Solutions Needed: Clean Logistics
Georgia is primed to be hub for clean logistics innovation and startups, here is what solutions are needed under this theme.
Hey there,
Earlier this year, we wrote about why Georgia is great place to be if you are innovating in clean logistics. However, logistics is a massive industry in which opportunities for innovation abound. So where could an innovator that is new to this space start looking for unmet needs that reduce waste, pollution, and improve the economics of logistics?
In this newsletter, we introduce several subsectors within logistics in need of cleantech solutions with focus on those where Georgia is an ideal launchpad:
Cold Chain
Circular Economy Logistics Solutions
Advanced Fuels
But before we do that, let’s catch up on some recent wins and updates from Georgia-based cleantech startup companies.
Fresh Links, Tools, and Resources:
We have passed the midpoint of the year, and while there has been plenty of tough news in cleantech in the past 6 months, many Georgia cleantech startups are thriving. Here are a few examples of wins from the state’s cohort of companies:
Invisible Urban Charging Partners with Redaptive (5 mins) - Invisible Urban Charging (IUC) partnered with Redaptive to secure financing for EV charger deployments across the United States and Europe, with initial funding already committed for several hundred new chargers and potentially thousands more in the pipeline. The partnership supports IUC's ambitious goal of deploying one million chargers over five years through their Charging-as-a-Service model, including major rollouts with Icon Parking (5,000 chargers) and Platinum Parking (35,000 chargers across 19 U.S. cities).
Goodr and Wellstar Partner on Pop-up Grocery Stores (5 mins) - Wellstar Healthcare System and Goodr are continuing their partnership to operate pop-up grocery stores that will distribute approximately 20,000 pounds of fresh food at each event, along with free health screenings and nutrition education for Georgia communities facing food insecurity. The initiative addresses the needs of 1.6 million Georgians who receive SNAP benefits, with events scheduled throughout 2025 in locations including Griffin, Douglasville, and Jackson.
Johnson Energy Storage Build Capacity in Atlanta (8 mins) — Super Soaker inventor Lonnie Johnson has used royalties from his famous water gun to self-fund nearly three decades of battery research, culminating in a breakthrough all-solid-state battery that's safer, more powerful, and cheaper than current lithium-ion technology. His company Johnson Energy Storage has raised over $15 million (surpassing their $5 million goal) with backing from investors including Magic Johnson and Myles Garrett, and is now scaling up with a pilot manufacturing line in Atlanta and UL testing underway.
4Earth and Joulea Selected for Inaugural Cohort of the Cox Cleantech Accelerator (7 mins) — The first cohort of Georgia's new Cox Cleantech Accelerator has launched with five startups focusing on fleet electrification, building energy efficiency, industrial wastewater treatment, and sustainability compliance, each receiving $100,000 in funding through the 12-week program. Program leaders believe Southeast-based cleantech startups are well-positioned to succeed due to their enterprise-focused, revenue-oriented approach and Atlanta's growing reputation as a cleantech hub.
Lamarr.AI Launches Drone Pilot to Advance Energy Efficiency in City of Detroit Buildings (5 mins) — Lamarr.AI has launched a drone inspection pilot in Detroit through the Advanced Aerial Innovation Region (AAIR) at Michigan Central, using AI-powered thermal imaging to identify energy inefficiencies in municipal buildings and create detailed 3D models for optimization. The pilot successfully identified over 460 thermal deficiencies at two Detroit facilities within days (a process that traditionally takes weeks) and determined that targeted upgrades could reduce HVAC energy use by up to 22 percent.
Cove.Tool Rebranded to Cove (3 mins) — cove.tool, an AI-powered architectural services firm, has rebranded to simply "cove" to reflect its transformation from a software provider to a full-service consultancy that combines proprietary AI technology with architectural expertise to help clients execute better buildings more efficiently.
Carver Fire Launched Its Battery Fire Suppression System (5 mins) — Carver Fire has introduced ELSA, the first fire suppression system that uses dry ice (solid CO₂) to combat lithium battery fires, which cause an estimated $1.2 to $2.5 billion in annual losses across North America due to the failure of traditional suppression methods. The system rapidly cools and smothers battery fires without water, foam, or residue, preventing thermal runaway escalation and minimizing downtime for sensitive equipment in battery manufacturing facilities, recycling operations, and research laboratories.
