We are now entering the Biofabrication age, post-Industrial Revolution. The future of materials will be grown. With mycelium (mushroom roots) specifically, we aren’t limited to size constraints, which lends itself well to micro and macro applications. The Mushroom Stage for Synbiobeta 2018 was a project of firsts. It was the largest set design to be built with MycoComposite panels, and the first to incorporate Ecovative’s MycoFlex biopolymer. To grow MycoComposite panels, mycelium binds together aspen wood shavings in a large aerated bin, and the grown block is cut into 2 inch panels. MycoFlex biopolymer is pure mycelium, grown above rather than throughout the substrate, and can be sliced very thin to produce an opaque textured glow.
The set design began when Danielle held a thin slice of biopolymer up to the ceiling lights. The designers knew they wanted to showcase the beautiful vascular structure of mycelium, as well as make the velvety texture accessible for panelists and conference attendees to touch. The team’s design objectives were two-fold: surprise the audience that the set before them was made from mycelium initially unbeknownst to them, as well as empower individuals to make their own projects with biomaterials.
Fluffy, untrimmed mycelium biopolymer
Biopolymer trimmed into MycoFlex sheets of various densities
MycoComposite 029 panels, hemp substrate bound together by mycelium
The designers, Grace Knight and Danielle Marino, both have Industrial Design degrees and complemented each others skill sets. Grace’s woodworking knowledge of veneer and bent lamination provided the technique for adhering the MycoComposite panels to wood. Danielle’s knowledge in creating custom molded shapes on the CNC router allowed them to create a precise logo. Grace had also previously worked for a lighting designer where she learned how to solder LEDs, and wanted to use this knowledge for backlighting the biopolymer. The construction couldn’t have been possible without coordinating with Ray and his crew who prefabricated the structure in segments and assembled it on site. Despite the long hours of planning that went into the design, there will always be unforeseen challenges. The team had to think on their feet to reconfigure the modular design accounting for the depth of the stage. Within a few hours the set stood completed, the Mycoflex biopolymer was shining, and thus began Synbiobeta 2018 Day 1.
Ecovative CEO Eben Bayer, P&G Director Lee Ellen Drechsler, and D. A. Wallach of Inevitable Ventures
The stage was impressionable, substantial, and well received by all. This project is only one example of what can be done with biomaterials. If you have any interest in growing your own mycelium creation, a good way to start is with one of Ecovative’s GIY bags. Contact us if you’re interested in using MycoComposite panels and MycoFlex in your design work. Happy Mycofabricating (yes, we often make up words here)!
Industrial Designers Grace Knight and Danielle Marino
What?
MycoComposite 584 is comprised of 95% Aspen Shavings and 5% Mycelium- the roots of mushrooms.
MycoFlex is 100% mycelium and can be grown to produce a high or low density biofoam.
When?
Ecovative was founded in 2011 and has dedicated over 10 years to growing mycelium composites.
For the last 5 years, intensive research was conducted to produce pure mycelium. On Oct. 2nd, 2018 Eben launched our MycoFlex platform on the stage at Synbiobeta.
How?
For the panels, we begin growth in the form of a 38’x38x’28’ block using our Bulk Bin Reactor system. These blocks are then cut into 2” thick panels and dehydrated. There are no adhesives, rather the mycelium fills in the gaps between the substrate, and binds them together. MycoComposite is available in 3 different substrates, Hemp, Aspen Chip, and Aspen Shaving, each excelling in their own applications.
The foam is first grown in trays within large scale incubators where we manipulate the environmental conditions to alter the growth of the mycelium. The mycelium grows vertically up off the substrate rather than throughout like the panels. We shave off the mycelium and trim down to form even sheets of MycoFlex. When the sheets are thin enough and backlit, you’re able to see the mycelium structure within, a common vascular pattern found in nature.
Why?
We are now entering in the Biofabrication age, post-Industrial Revolution. The future of materials will be grown. With mycelium specifically, we aren’t limited to size constraints, lending itself well to micro and macro applications. In addition, utilizing room-temperature cellular self-assembly to create a material with a known end-cycle procedure is environmentally mindful.
Who?
Set Designed by Danielle Marino and Grace Knight
Synbiobeta founded by John Cumbers
Ecovative founded by Eben Bayer and Gavin McIntyre
Where?
]]>As you might have heard, Ecovative was at SynBioBeta 2018! If you weren’t able to attend, Meg from the Core Team has shared her experience!
“At the Ecovative exhibition table, people streamed over after the talks by Eben, and seemingly anytime someone mentioned the mushroom stage. It was a good thing we had a display as there was interest from all types, from geneticists to film producers to our biggest fan at NASA.
Everyone wanted to touch the composite, and, of course, the biopolymers. Most people had little understanding of mycelium and many asked where the glue was. Of course, as part of their innate curiosity, everyone held the material to their noses for a big sniff.
Many were excited to hear about Ecovative's ongoing research and development. Almost anyone with an educator in the family or as a friend requested some type of information as to how our material could be used in the classroom. We gave away at least 20 GIY kits, and even relinquished several biopolymer samples to folks interested in meat scaffold and makeup applicator sponges. Ecovative was essentially the only exhibitor whose biology was not synthetic, and it was a challenge to get folks to understand that the incited growth of a wild type fungi could produce such amazing aspect features.
Overall, the conference was enlightening. Many speakers acknowledged that you have to be “where it’s at” in order to progress your science and achieve exposure to continue funding for that progression. That being said, I wondered what it would take to move these R&D labs to areas that are indeed producing bright minds with no place to go other than the costliest city centers in the country. What could cities like Albany offer to these companies to attract them and their research power, and therefore bring in the latest community of bright minds with employment opportunities? That stands as a question for the ages I’m sure.
Another interesting aspect was the future thinking of many of the presenters, entrepreneurs, and commercial sales people present at the conference. Many of these people are not thinking of what their science will look like in five years, but are considering more broadly the potential for their research in twenty and fifty years. The mirroring with the traditional industrial age trajectory is obvious, where, for example, current DNA storage technology requires sprawling warehouses filled with subzero storage units, but the projected aim is to reduce the size to that of a small storage locker, or even more hopefully, the human body. There was a lot of discussion on data, its interpretation, storage, recovery, and dispersal.
Biology is now a statistical science, and no longer relegated solely to the field of direct observation. The changes in data collection and the artificial methods used to analyze these data are moving the microscopic field of synthetic bio forward with increasing rapidity.
Lastly, many of the attendees were employed by research firms or were themselves entrepreneurs. The main difficulty suffered by several of those entrepreneurs was product acceptance. Zack Abbott of ZBiotics questioned his plan of attack in the marketing sector. Zack approached the Ecovative table to talk about his difficulty in portraying his product to the public in a light that would entice buyers and not render them wary, which is a reaction Ecovative has certainly been exposed to.
Zack was thankful to speak with a member of a company who has gone through the same growing pains he now finds himself in, and was hopeful that Ecovative will remain a resource for those in the organic science field that are having difficulty branching into marketing beyond their science.
I too see merit in Ecovative maintaining helpful relationships with companies very much interested in our work and in the main focus of environmental preservation through scientific innovation. At the very least, lending a helping hand to start up research companies every now and then will only help us in the long run to start to change the thinking of millions of Americans in the way they view how science works every day for them to have better lives.”
]]>The biomaterials company is launching its newest platform at SynBioBeta 2018; new mycelium platform supports applications in apparel, beauty, food and medtech.
Troy, New York, October 2, 2018--Ecovative, the New York-based biomaterials company, today announced the launch of MycoFlex™, its next generation mycelium biofabrication platform for performance materials. Now available for commercial use, MycoFlex™ enables companies to design, prototype and manufacture mycelium-based materials at scale.
Mycelium, the base of all Ecovative materials, is the root structure of mushrooms. Composed of natural polymers, mycelium has recently drawn the attention of the polymer industry for its remarkable strength, flexibility and durability. When produced in controlled conditions, mycelium polymers can offer superior performance properties compared to the polymers found in more commonly known materials such as plastics, resins or leather.
Through an industrial biofabrication process, the MycoFlex™ platform produces high-performance, pure mycelium structure. Once produced, the mycelium can be tailored into a variety of end materials, ranging from performance foams for footwear and apparel to cellular scaffolding for lab grown meat. Ecovative licensee Bolt Threads debuted the first product using MycoFlex™ technology, a mycelium leather-like material named Mylo, in April 2018.
“From the day we first started Ecovative ten years ago, we have been dreaming of introducing a pure mycelium platform, and are immensely proud that MycoFlex™ is here at last,” said Ecovative CEO Eben Bayer. “The future of materials is going to be grown - biofabricated - and mycelium and its extraordinary ability to assemble itself into complex structures is what will enable us to take biofabrication to the next level of performance. Our MycoFlex™ platform is the next step in humanities long journey harnessing natural technology.”
MycoFlex™ is the company’s second generation platform, and builds off ten years of manufacturing and design expertise developed for Ecovative’s mycelium composite platform. This platform, which is available to small scale users through enterprise customers throughout the world, yields composite materials for applications in industrial and consumer packaging, insulation, acoustics and beyond.
