recycled materials including glass and expanded polystyrene (EPS), creating products that are lower-carbon, lighter weight, and designed to compete with conventional architectural precast on performance, aesthetics, and cost. Trashy manufactures custom and award-winning architectural products while developing its materials and processes for adoption by manufacturers at scale.
----------
William Vizuete
Co-Founder, Blue Nova Group
William Vizuete, PhD, is founder of Blue Nova Group and a UNC Chapel Hill professor and Innovation Strategy Advisor. An environmental engineer and serial entrepreneur, he has launched multiple startups, won SBIR funding, and holds patents.
Blue Nova Group builds digital solutions for environmental problems. Combining AI-driven air quality modeling with integrated spatiotemporal geohealth data, Blue Nova Group builds customizable digital tools to help companies make informed decisions in technology, industry, weather, climate, and health sectors. Our AI-driven air quality model, DeepCTM allows clients to simulate 100s of air emission scenarios in minutes. Additionally, Precision GeoHealth is a census-tract environmental exposure assessment tool integrated with critical human health data. Together, these tools make up the BlueNovaSphere, our web-based API hub for easy visualization for Blue Nova Group digital products and more.
----------
Rachel Burton
Founder and CEO, Inoculai
Rachel has spent two decades powering communities and diverting waste from the landfills. She built Piedmont Biofuels from three people into a multi-million-gallon eco-industrial park, commercialized enzyme tech with Novozymes (funded by DOE), and helped ProcessWerx turn grease into award-winning biofuel feedstock with WM. Now she’s been selected for Chevron Technology Ventures Studio’s two-year scale-up program to spin out a new company called Inoculai. Inoculai is building a circular specialty chemical platform at the water-energy nexus.
----------
Moderated by Michael Piehler:
Michael Piehler is the Cary C. Boshamer Distinguished Professor, director of the UNC Institute for the Environment, and chief sustainability officer and special assistant to the chancellor for sustainability. He holds faculty appointments in the Earth, Marine and Environmental Sciences Department and the Department of Environmental Sciences and Engineering, and the Environment, Ecology.. His research and teaching focus on the connection between human activity and the function of natural systems, particularly at the interfaces of land and water. He has published extensively on the impacts of land use change on stream and reservoir water quality, the role of coastal habitats (oysters, sea grass, and marshes) in nutrient dynamics, and the contribution of natural systems to coastal resilience. Piehler advises of governments, non-governments organizations, and private sector organizations on issues around sustainability and the environment. His research program is supported by a diverse portfolio of federal, state, and regional sponsors.
Event venue & nearby stays
Innovate Carolina Junction, 136 East Rosemary Street, Chapel Hill, United States
Concerts, fests, parties, meetups — all the happenings, one place.