Clean Logistics Solution Areas for Georgia
Georgia’s physical logistics infrastructure, innovation assets and intangible resources (e.g., organization, conferences, etc) make it an ideal place to innovate in logistics. Clean logistics innovations improve the economics and reduce the unintended environmental impacts of moving physical goods; for those looking to innovate in Georgia, here are three spaces to consider that need solutions.
🧊 Cold Chain
We take for granted that today, fresh berries can arrive at your home when the heat index is >100F or medicine be delivered to your doorstep avoiding a trip to the pharmacy. Cold chain logistics, or the series of refrigerated warehouses, trucks, last-mile solutions, not only make it possible but commonplace, and because of the essential nature of its deliveries to public health and food security, the cold chain has become critical infrastructure.
Unfortunately, cold chain is being stretched to its breaking point. The infrastructure is aging, not designed to handle today’s requirements (tolerances, volume, efficiency standards), and, in many parts of the developing world, not even available. Breakdowns and inefficiency in the cold chain lead to waste (food, medicine, energy) and pollution (2.5% of global GHGs).
The good news for innovators is that the cold chain logistics market is large (~$300B) and growing (1T+ by ) driven by healthcare (e.g. biologics) and consumer preference for on-demand fresh and frozen food deliveries. Georgia is also home to 65+ facilities that have temperature controlled and/or frozen storage capabilities with presence at all major ports. Fortune 1000’s UPS and Americold are headquartered in Georgia as well.
🍩 Circular Economy Logistics Solutions
A circular economy, according the Ellen MacArthur Foundation, is restorative and regenerative with the aim of keeping products, components, and materials at their highest utility and value for as long as possible. In circular economies, consumption/use of a product is followed by complex, and often hyperlocal, processes that recover, reuse, repair, refurbish, remanufacture, repurpose, or recycle the original product/materials. Logistics is central to distributing products within secondhand markets and ensuring that they are re-entered into the supply chain at the correct points. In circular economy, the need for transport of primary raw materials declines, but the demand for local and regional transport to circulate goods at the end of life increases dramatically. Circular economy logistics solutions can range from new materials for packaging to AI-enabled robots for sorting to digital product passports, and often require new business models to implement.
Circular economies will challenge today’s physical and digital logistics infrastructure with shorter cycles, increased number and diversity of players, and higher speed in transport and storage. Robust digitalization is a prerequisite as products at the end of their initial life will have to be routed correctly to their next beneficial use based upon a number of factors including condition, demand, and volume. The logistics industry is well-positioned to create the data foundation upon which transparency, compliance, and speed is built. Additionally, versatile transport and storage infrastructure solutions will also be needed so that repair, refurbishment, remanufacturing, etc. can occur at a scale that enables cost effective, high quality operations.
To our knowledge, the market opportunity for the logistics solutions component (software, hardware and integrated solutions) of the circular economy has yet to be sized. However, McKinsey and Company believes that by the 2050, the total revenue opportunity for circular economy solutions will be in the trillions (and $1T in the EU alone). Current estimates for just the digital circular economy solutions (e.g., IoT solutions, product lifecycle management, supply chain management, blockchain, etc.) have that subsegment of the market in the single digit billions growing at an ~25% CAGR over the next 8 years. Moreover, there are multiple early and growth-stage VCs with focus on this sector (e.g., Cycle Capital, Katapult, Alante Capital, Circulate Capital) suggesting that investors believe that $100+M revenue companies can be created on the back of this market opportunity.
🔋 Advanced Fueling
Ultimately, there is only so much impact that network redesign, routing optimization, load optimization and mode mixing can accomplish. Moving large amounts of stuff requires energy, that energy comes from fuels and more resource efficient / cleaner fuels are needed. McKinsey estimates that a ~25% reduction in pollution can be driven by implementing optimization solutions and continuing to improve on them, and nearly all of the remaining opportunity requires some type of efficient, low polluting fuel technology.