Ecovative announced the new platform at SynBioBeta 2018: the Global Synthetic Biology Summit in San Francisco.
About Ecovative
Ecovative is the New York-based biotech company pioneering mycelium biofabrication. Founded in 2007, Ecovative’s mission is to create next generation materials through mycelium biofabrication and to make mycelium materials accessible to everyone. The company’s MycoComposite™ and MycoFlex™ platforms are used to produce mycelium-based products for both consumer and industrial uses. From bespoke local producers to industrial scale facilities, Ecovative helps people around the world grow better materials for everyday needs. To learn more, visit http://ecovativedesign.com/.
]]>Hi Everyone!
Today we are pleased to announce the launch of MycoFlex™, our next generation biofabrication platform! This platform, which allows us to grow pure mycelium structures in large sheets and customizable shapes and forms, is built upon the success, failures, and many technical learnings that went into the development of our MycoComposite™ platform.
MycoFlex™ is a step change for us in terms of performance and opens up a wide variety of market applications for mycelium that were previously out of reach. We are just beginning to scratch the surface of what this material is capable of, but have already started collaborations in areas from cellular scaffolding (for everything from growing bacon to new bones) to performance foams for apparel. Food, cosmetics and filtration are all additional markets we’re excited to build partnerships in, and we'll be exploring both academic and industry collaborations to drive these forward.
We worked with Bolt Threads to launch the first new material built on MycoFlex™ this year -- leather-like mycelium materials called Mylo™. I'm so excited with how it has turned out and even more excited that these beautiful products are already commercially available. (But not for long-- you have three days left to be one of the first on Space Ship Earth with a grown mycelium bag!)
MycoFlex™ represents the next research and production focus for Ecovative, and will allow us to expand beyond the composite platform that our current customers already love. We'll continue to provide our mycelium composites to existing markets (including packaging, building materials, beautiful lights, design objects, acoustical panels and more), and will continue supporting our GIY community and the tens of thousands of people growing mycelium materials at home. We are excited to continue to share our knowledge in these applications and help others around the world grow with mycelium. We will be rolling out new tools and tech transfer packages to support local growing over the coming year.
If you'd like to learn more, check out the press release about our new platform, and stay tuned for more announcements in the next few months!
]]>Everyone has been in a noisy, echoing room before. When I recently moved out of a large apartment, the first thing I noticed after removing the paintings from the walls and curtains from the windows was how suddenly foreign the room felt—not just from the change of aesthetics in what had been my home, but from the change in noise as well. The room that had previously felt quiet and cozy was now echoing noises: the voices of my friends and noises of shuffling boxes down the stairs were pinging off the walls and resonating—things I couldn’t hear before.
It turns out that all these things in our homes, the curtains, couch cushions, paintings, and rugs, create acoustic baffling for our homes. These things are doing more than just making your home feel like a home, they also provide acoustic comfort as well. All the linens, wall hangings, and furniture foams bounce and absorb sounds that would otherwise echo and resonate in ways that would be annoying to live with every day. While acoustic design and specific products have been mostly reserved for larger auditoriums (e.g. churches, theaters, etc.), they are starting to be used more extensively in the office/work and home environment. Companies like Ecovative have been making easy to install wall coverings that are both artistic and unique while offering acoustic properties as well.
The Weave tiles install easily using adhesive hook and loop pre-attached to the back surface of the panel.
Today, I drove down to Poughkeepsie to the IBM Acoustics Testing Laboratory. Developed for IBM’s now antiquated products, the once bustling lab now serves as a testing ground for IBM’s newest server products, which make so much noise that some require hearing protection. Very few labs like this exist, as the cost of both the testing equipment and insulation lined rooms is quite high. Relics of a once bustling lab full of Ph.D scientists lay on display with a photo of the enormous old servers in the state-of-the-art anechoic chamber and a spec sheet outlining the original costs of the building. As much of IBM’s products have become much smaller and quieter and no longer require testing, the lab is now run by just two technicians, who take on outside contracts—like Ecovative—to help offset the operational costs of the space.
The first Weave tile install at The Rosenblum Company. Photo Credit: The Rosenblum Company.
After getting a tour while we let the tiles acclimate to the room, I spent a few minutes in the eerie silence of the anechoic chamber. We laid the Weave tiles on the floor in the testing room just as they would be installed on the wall and then closed the room for testing. Inside the room a speaker blasts white noise for several seconds and then stops while a microphone records the decay—or how quickly the sound dissipates in the room. Using this decay and control readings of the empty room, the technicians can very accurately measure the NRC (noise reduction coefficient) rating of the acoustic tiles, or, in layman's terms, a measurement of how good the acoustic tiles are at absorbing sound, which is critical for comfortable home and office environments.
Sinewave installation in the breakroom at The Rosenblum Companies.
We do all this so that we can design a product that will not only be easy to install and look beautiful on your wall, but will also act as a functional sound absorber. This test is following the previous testing of the Sinewave tile, which received an NRC rating of 0.60, which means that we are producing an acoustic panel that not only looks unique, but performs to industry standard for acoustical properties and price, all while being made out of healthy and sustainable Mushroom® Materials. We just finished our second install of the Weave and Sinewave tiles for The Rosenblum Companies, who just received the 2017 Community Impact Award for sustainability.
Weave tile installation in the entryway at The Rosenblum Companies.
Now that you’ve started thinking about it, can you think of a place where you might benefit from better acoustics?
-Kyle Bucklin
I use hundreds of different products every day, but how often do I stop to think about where they come from? Not just geographically, but how did the inception come about in the first place. Last week we posted a blog about the new breakaway corners, so I decided to follow the design team for a day and see the product cycle in action. This post is dedicated to the prototyping process at Ecovative and the team behind the scenes that brings new products to life.
Ecovator Kenneth Lush working on the CAD model for the breakaway corner tooling.
It starts at a desk in our open-style office with Kenneth Lush, the myco-prototyping guru. Kenneth works with CAD software to develop a 3D model and then fits that model into our production process. Some of the designs come from internal design jams and others come from customers who want to manufacture a product or packaging component using Mushroom® materials. We work with the customer to optimize the designs, taking into consideration aesthetics, performance, and cost optimization for our automated production processes.
Ecovative’s CNC router pulls its weight in shaping tooling for product development, like this new packaging part.
Once the 3D model is ready to go, we fabricated a 3D shape called a buck. Kenneth then uses the in-house CNC mill or CNC router to mill the 3D shape out of plywood, MDF, or aluminum if it is one of Ecovative’s pressed products like the quarter turn tile.
The in house thermoformer after pulling a tool over the breakaway corner “buck”.
Using a thermoformer, the wooden buck gets transformed into a negative of the packaging part that we can fill with Mushroom® material. The machine operator places a sheet of PET, a recyclable transparent plastic, on the thermoformer that is heated to a precise temperature and vacuum formed over the buck. Because this is a prototype part we will only make a few forms and then iterate or make many more once we are happy with the final design. These forms are used hundreds of times at productions scale, and are recycled at the end of the product lifecycle.
Breakaway corners packaging after being freshly filled in the Troy plant.
The PET forms then head over to our MycoFoam factory in Troy, NY where we run the tooling through our automated filling process. Even though we are making just a few parts, we run through the automated process (rather than filling by hand) to ensure that the parts come out exactly as they would in a full scale production run.
Breakaway corners after leaving the oven and ready to ship.
The parts then go through the growing and drying processes at the plant where they achieve that fluffy natural finish. From here the parts are checked for quality -- we want to make sure that these components are up to standard and will satisfy the customer needs. We compost any parts that don’t make it and reiterate this process to continuously improve the product.
Ecovative checks packaging components for quality control before shipping to the customer.
This iteration process is happening every day at Ecovative. Whether developing a new product for a customer, or working on our own standard products, we are constantly striving to develop better performing, lower cost, and more innovative products. At the end of the day everybody on our team is involved in the process, whether making the parts or testing them in their homes, and you can be too—make your own award winning products at home using GIY materials and contact us at sales@ecovativedesign.com to share your idea.
]]>What if all consumer goods manufacturers were responsible for the environmental cost of the packaging their products are shipped in? This question of “Extended Producer Responsibility”—shifting responsibility and costs from local governments and customers back to producers—is being considered in states coast-to-coast. It was a focus of discussion at the CalRecycle Packaging Reform Workshop in mid-March, and similar Rhode Island and Connecticut initiatives were examined in a March 14th Resource Recycling article. If this “EPR” approach is adopted, it will mean big changes for most consumer goods producers, and for companies like Ecovative that manufacture sustainable packaging.
Ecovative has been the pioneer and world leader in manufacturing biodegradable, compostable Mushroom® Packaging. Other companies make recyclable packaging or shipping materials from starch. We all are working to provide products that protect goods, but then can be recycled or disposed of harmlessly at the end of its useful life.
Ecovative’s production model has been to work with individual companies to shape a packaging product to the company’s specific needs. However, to meet the accelerated demand that could be created by these important EPR changes, we are experimenting with more general-purpose sustainable packaging options.
We have created these new Breakaway Corners, designed for small and mid-sized producers at scale, but also for the independent artist and craftsman who need an affordable low-volume sustainable packaging solution. These sets of 4 connected corners meet performance and sustainability credentials, are competitive in price, and can be adopted by shippers whose product does not require custom designs.
We have been using the four-corner cushioning to ship our Stack Tables.
Ecovative has newly joined the Etsy community, offering our new Breakaway Corners for our maker friends who are looking for an economical, Earth-friendly option to protect their goods in shipping. We’re always seeking motivated distributors and retailers who want to satisfy their customers’ demand for high-performing sustainable packaging options. Our breakaway corners look and perform like the breakaway EPS corners customers are used to, and without the added challenges around responsible disposal.
As with all of our Mushroom® Packaging products, once the end user is done with our Breakaway Corners the sustainable packaging can just be broken up and incorporated into the garden, yard, or compost. Protective Packaging that delivers your product safely—without that dreaded squeaking, the static bits clinging everywhere, and that is actually HELPING our Earth. How’s that for a new customer experience?
-Katie Churchill
]]>Photographer: Ben Mund, courtesy of LAUNCH.
The fundamentally fascinating thing, the core novel idea that led to the creation of Ecovative is that one can take a mixture of agricultural products (corn stover, rice husks, hemp, for example), add in mycelium (mushroom root strucuture), mix it together, and, in time, the mycelium will grow around the varied agricultural components binding them together—acting as what we call “nature’s glue”—to make something new, interesting, environmentally safe, and sustainable.
Photographer: Ben Mund, courtesy of LAUNCH.
As I sat recently with a group of people who work in the bio & chemical, textiles & apparel, and furniture industries, it occurred to me that those of us around those tables—though seemingly disparate—were the equivalent of the “mixture of agriculture components” and that our common belief in the need to expand the circular economy—the topic on the table that day—was the “nature’s glue” that had the potential to grow and bind these unconnected organizations together.
Photographer: Ben Mund, courtesy of LAUNCH.
The gathering was convened by LAUNCH, an organization founded by NASA, the US Agency for International Development, the U.S. Department of State, and Nike, on the belief that sustainability is the biggest challenge and opportunity of our time and that collaboration is the key to successfully accelerate innovative solutions to create a more circular economy. LAUNCH’s mission is to “build and nurture a community of innovators, thought leaders and decision makers across value chains to collectively understand, articulate and scale solutions for positive systems change leading to a more sustainable society.”
Photographer: Ben Mund, courtesy of LAUNCH.
My general purpose in being there was to spark a broader conversation about the impressive technologies that can be found growing in nature and the potential for expanding the use of biofabriated materials—such as Ecovative’s packaging and BioMason’s bricks—that are safer to manufacture, use, and dispose of. I was particularly interested in finding avenues to connect larger brands who have the inclination and resources, with entrepreneurs who are exploring the use of biofabriated materials in production, including mycelium.
Fostering these collaborations is an essential next step in Ecovative’s role as the leader in the field of biomaterial manufacturing. As the pioneer and world leader in mycelium-based biomaterials, successfully using biology to grow materials at scale with exceptional properties unattainable through conventional chemistry, we consider it an opportunity and obligation to foster the next generation of innovators in this field.
Many of these major brands have an existing commitment to STEM (science, technology, engineering, mathematics) education, and they support a range of programs and competitions to inspire students (K-12 and college/university) to pursue STEM fields. I can imagine, for example, a national competition that challenges middle or high school students, or perhaps even college students to see what they can grow, build, and design with Ecovative’s GIY (grow it yourself) materials. In doing so, it would engage a new generation of future designers, architects, and builders in the use of more sustainable building materials.
Photographer: Ben Mund, courtesy of LAUNCH.
We do not yet know what will come from these discussions started around those tables at LAUNCH, but I do know that we have come together, we are all in the mix now, and it is likely that we will be bound closer together because of our common commitment to a more eco-friendly future. Something interesting and more sustainable will certainly emerge.
-Jeff Betts
]]>Touring around Washington, D.C. during the December holidays with my husband, it was fascinating to see all of the work going on setting up for the Presidential inauguration. From the White House, all the way down the Mall and Pennsylvania Avenue, up to Capitol Hill, preparations were underway. Millions of people from around the country and the world would soon turn their focus to the U.S. Capitol to once again witness the peaceful transfer of power. Lucky timing, we got to see them getting ready.
Flash forward into the new year: on a quest to develop innovative and fun ways for STEM/STEAM students to explore Ecovative’s GIY kits, I went in search of inspiration at our local confectionary supply store. That is where I found a form in the shape of the U.S. Capitol Dome—and I knew this had to be my next GIY project.
Growing a replica of the iconic U.S. Capitol Dome using our GIY materials was going to be a bit tricky, because the form—designed to make candy—was actually two separate halfs. The challenge was to figure out how to grow those two disconnected parts together.
I mixed up a bag of the GIY dehydrated Mushroom® Materials—followed the instructions to add water and flour to the bag—and let that grow for four days. When it was ready to get in shape, I broke up the materials and filled the 2 half-forms—made sure to press it in tight and smooth out each side. I then decided to try to gently combine the two sides together, integrating the different materials—get the individual parts all working together—held tight with a rubber band. Then I adjourned my session (I’m told that’s how they talk in the Congress), and waited four more days.
And here it is, just in time for the inauguration, a fully grown with Ecovative’s Mushroom® Materials replica of the awesome and iconic U.S. Capitol Dome….. The backdrop to history.
How symbolic: growing together, greening our Capitol… It works!
— Katie Churchill
]]>Heading out the door of our Green Island, NY headquarters, scrambling to get to the airport to board a hastily rebooked flight, this one enroute to the Netherlands, where I will be a judge at the Dutch Postcode Lottery’s Green Challengebusiness plan competition September 14th, I paused and had one of those moments where you realize you have just traveled through time. I’m sure it’s not just entrepreneurs who experience this sensation, but for me this time it was triggered because of where I’m headed; I just looked around our office and thought “wow, it actually happened.”
The last thing I packed was the round seat of a new MycoStool™. A second seat has also been shipped, tightly secured in Ecovative mushroom packaging. The team also produced and shipped 300+ mini-desk organizers; gifts for guests at the groundbreaking of the Postcode Lottery’s new headquarters. Insulation manufactured at our Troy facility (or perhaps by a partner in the Netherlands) will one day line its walls.
Why am I so excited? Well, for starters, we actually grew these stools, the seat, the cushioning, the mini-desk organizers, and even the packaging it all is protected with. These are products found in your everyday life that would normally be made using synthetic chemistry. Polystyrene for the packaging, which is polluting our oceans and bio accumulating in our blood, urea-formaldehyde, the cancer causing glue that is used to hold furniture together, and polyurethane the squishy foam in your sofa, that requires a whole other cocktail of chemicals to help make it “fire resistant”.
Instead, we have made furniture with MycoBoard™ panels, supported with MycoFoam™ packaging, and the leather-like seats resiliency comes from MycoFlex, a 100% mycelium foam. Ecovative’s architects, mycologists, engineers, artists, designers, all worked together to turn an idea into a new industry. And it is actually happening.
Back in September 2008, I made a similar scramble for the airport, though this time I was flying standby, hoping for an open seat so I could make it to the Netherlands. On that first trip to the Postcode Green Challenge I nervously rehearsed our presentation 10’s if not 100’s of times, each time getting feedback and guidance from my college classmate, friend, and co-founder Gavin McIntyre. We were among the five finalists in the Green Challenge that year—and we couldn’t believe it. We arrived as a company with a big idea, 2 employees, a lot of data, and a strong desire to disrupt the Polystyrene market. We left with a check for 500,000 Euros, the imprimatur of being selected as the winner of the premier green business competition in the world, and an invaluable ever-expanding global support network.
Winning the Dutch Postcode Lottery Green Challenge was one of the key nucleation points in Ecovative’s history (short of Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute Professor Burt Swersey's “Yes, finally, this is something important” reaction to our Inventors’ Studio class project, and his original investment, both of which brought us to that September day in 2008).
Winning not only gave us the resources to move out of the Rensselaer Incubator and into our future: building our first plant, in Green Island NY. It also brought us a global audience to share our vision to mainstream the manufacturing of healthy materials, biofabricated with living organisms.
Eight years ago the Green Challenge fueled the next stage of our growth. Today, as I head back to the Netherlands as a jurist reviewing new entrepreneurial ideas to create a safer, healthier planet, I remain in awe of what our team has accomplished, and what other entrepreneurs have done in this field
Gavin and I built the company on the breakthrough idea to use mycelium—“nature’s glue”—to grow high performance products that are safe, healthy, and certified sustainable. Ecovative was the pioneer and is now world leader in mycelium-based biomaterials.