In logistics, electrification (batteries), hydrogen, e-fuels, and sustainable fuels are the candidate solutions. Each of these fuel types excel at different transport use cases (e.g., last mile, drayage, ocean freight, or air freight), yet almost all are challenged economically vis-a-vis incumbent fossil fuels in some way. Batteries are not yet energy dense enough, hydrogen/e-fuels production is not efficient enough, and sustainable fuels have complex supply chains that limit scale and reaching their technical potential. Innovators should focus on making production and use of these energy sources much cheaper at scale by addressing the these specific problems.
The transportation fuel markets are enormous and even the fractions of these markets that are truly addressable for low polluting fuels are sizable (BCG estimates $40-50B by 2030). Enabling technology solutions for these fuels, like new processes, reactors, materials, can be developed as viable venture-backed businesses or through other commercialization pathways. Few places in the world have the proximity to demand, manufacturing and supply chain assets, diverse feedstock supply, and technology expertise that Georgia does, making it an ideal hub for alternative fueling innovation. What is more, multiple of Georgia’s largest industry sectors (forestry, agriculture, aerospace, and logistics) and public/private institutions have a vested interest supporting new businesses in this arena.
Upcoming Events and Opportunities
We are in full summer swing now, but there are still meaningful opportunities to engage with the cleantech community in events over the coming month. Make sure you have these high quality events on your calendar to expand your connections in the ecosystem.
ATL Cleantech Connect — Jul 16 — A quarterly social to engage members of the Greater Atlanta cleantech community, focusing on topics with strong local and national impact. This month focusing on the intersection of Cleantech and Resilience. Be sure to subscribe for updates on every event when registering.
Innovating for a Sustainable Economy — Jul 30 — Please join AGG and TEDxAtlanta / Ideas into Action Licensee Jacqui Chew for “Choices That Scale: Innovating for a Sustainable Economy” from 4-6 p.m. at AGG’s office in Atlanta, Georgia. This engaging event will feature a screening of the TEDxAtlanta talk, “Being a Force for Good – One Fashion Choice at a Time,” presented by Tia Robinson, founder of Vertical Activewear.
BoldImpact ATL Launch Party — Aug 7 — Join BoldImpact ATL for their official launch party! As new nonprofit igniting local action around global sustainability goals, their mission is to empower every community to lead in clean water access, renewable energy, economic opportunity, resilient infrastructure, and environmental stewardship. Be there to find out how you can support.
Georgia Environmental Conference — Aug 20-22 — The Georgia Environmental Conference (GEC) is the largest, most comprehensive and diverse educational opportunity in Georgia, and is typically attended by 800+ leaders across industry, academia and the public sector. Over the three-day event, GEC hosts an elite group of environmental professionals seeking to exchange knowledge and share ideas around environmental concerns in Georgia and across the Southeast region.
ITS World Congress — Aug 24-28 — The global event brings together world leaders, decision makers, and their supporting teams from public and private sector transportation agencies to gain critical knowledge about the implementation of new technologies and solutions that are essential for smarter transportation systems. This years session has track on Automation, Sustainability & Resiliency, and Connected Mobility, as well as, multiple tech tours.
Did we miss an event? Do you have an upcoming event that you want included? Please let us know!
Wrap up
That's it. We went a step deeper into logistics, specifically clean logistics, to look at the types of solutions that move the needle and are strongly supported by the state’s resources.
Here is what you learned:
Cold chain is a rapidly growing sector in logistics in need of solutions to modernize and become more efficient.
Circular economies will require the logistics industry to take on an even larger role; innovation is need to enable this transformation.
While not a hub for traditional fuels, Georgia has the infrastructure, the buyers, and the R&D capabilities to be a leader in advanced transport fuels.
If you are interested in discussing and debating the topics in this newsletter, please engage us in the comments, on social, or contact us directly. The conversation is what the ecosystem needs to progress.
And as always...If you enjoyed Build Cleantech Faster in Georgia, please consider subscribing or referring this edition to a friend or colleague.