Fortune 500 companies like Dell trust our Mushroom® packaging to ship their goods. Furniture manufactures like Gunlocke use our MycoBoard™ panels to construct their award winning furniture. We are working with giant particleboard mills to convert their production process to incorporate our mResin™ technology, instead of toxic glues. Innovative designers like Daniele Trofe use our GIY Mushroom™Materials to produce MushLume lamps. And Ecovative—80+ and growing—is positioned the launch a new line of safe, healthy, sustainable grown furniture in October, all predicated on the principles of the circular economy—and enabled by biology. The worlds most advanced technology.
The Postcode Lottery Green Challenge is described as
“being inspired by President Clinton to look for those dedicated entrepreneurs with brilliant green business plans. Plans that are ready to speed up the transition towards a low carbon economy. The answers to the issues of our time are already in front of us. But it takes entrepreneurs like our former finalists to raise those answers and get them out into the world."
It is fair to say, for us, thanks to them: vision realized.
- Eben Bayer
]]>In February, we had announced that we were opening a second manufacturing plant in our neighboring town of Troy, NY. This facility was an exciting project for us because it was going to take our packaging production line that was located in Iowa and bring it right into our backyard. Well, we are excited to announce that the 20,000 square foot facility is up and running, and the team has produced over 68,000 Mushroom® parts there since June!
Since the announcement was made, our engineers had a busy Spring spending most of their days over at the new facility. They were tasked with bringing their custom designed and fabricated equipment online in the new facility, and determining how to best make use of the new space. All of their hard work certainly paid off in the end- this facility is 6x faster than our pilot plant!
Beyond the scale of the equipment at this facility, what contributes to its speed is that this manufacturing line is a continuous flow system- bags of grown material go in one end, and filled trays come out on the other. At the end of our production line is an autofiller that blows our grown material into molds. The autofiller at the new plant has 3 arms on a turntable that enables us to easily fill 6 molds in one motion. We also have a machine that continuously pops the finished parts out of the molds once they’re done growing. This part popper reminds me of a machine you would likely find in a candy factory, not a packaging factory!
We started production at this facility in June with 10 Ecovative employees on site. Since then, we’ve consistently kept around that many employees over there everyday running the line. We call this facility “Eco East” because it’s located due East of our headquarters- pretty much exactly on the other side of the Hudson River! By the time that you get up to a bridge and over to the new facility, it’s about a 10 minute drive.
One of the first major production runs at Eco East was for In/Flux- an outdoor, temporary art installation for an event that takes place in Calgary called Beakerhead. In/FLUX, designed by Vlad Amiot and Spencer Cutten, was a wall whose shape could be altered by event attendees during mid August. We produced around 6,000 velvety soft blocks at Eco East for this wall, which were all held together by lattice fencing!
The leftover blocks that were produced made a spectacular booth display at the 2015 World MakerFaire in New York City- the geometric shapes and smooth surface were a big crowd pleaser and instantly drew people to our booth to learn about GIY.
The new facility allowed us to fill the In/FLUX order in record time. Since that first successful run, we’ve fulfilled many packaging orders over at Eco East, including a new order from our well-known customer, Dell.
Once production was up and running smoothly at the facility, we found we had some extra floor space to use and decided to install a large press for our Myco Board product line. This press stands 16 feet tall and weighs over 70 tons! This piece of equipment is so heavy that we needed to fill a new concrete slab on the floor to support the weight of it.
The new press has two openings, both measuring 3x6’. This means that we’ll be able to produce larger and stronger Myco Board panels for our customers going forward.
This new facility is a huge accomplishment for our growing company. It’s not only supporting our packaging product line, but it’s also supporting our growing Myco Board business for the furniture industry. With these new capabilities, we’re also beginning to explore production of Myco Board panels for the green building industry and fire rated door cores.
]]>Sean Starky on the North Shore of Oahu testing the Ecovative Mushroom Board core coated with Entropy Dissolvable resin for an Enjoy Handplane, made for Patagonia.
As simple as letting a wave carry you to shore, bodysurfing could arguably be the first ever form of surfing. Despite its long history, bodysurfing has oftentimes taken a backseat to its more popular cousins, board surfing, skimboarding, and stand up paddle boarding over the years. But over the last few years, there has been an exciting and popular reemergence of bodysurfing. Building off of the roots of the sport, many of today’s bodysurfers are now using small, paddle-sized boards called "handplanes” to gain speed and provide lift, merging the performance and thrills of a surfboard with the serenity of being physically in a wave. These handplanes, like most equipment used in watersports, are typically made from non-biodegradable and/or synthetic materials.
"A handplane is basically a gas pedal for bodysurfing" says Enjoy Handplanes Co-Founder, Ed Lewis. "If you've ever tried to bodysurf you'll know how hard it can be to gain speed. You spend a lot of time with your head face down in the water just trying to go somewhere. A handplane makes it easy because the more you push down the faster you go. The faster you go, the easier it is to keep your head above water and enjoy the ride."
Sean Starky taking the product to the next level at The Wedge In California.
This specific "gas pedal" for bodysurfing, like an automobile part, took teams of engineers hours of testing, and over a year and a half to develop. It was the result of a five-company collaboration between New York-based Ecovative, San Diego-based Enjoy Handplanes, Hayward-based Entropy Resin and Connora Tech, and Ventura-based Patagonia.
Although this little product is built for speed, this handplane is also designed to be completely Earth compatible.
"The idea was not just to make a beach toy we love to use, but to make it in the most responsible way possible by using the most eco-friendly technologies to date." Said Lewis "My vision was to design a product using materials from the most cutting edge, ultra-eco companies in the world so at the end of the product’s life, it didn't just become landfill, it would disappear. I figured if this works with a handplane, maybe it would work with other composite products as well."
This vision of Lewis' was actualized by teaming up with three ultra-eco material companies who specialize in end of life solutions and bio-based materials.
"When I came up with the idea of making a handplane with an end of life solution, the universe came in and delivered just the right people for the job. I got really lucky." Said Lewis "I'm a designer and handmade manufacturer, not a scientist or engineer, so I needed help. I'm a big believer in visualizing what you need and letting the rest fall into place. As soon as I started this project, Kevin Whilden from Sustainable Surf introduced me to an awesome material that Ecovative was working on."
Ecovative Design, located in Green Island NY, knows a thing or two about designing for end of life solutions. The company specializes in harnessing a unique part of mushrooms, called mycelium, and using it as a natural resin to replace products like plastic foam packaging. Their TEDtalk has almost a million views, and their R&D team has created everything from computer packaging and surfboards, to chair parts, and now handplanes. Their process uses agricultural waste and mushroom tissue to grow products that take the shape of whatever form the mixture is placed in.
Their newest material, Myco Board, is a high-density compressed board product that doesn’t use any toxic chemicals or adhesives. "Myco Board is a natural alternative to engineered woods like particleboard and fiberboard," said Eben Bayer, Ecovative's CEO. "The standard materials are commonly made with urea-formaldehyde, a known carcinogen, and can be found in our furniture, our buildings, and even our leisure activities. Ecovative is working to replace these materials with our healthy and safe drop-in solution," states Bayer. All of Ecovative’s products are home compostable and require little energy to produce.
Ecovative's Myco Board core
"Ecovative’s Myco Board was the perfect solution to develop the core of the handplane." said Lewis. "Since the glue they use is actually mushroom tissue, any unwanted core could be composted and returned to the soil. It took us over a year of prototyping different shapes and sizes to perfect the process of making the core, but it was well worth it."
Now that this little "gas pedal" had a bio-based and compostable core, there was a new problem at hand.
"Now that we had developed our core with Ecovative, we had a bigger fish to fry," said Lewis. "How do you protect a biodegradable material with a coating that is tough enough to make it last during use, but isn't going to defeat the goal of it disappearing at the end of its life? We determined we needed to figure out a way to remove the coating so the biodegradable core could be exposed to the elements to break down naturally. We tried everything we could think of, but nothing worked. It was either not durable, or not removable, or both. That is until we discovered dissolvable epoxy."
At the same time that Enjoy and Ecovative were working on the mushroom core in 2014, Entropy Resins, a leader is biobased thermoset plastics, and Connora Tech, a San Francisco Bay area startup, were busy with their own venture. The two were collaborating to develop the first ever epoxy that was as strong as a traditional epoxy, but that could be recycled. This was accomplished by creating an epoxy that can be dissolved and reclaimed by recycling the dissolved exposy into a heat injection moldable plastic (think: plastic bottles). It was the first of its kind, and revolutionary for the composites industry. This technology meant that anything put together with epoxy could be taken apart if needed, be it surfboards, cars, airplanes, or handplanes. The only hurdle was that it was still in the development stage when Lewis first heard of it.
"I’ve worked closely with Entropy for over 4 years using their biobased epoxies, and really love what they do. When they told me that they had a new product in the works with Connora and we could now dissolve epoxy, my eyes lit up. I could see the solution for our handplane in front of me, and I couldn't believe the search was over for the perfect coating. Even though it wasn't market ready yet, I had to have it!"
The first mushroom board handplane ever coated with dissolvable resin. Photo by John Brodie
Lewis’ enthusiasm was what the Entropy and Connora teams needed to take the step forward to go to market. The development work was done, but they were waiting on funding to get it produced. The opportunity to collaborate with Ecovative, Enjoy, and Patagonia was too good to pass up, so they committed to providing the resin needed for the final product.
“There is always an adoption curve when it comes to introducing new and disruptive technologies to a market place. Having early adopting customers is an essential part of demonstrating feasibility of new concepts and values," said Rey Banatao, CEO of Connora Technologies. "Most big companies are timid to try new and innovative things. Enjoy has always been one of those nimble leaders dealing with end-of-life materials and willing to innovate, so it made it easy to move our materials beyond the lab and into the market place.”
The result of the collaboration, according to Lewis, was "Fun. The whole process was as fun as it gets. We got to work with amazing people, work with new materials, solve some environmental problems, and at the end of the day we get to go the beach. Does it get any better than that?"
But the effects of a product like this go beyond just a day at the beach. Yes, it's a fun product, but looking at the bigger picture, it represents a new sustainable business model. Conscious companies can design, produce, and market products that are strong, light, beautiful, and high performing, while accounting for the product’s end of life story in the design process; a consideration that bodes well for the final member of the five-part collaboration, Patagonia.
Beauty meets function in Patagonia Bowery. Photo by Jeff Betts
“Since our early days at Patagonia, we have been aware that doing any business on this planet creates pollution as a byproduct. And over the years, we have worked to steadily reduce those harms. It is really exciting for us to work with companies like Enjoy whose mission and business philosophy mirror our own,” said Roy Coffman, Patagonia Cardiff Store Manager. “It has also been a great experience to be involved in sharing these products with our customers, and a total bonus that their eco-friendly handplanes are a total blast to use!”
This five-piece collaboration serves as a model for the future of better design and for the future of the environment. The idea that five diverse companies can come together with the same goal- to develop an environmentally responsible product, is inspiring. The future depends on individuals and companies making conscious choices about the materials they use, and if we can team up and accelerate these products to market, the future will be here sooner than we think.
To hear more from Ed about Enjoy Handplanes' sustainable vision and this collaboration, check out this video.
]]>by Jon Parry
Business Development Manager
Austin, Texas
I had the opportunity to spend an interesting three days at the Business and Institutional Manufacturers Association’s (BIFMA) annual 360˚ Leadership Conference in Austin, Texas. The formal agenda focused on attracting and retaining a new generation of workers, specifically millennials. These are important issues for Ecovative, particularly as we grow (pun intended) to meet the needs of our expanding customer base with the addition of our new Myco Board products.
Keynote speaker Ben Casnocha, a Silicon Valley entrepreneur and author, spoke passionately about the need for millennials to find a job that can be transformational for themselves, the company, and the world saying: “Employees need a mission objective for their work.” I certainly agree. Ecovative’s mission to develop, promote, and produce sustainable and environmentally healthy products across multiple industries is embedded in our culture, and is a key attractor for our vibrant and talented workforce, which includes a lot of millennials!
As regular conference-goers know, there is the formal agenda, and then there are always other agendas at these events. For us, it has been helpful to learn more about BIFMA’s work on refreshing its healthy office environment standards. BIFMA is a trade association and leading voice for the commercial furniture industry. Here is how they describe their work on standards:
Our industry’s service to our customers – providing healthy, comfortable, and productive workspaces – rests on an infrastructure of engineering and materials standards. These standards, founded on centuries of craft and enhanced by ever-advancing science, embody the best of our knowledge on safety, ergonomics, and sustainability.
BIFMA sponsors the development and refining of standards, educates on their importance and application, and translates their necessary complexity into more easily understood and implemented formats. We promote sustainability throughout the life cycle of commercial furniture. We offer statistical and educational resources to our members and the public and reach out to regulators, consumers, and international partners to foster value and innovation.
Sustainability is a key topic for furniture manufacturers; often driven by internal leadership and customer demand. However, the topic of new regulatory standards, chemical red lists, and necessary certifications can be daunting.
As an innovative company that is disrupting the status quo for sustainable materials, Ecovative welcomes this dialogue. I had a busy few days talking with executives from a range of furniture manufacturers about our products, particularly Myco Board, which may be the solution for these companies as they seek to meet and exceed BIFMA and other industry standards.
….And of course, also on the agenda for any such trip is having fun learning a bit about the host community, including the fun fact that the famous music venue Austin City Limits – site of a BIFMA reception – is in a LEED certified building. Who knew?
All in all, a good three days in Texas.
]]>This is a new blog series where we interview a handful of new employees across different departments to see their view of Ecovative!
First up, we interviewed Emily Moore- Ecovative’s Director of First Impressions. Emily has been in this role for about 2 months.
Working with all of these people who are really excited about what they’re working on. If you sit down and ask someone what they’re working on, they’re always excited to share their project or new developments on their projects. People are genuinely happy with their work and what they’re doing at Ecovative, which is very different than a lot of work places. Definitely a very refreshing atmosphere.
That’s a tough question because there’s such a variety. First and foremost, everyone is very kind and welcoming. There are a lot of strong and different personalities. Everyone has their own interest and something that they’re passionate about. And everyone is really good at having fun.
Very casual but also a very busy office environment. There is always a ton of chatter going on in the office. Sometimes we have pets that visit us at the office and everyone gets really excited and swarms around them.
There are a million things moving at one time. There are fork trucks moving through constantly and racks being shifted.
Well, I actually ended up at the wrong building initially (60 Cohoes- our old facility), so by the time that I got there, I went straight into the HR office for the interview. But my first impression was that the space is a lot different than a traditional office. It looks a lot like a tech startup you would see on the television- people with laptops on couches or sitting in groups. The office floor plan was way more open than I expected- it’s pretty much a giant open space where everyone sits together. I enjoy it though because you can look up and see what people are working on- it keeps you in the loop.
People expect you to do a lot on your own here. It’s nice because they trust you to get things done, but there's also some pressure having that responsibility. It’s also more fast paced that I expected- my days and weeks fly by without me even realizing it. It’s all of a sudden Friday and the weekend and I have no idea how it happened.
Bagging GIY out on the production floor was really fun for me. It was a good change of pace from sitting at a desk and it was really cool to be able to put something together that is going out the door to customers. Working in production gave me a better idea of what goes on in the back, and I got to know the employees in production and understand what they do (at least on Thursdays and Fridays).
Filing NDAs. Paperwork seems to never actually be done. But it’s very satisfying to see a finished pile and I know it’s an important part of the business.
My previous work experience was in law and I really wanted to try something completely different than a formal law office. Ecovative definitely fit that bill. Plus the company is really focused on sustainable issues and from working on a farm, that was really appealing to me.
Eben- tall
Gavin- beard
Production- busy- it’s always moving- it’s like a beehive
Engineers- sawdust- it always smells like sawdust in the engineering shop
Admin- Tom (he’s our finance guy and has a strong and infectious personality)
Sales- phone calls- those guys are always on their phones!
R&D- lanyards- they all wear them around their necks with their lab access key fob on it
Mushroom- mycelium (then laughs)- that’s what Ecovative will do to you
Kitchen- chocolate! it’s holiday time so there’s a lot of treats in the kitchen now
Office- modern
]]>On Flag Day, June 14th, 2015, Ecovative lost a valued member of our team.
Chris Charbonneau was a man that came into work every day with incredible gusto and enthusiasm. The passion, work ethic, and humor that he brought into our daily lives will forever be missed.
Chris is remembered every day at our home away from home. I still sometimes expect to see him when I turn the corner around the dryers, or when I go into the auto-filling area of our 70 Cohoes location. The presence he brought to any area that he occupied was huge. He dominated the space he was in with a positive and encouraging manner no matter what task he was given that day.
If he thought you were down that day, he would do whatever it took to raise a smile, regardless of how he was feeling. It always seemed that everyone else took priority over his own state of being. He was always quick with a quip and could jump on any conversation with a hilarious comeback.
While he was always quick with humor, Chris’ professional work ethic was admirable. He took his tasks seriously and put every effort into optimizing and improving whatever was put in front of him. He will always be the master of the vertical panels and be remembered among the pioneers of our Myco Board development team.
Chris loved his family. There aren’t many Ecovators that share the joy of grandchildren, but Chris was one on them and he could immediately put into perspective the importance of their lives as compared to some seemingly important issue at work. That is one thing I tried to learn from him.
I know we all miss him in our own ways. For me, the selfless nature of his daily life was something to be admired and learned from. The hole that has been left by his passing will always remain. Thankfully, the pain lessens and fond remembrances increase with time. In this year-end season of gratitude and reflection, Chris has come to the forefront of my thoughts once again. He’d more than likely say, ‘get over it, Boss’, but I don’t really ever want to. His impact on all of our lives, however brief, will be felt forever... and that’s a great thing in my mind!
- Peter Flannery
In remembrance of Chris’ dedication to his work and personal life, Ecovative employees took two vertical panels that Chris worked diligently on, and pressed them into Myco Board plaques. One plaque hangs by the front door of our office to remind us as we enter and leave each day to approach the day as Chris would- with humor and passion in our hearts. The other plaque was gifted to his family in remembrance.
]]>
By Julian Hadley
For this experiment, I used two compost bins that I have at home. 1 compost bin contained Myco Foam pieces in it as the brown matter, and the other bin had sugar maple leaves with some twigs in it as the brown matter. The green matter remained the same in each bin.
Compost bin 1
Green material: Kitchen scraps (vegetables, fruits including rinds, green plant leaves, flowers, coffee grounds, egg shells).
Brown material: Myco Foam broken into 1-3 inch chunks.
Compost bin 2
Green material: Same as compost bin 1.
Brown material: Fallen sugar maple leaves with a few twigs, with the same mass as the Myco Foam in compost bin 1.
Over the course of 1 year, I tumbled the bins to create two compost compositions:
The table below shows chemical analyses done on both types of compost by Cornell University Nutrient Analysis Lab in January of 2014. The purple shaded text and numbers are for macronutrients, or elements needed in relatively large quantities by growing plants. The Myco Foam compost is comparable to maple leaf compost in these elements, and the only statistically significant difference shows more potassium in the Myco Foam compost. The remaining numbers show the ratio of carbon to nitrogen in the tissue, and other elements needed in smaller quantities or not needed at all by growing plants. Two elements needed by plants, iron and zinc, are in higher quantities in the maple leaf compost, but these trace elements are not a concern for plant growth in most cases. Aluminum is not needed by plants and in fact high aluminum concentrations in soil can be toxic to plants, but neither compost type has excessively high aluminum levels.
I started this project in May of 2014 to see how produce would grow in each type of compost I had created earlier in the year.
I had two different soil types that I planted the carrots in: The first was a mixture of 60% sand and 40% of the maple leaf / food scrap compost. The other mixture was 60% sand, 40% of the Myco Foam / food scrap compost.
The plants grew quickly and produced many carrots for us to taste test and run analysis on!
We had carrots from each of the pots analyzed by the Nutrient Analysis Laboratory at Cornell University. The table below shows the analysis for mineral elements that are needed in the largest quantities in human nutrition, and also shows the amount of these elements typically found in carrots according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture. There was quite a bit of variation among the pots, and the starred numbers indicate a statistically significant difference between Myco Foam and maple leaf composts. The Myco Foam carrots were higher in magnesium, but somewhat lower in calcium and iron.
The Myco Foam carrots also had more nitrogen on average, though this was not a statistically significant difference, and both had less nitrogen than the USDA value. This is not surprising because most carrots are grown with extra nitrogen added to soil in chemical fertilizer or animal manure, neither of which was used in our experiment.
The lower calcium and iron contents of carrots grown in Myco Foam compared to maple leaves was something of a disappointment, but forestry research has shown that leaves of sugar maple (the species used in this experiment) are very unusual in containing large amounts of these elements even after they fall from the trees in autumn. Therefore, maple leaf compost is unusually rich in these elements, and compost made with other types of plant material might not exceed the Myco Foam calcium and iron levels. The average calcium and iron contents in carrots grown in both Myco Foam and maple leaf composts were both as high or higher than the typical carrot measured by USDA, as shown in the table, so in this sense all of the carrots were nutritionally adequate.
Are you interested in joining Ecovative’s dynamic, fun, and motivated team?
If you haven’t had a chance to check out our Careers page lately, you should make your way over there right now to see what roles we’re currently hiring for (it’s about 4 positions right now!). Since we are actively hiring, we figured it was a good time to provide some insight into our hiring process. I sat down with our HR manager, Audry Herbig, to get an idea of what we look for in a candidate and how the interview process works:
MJ: What would you say are the core characteristics of an Ecovator?
AH: The characteristics that we have identified are ‘wildly impassioned, personal resilience and adaptive to change, creativity, team player, curiosity, and personal discipline.’ We found after observing employees that were high performers across all departments, that these were common in people who tend to do well at Ecovative.
MJ: What positions are we currently hiring for, and what jobs are on the horizon?
AH: The current positions can be found on our careers page. There’s nothing concrete at this time for future positions, but I can imagine we’ll have a need for more people on our production team to help scale our 2nd facility and our engineered wood product. The candidates for these types of positions would ideally have a familiarity with presses and wood working equipment. We potentially could hire more support surrounding the tech development side of our engineered wood product, as well as looking at market facing/ sales positions for this product.
MJ: What do you look for in a candidate?
AH: Generally speaking, someone that takes initiative to explore their area of experience or expertise. Someone that has practical, hands-on experience and isn’t afraid of hard work. A lot of the time we’re looking for someone that gets really excited about what we do. It’s not a requirement, but Ecovative is a unique and often challenging place. If you can be excited about why you’re here and remember the big picture of what we’re working towards, you’ll likely just be happier as an employee, and more productive because of that.
MJ: What hobbies or extracurricular activities stand out to you?
AH: Naturally people who enjoy being outdoors and spending time in nature tend to fit well with Ecovative. We’ve found that these employees have an appreciation for our goal and tend to align with our mission of producing healthy and sustainable materials. More specifically, some people at Ecovative are really into mycology- they’ve experimented with growing their own mushrooms or go on mushroom walks in their free time. For our engineers in particular, we like to see that they enjoy building things- maybe being on the robotics team or even making the cabinets for their kitchen. Someone who enjoys creating. Having hobbies in general is a good sign that you like to stay busy, take an active approach to your interest, and that you want to further develop yourself and learn more about areas you’re excited about.
MJ: What can someone expect when they come in for an interview at Ecovative?
AH: They can expect that we’re going to be friendly and laid back, like we always are. And that we’re going to test their knowledge. There will be a number of people from the organization attending the interview because all of our roles are so collaborative, and the employee will be working with many different projects and teams. It is almost a never one-on-one interview, and the interviewers are going to do their best to make sure you have the skills and mindset to succeed in the role. They may ask you some unique questions, but we’re always looking to find out if you have the skills needed for the job. And you should expect to have plenty of time to ask any questions you may have- what it’s like to be here, about our products, etc. Where we’re different than a lot of places is that we really just want to know that you can do the job and that you really want to do the job. There’s no perfect resume or hobby or interview answer.
MJ: We’ve had a number of employees that have relocated to work for Ecovative. Can you say anything about that?
AH: We’ve had many employees who didn’t live in New York or even in the Northeast region when they accepted positions here. We’re thrilled and flattered that people want to work at Ecovative so much that they would be willing to do that. Generally people find that the Capital Region is a great spot to live- you’re close to New York City, Boston, and the Adirondacks. This location provides quite the experience and combination of places to visit, which many people find appealing.
If you have a background in science, manufacturing, or engineering and don’t see a job posting that currently fits, we are always accepting applications. Check the Careers page to access the application and see up to date positions!
]]>Written by Kaitlyn Aholt and Alicia Crawford- Materials Chemistry at Steelcase
This past March, Steelcase’s Materials Chemistry team (part of Global Environmental Sustainability team) took a trip out to Cherry Creek Elementary in Lowell, Michigan to spend the morning with Mr. Audia's 4th grade science class. He periodically brings in guest speakers to talk about their careers and give his students an idea of the many different paths they could choose in life. What an awesome 4th grade teacher, right? We spoke about our Materials Chemistry work from an innovation perspective by showing photos of people we believe to be innovators and having the students guess who was in each image. Thankfully, everyone knew Thomas Edison. There was also one die-hard Apple fan who picked out Steve Jobs, but most students couldn't guess why he was an innovator. When we explained that he innovated the way people listened to music by inventing the iPod, nearly making CDs obsolete, one student asked, What's a CD? Come to find out, no one in the class even knew what a CD was anymore... man we felt old! And of course, every hand shot up when we showed Taylor Swift!
Finally, we showed a picture of Eben Bayer and Gavin McIntyre, co-founders of Ecovative Design. Then we conducted a hands-on experiment with the Ecovative GIY "Grow It Yourself" Mushroom Material kits to allow the students to see how these two were innovators. Ecovative uses agricultural byproducts in combination with the root structure of mushrooms, called mycelium, to grow Earth friendly materials like packaging and engineered woods.
Each student had the opportunity to get their hands on the raw material and then create their own toys with it. They started off with bags of dehydrated material in front them. After adding water and flour, the students watched over the next few days as the mycelium came back to life and grew out to be white and strong around the corn stalks and husks in the bag. Once fully white, they took this material, crumbled it up into small pieces with their hands, and put it into little duck molds!
They set the ducks on a shelf and observed the material over the next few days.
Each day, the ducks turned more and more white because the mycelium was growing and binding all the loose particles together! Mycelium is similar to a natural glue or resin.
The "quackers," as Mr. Audia refers to them, are now decomposing in a glass jar filled with worms, bacteria, and moisture so the kids can see how these materials breakdown over time.
Through this experiment, the kids were able to discover the power of innovation and learn about those who strive to innovate. They were able to have fun with science and see how something as simple as mushrooms can change the way we look at materials. It is our hope that experiments like these can continue to inspire the youth of today and produce future innovators.
]]>"Around the world, more and more people are growing concerned about oil and its consequences and are moving toward new alternatives. This movement is happening at all scales, from major auto manufacturers developing biodegradable vehicles to individuals saying no to plastic bags at the supermarket. Governments are taking action too. What these governmental, corporate and individual actions have in common is a commitment to reduce our dependence on oil through post-petroleum design and technologies. Governments recognize post-petroleum design as the way to energy independence and security; corporations are adopting it to build consumer loyalty by doing the right thing for the environment; and consumers are demanding it for the health of the planet and future generations.
My recent book, Post-Petroleum Design, is filled with the ideas that unite these diverse people and projects into a movement that is changing the way we make our world. In it, designers can see how their fellow creatives are using petroleum-free materials to shape bold new designs in everything from electronics to architecture. Businesspeople can learn how to manufacture products with less plastic, energy and waste. Even those outside of design and business can enjoy its eye-opening revelation of innovations from leading designers in apparel, packaging, automobiles and more. Post-Petroleum Design celebrates their successes and, for the first time, weaves them together in a compelling story. Through its pages, readers can travel the globe, visiting design studios, cutting-edge labs, and remote villages where post-petroleum designers are using everything from bamboo to bioplastics to shape a better future. Vernacular craft traditions, industrial-scale production, even the latest advances in nanotechnology, all hold secrets with the potential to lead us beyond our dependence on non-renewable resources, secrets that are now being unlocked by post-petroleum design.
I invite you to share in my own journey into post-petroleum design and, I hope, share in the excitement I felt as I identified the common principles shared by its pioneers. These principles represent a new culture in design and commerce, and yet they are the same principles evolved over eons by nature herself. Many books on green design and sustainable business espouse principles based on nature, but this book, like my journey itself, is different. In this case, I discovered a community of like-minded designers working with shared interests, and then began to recognize their principles. The realization that they are the very ones that nature works by was profound. It gave me hope that we can go beyond our current petroleum-based paradigm and reduce the threat of climate change, toxic waste and pollution. It is a challenging task, but it is one that is already being taken up by leading designers the world over. With the power to change the world and how we live in it, post-petroleum design is the new oil."
- George Elvin, Author of Post-Petroleum Design This post originally appeared on George Elvin's blog.
We are thrilled to be featured as a solution to the current petroleum based economy. Eben was interviewed for the book and after previewing it, had this to say (found on the back cover):
You can pick up a copy of the book through Amazon.
]]>New York is taking its first steps toward regulating the growth of industrial hemp, joining 19 other states with sanctioned programs. Industrial Hemp – the plant Cannabis sativa L. with a delta-9 tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) content no greater than 0.3% - can be transformed into a myriad of products ranging from cordage to automotive parts and yes, even Mushroom® Materials. Ecovative supports the formation of the domestic industrial hemp industry. We have tracked the progress in our region and especially within New York. In our home state we are pleased to see that steps are being taken to execute a pilot program that allows institutes of higher education to conduct research on industrial hemp. New York already approved this pilot program. The next step is to pass the permissions and restrictions surrounding that program. If proposed regulations are passed, this research can entail anything from cultivation and harvesting methods to market development. In addition, Ecovative supports the proposed legislation to add Part 159 to 1 NYCRR, which establishes regulations for research test-plots of industrial hemp. In its current form, the authorized institutes of higher education conducting the research can engage subcontractors to help with aspects of the project.
It is Ecovative’s hope that this will allow the local agricultural community to be involved with the projects and learn best practices around growing industrial hemp. In a similar manner, material processors and commercial interests including Ecovative will hopefully be able to take part in these research programs. Early and active engagement by various stakeholder groups in the development of New York’s industrial hemp industry will help to demonstrate the utility of this material and these efforts can be used a framework for other states seeking to adopt similar legislation. As a material processor, manufacturer, and product development company based in New York, Ecovative believes it is prudent to develop all three parts of the industrial hemp industry – crop growth, material processing, and finished product development. A comprehensive approach to develop will ensure the success of this industry, reducing the risk of delays we have seen in Canada’s development of its own industry.
Ecovative would be highly interested in participating in the appropriate studies to help develop material processing and finished product markets that will utilize New York-grown industrial hemp in the future. At Ecovative we are always on the lookout for new agricultural materials that can be grown and developed in our local region to the benefit of our farmers. This program will benefit the local agricultural community by proving out how a successful and economically feasible industrial hemp crop can be grown in New York. While there won’t be any Mushroom Materials made from New York-grown industrial hemp available anytime soon (the law prohibits the sale or distribution of any of the industrial hemp grown in the test plots), we believe authorizing this pilot program is a meaningful first step. A public hearing will be held on Wednesday, May 20th at 11am at the office of the Department of Agriculture and Markets, 10B Airline Drive, in Albany. Ecovative will attend to show its support of the proposed legislation, and is expected to give testimony. We encourage you to join us at the hearing and show support for this statute. -Katie Malysa Supplemental Information Below
The Path of Relevant Legislation:
The Agricultural Act of 2014 (also known as the farm bill) made it legal for states to establish research programs for industrial hemp. In December 2014 Governor Cuomo signed a hemp research bill thus creating an avenue for New York institutes of higher education to pursue test-plot studies relating to the growth of industrial hemp. At this time Commissioner of Agriculture and Markets Richard Ball is proposing legislation that would add Part 159 to 1 NYCRR and establish the regulations around the pilot program.
The Department of Agriculture and Markets drafted the proposed legislation earlier this year. Revisions were made based on feedback given at a meeting of the Industrial Hemp Work Group. The group consisted of representatives of higher education institutions that may be involved in the pilot program, Department members, and an Ecovative representative, among others.
A public hearing will take place on Wednesday, May 20th at 11am at the office of the Department of Agriculture and Markets, 10B Airline Drive, in Albany. Ecovative is expected to give testimony and show its support of the proposed legislation.
Industrial Hemp Products Information:
Source: Johnson, Renee. Congressional Research Service Report “Hemp as an Agricultural Commodity”. 12 February 2015. https://fas.org/sgp/crs/misc/RL32725.pdf
]]>Ecovative grows its packaging on the fibers of agricultural plants. The macromolecules that compose those fibers, and the mineral nutrients that are bound to them, can be recycled in your own garden and used to grow vegetables! To prove this, I created compost from Myco Foam packaging samples that were mixed with ordinary kitchen food scraps (no meat!), and turned ten times once a week in a compost tumbler throughout the growing season of 2013. For comparative purposes, I also created compost using fallen leaves from the sugar maple trees around my house, similarly mixed with kitchen scraps and turned in a compost tumbler.
Then, in 2014 I created soil by mixing each of the two types of compost with pure sand in a 40:60 compost-to-sand ratio. I filled three large planting pots about 10 inches in diameter with each type of soil, and I planted carrot seeds in them during late May. The carrots got a slow start because of difficulty penetrating a weed barrier that I had installed on top of each pot, but by late September I produced beautiful bright orange carrots from both the soil made with composted Myco Foam, and the soil made with composted maple leaves.
To check on the nutritional content of the carrots, I sent them to the Nutrient Analysis Laboratory at Cornell University. The results showed that in the major mineral nutrients that humans need, carrots grown in soil made with both Myco Foam and maple leaves compared favorably to carrots typically sold in supermarkets and analyzed by USDA:
Nutrient element in carrots | Myco Foam soil | Maple leaf soil | USDA typical carrot |
Calcium % | 0.39 | 0.69 | 0.29 |
Magnesium % | 0.17 | 0.14 | 0.11 |
Potassium % | 3.1 | 3.1 | 2.8 |
Phosphorus % | 0.54 | 0.60 | 0.31 |
The carrots grown in the maple leaf soil were amazingly high in calcium! It turns out that maple trees need a lot of calcium, and they return it to the soil when their leaves fall. The plant fibers we use to grow Myco Foam packaging don’t use as much calcium as maple trees, which explains why the carrots grown in Myco Foam don’t have as much calcium as the ones grown in soil containing maple leaves. But the carrots grown from Myco Foam are still darn good when you compare them to a USDA standard carrot! At Ecovative, we encourage people to compost our Mushroom Materials, so that the plant matter and nutrients in them can return to the soil and nourish new growth. As a result of this experiment, we now know that the compost really is good for your garden!
- Julian Hadley
]]>It is with overwhelming sadness I share with you the news that our original champion and progenitor Burt Swersey passed away earlier this week. Burt was instrumental in the creation of Ecovative, which grew out of his Inventors Studio course, and was involved throughout our history to date. Burt was the most remarkable human I have ever encountered. He combined a passion for technological innovation with the firm belief that we must apply technology to help others. Our ability to innovate should not be squandered fulfilling human wants, but instead be applied to the big problems facing people and planet.
"Don't work on nonsense!"
Burt's first career included starting and running 4 medical device companies, and his passion to use technology to improve human lives continued far beyond that. Burt devoted the last 23 years to developing students. He believed that young people "could do far more than they imagined," and that they could work on the big NEEDS facing our world. His focus on teaching creativity in the classroom, on elimination of "teams" in invention, and on focusing on NEEDS not WANTS was radically different than other approaches. At the heart of this philosophy was a deep felt caring and belief that what the world needed was "angels' advocates" -- those that could and would believe and support even the wildest of notions.
If you have ever worked with Burt, or attended one of his classes, you would see the ultimate Angels' Advocate in action. Tireless, for hours upon hours, Burt would encourage each student with compassion and sincerity. He would "Plus" their ideas, and teach others around them to do so collaboratively. Burt had been working overtime the last two years to try and move Rensselaer and other schools to this model. It remains a tremendously important goal for our educational system, and by extension, our planet.
Incessant insistence balanced Burt's extremely positive demeanor. After making a space, carefully crafted out of compassion and caring, where one could create something great, free of the fear of failure or critism, Burt would switch gears once such an idea was formed. As strands of inspiration coalesced to concept he would suddenly exclaim "MORE!". He would demand that you make it "bigger" or "smaller" (often in short succession). His goal now was to make sure the solution you were working towards was the greatest that it could be, and most importantly, that it was fulfilling a true global need.
By switching between these modes Burt would help others understand that they could do things far beyond their wildest dreams.
Early on in Ecovative's history Gavin and I would make weekly status reports to Burt. We used to joke that if we presented to Burt we had "cured cancer that week" he would demand to know "why we had forgotten about Alzheimer's." By that same token when we presented to him our deepest failures, a commercial disaster or a botched experiment, he would react with enthusiasm for our efforts and convey to us his deepest held belief that "you can do it-- no you WILL DO IT". These two tendencies made working with Burt one of the most trying experiences of my life. It also was perhaps the most rewarding. I know many others experienced this over the years.
Burt was not just content to educate, he wanted to transform his students into a force for good. And on that note I will leave you with a final thought Burt recorded last year, after winning the NCIIA's Sustainable Impact Award: "Make change happen that will have significant benefits for a billion people... what a nice thing to do in your life. Whatcha do in your life? Well, I made life better for a billion people." - Burt Swersey
Burt was referring not to himself, but the students who he envisioned changing the world for better.
A trim-tab is a tiny part of the rudder on large ships, it moves the rudder, and that moves the ship. A small force applied at the trim-tab can move a tremendous mass. A tremendous force applied in such a way can move the world. Buckminster Fuller once said "Call me Trim-tab". He envisioned himself a force to move our society and planet. What a wild idea. Burt had an even wilder idea. An idea that only Burt could imagine. He didn't want to be the Trim-tab, not enough would get done. He wanted to create Trim-tabs. Hundreds of them. That would purposefully innovative and create, and in doing so, improve the lives of billions upon billions of people.
By taking this very Burt approach he fulfills the promise he articulates for the student above. "Watcha do in your life?" Burt: you created ripples of humans working to make life better for a billion people.
- Eben Bayer
]]>When I started at Ecovative back in 2011, we occupied a small warehouse space and were still in the early “start-up” phase of production. Over time, we moved from our tiny place to a factory twice the size across the street. Even that proved unable to hold us back in our growth and we took over another section of the warehouse strip. It was easy enough, just smash a hole in the wall and annex the space beyond. Like the mycelium that makes our product, we too grow out into our environment, soon reaching across the river to our newest space in Troy, NY (incidentally that is where my parents were born and raised, so my excitement is twofold). With all this growth of course comes change, resolution to old problems, and of course the creation of new ones. Through all this, though, one thing is clear: Ecovators can adapt.
Two weeks ago, while enjoying lunchtime with about a dozen co-workers I heard Max exclaim, “I’m done with the fork. Who needs it?” I looked around and saw that aside from Max with his spaghetti, the only lunch with need for a fork was Melissa’s salad, and she promptly snatched it up. Everyone else in the room was either eating bowls of soup with tablespoons, or mac n cheese with iced tea spoons, while many others went the simpler route and had brought hand held sandwiches or G0-Gurts for their mid-day meal. You see, like evolution, the loss of forks in the lunchroom was slow and seemingly inexorable. It wasn’t until there was just one left that we really noticed that they had been disappearing.
Since the flow of time through Ecovative’s history followed a similar trend, we were conditioned to the change. We adapted to what had been thrown our way, planning ahead and sharing, communicating needs and working as a team, even in lunchtime. We had switched to a spoon-friendly society without detriment to ourselves. In fact, it was a little bit fun. Fortunately, forks in general have not gone the way of the Dodo, and in noticing that one of the species was left, we did not panic. We simply placed an Amazon order and had several more dozen delivered. Slowly now, perhaps a little sheepishly, we bring our noodles, our spinach, and our coleslaw out of the refrigerator, melding once more into a peaceful society of multitudinous flatware. And, like our kitchen adventures, Ecovative itself moves through time, adapting, reconfiguring, and in some ways, going back to the way it was. May the forks be with you.
- Meghan Dolan
]]>Plastic pollution in our waterways is a serious problem. The evidence published last week in the Feb 13th issue of Science, exposed the 4.8-12 million metric tons per year (!!) of plastic reaching our oceans in a report called "Plastic waste inputs from land into the ocean." Time is short to rescue ocean life. Ecovative's Mushroom Materials can help eliminate the styrene particle problem when adopted as packaging material and marine flotation devices to replace Styrofoam.
If you have 15 minutes, I would highly recommend watching this summary of White Devil, a documentary that explains the ocean pollution problem in depth, and highlights Ecovative as a solution (at around 11:30):
I will be displaying Ecovative’s many solutions to ocean plastic pollution at an Innovation Showcase, sponsored by Think Beyond Plastic and the Ocean Caucuses of the Senate and House. This public showcase will be held at Capitol Hill on March 16th, and we encourage everyone to attend this very important event (more information can be found below)!
- Sue Van Hook
]]>At Ecovative, we’ve always wanted to grow sustainable surfboard cores from our foam replacement. This application started as a personal project for Gavin, one of Ecovative’s co-founders; growing up surfing on Long Island, he’s had, since some of the earliest days of the company, a desire to create a Mushroom® Surfboard. We tried (and, despite what Gavin may sentimentally recall, failed miserably) a few times throughout the years; but in late 2013, we had learned a lot about growing biocomposites and we felt confident we could give it another shot. Having really never successfully grown something this large, it was a formidable task, but Gavin and I slowly began determining a way to adapt our expertise in packaging to water sports.
Surfboard cores are typically shaped or molded from expanded polystyrene (EPS) or polyurethane (PU) foam. These materials, derived from petrochemicals, are not only unnatural, but blatantly harmful to the environment--ultimately persisting in a landfill for hundreds of thousands of generations to come. Rather than contributing to the already widespread pollution of our beaches and water by using traditional blank materials, Ecovative’s goal was to enable people to make blanks from renewable materials that would degrade when the unfortunate snapped leash, or worse, a broken board occurred. Our first challenge was simply how to grow a blank. From our experience in packaging and our initial inquiries into engineered wood replacements, we knew our material either shaped well and was dense, or grew to a lightweight material, but had to be grown to shape. Incredibly dense boards were quickly ruled out as an option, so we had to figure out a way to make a 6 foot blank on our 3 foot thermoformer, when we had never grown anything larger than 18 square inches.
The solution was to take one of Gavin’s old boards, cut it into manageable quadrants (that had but centimeters of space to spare on the thermoformer), and create the tools from each section that would be filled with our material. After a few days of growth, we placed the four sections snugly against each other and let them grow together into a solid board (mushroom mycelium has the amazing ability to graft itself flawlessly with other specimens of the same strain; allowing us to “glue” living pieces together). This blank was then coated with Entropy Resin to render it seaworthy. While admittedly rough, the first few prototypes we grew were a fulfilling proof of concept.
In September that year, we took them to The Boardroom Show and received some fantastic feedback while creating a ton of interest and fostering some great partnerships with early adopters. Coming back from this show, we were extremely motivated and began exploring different ways to grow boards that would lower densities, while also smoothly incorporating the product into our manufacturing line. Over the course of about a year, we were finally able to, with some trial and error, reproducibly grow a medium-density surfboard blank.
One drawback to the blend we developed is that this material could not be traditionally shaped, something important for the creation of boards. This meant, if we ever were to scale in-house, that we had to devote massive amounts of our limited warehouse space to grow many different shapes, in many different sizes, then ship them all over the world to be processed and then shipped to a store or the end-user. Our goal at Ecovative has always been not only to displace as many plastic foam and other synthetic materials as possible, but to show truly sustainable products can also be economical. Given this, and the fact that we are a small company focused on a number of other major projects (displacing plastic packaging and eliminating the Urea-Formaldehyde glues used in the wood industry) we shifted away from dedicating additional resources to growing individual blanks in-house, and instead decided to focus our research on our strength: growing a robust raw material with innumerable possibilities.
This led to the launch of a Grow It Yourself platform where we enable the people who know how to make their products best, in this case shapers, to grow their own items by providing the raw material and technical knowledge. We’re calling this GIY and it allows anyone to grow anything from a surfboard to a lamp. A surf company in California called Surf Organics has been the pilot for this platform. They started growing Mushroom Surfboards and, after some rocky initial development, have recently had awesome success. Check out their boards and watch their video.
We hope to see even more companies starting to explore our patented mushroom technology for sustainable boards. In the future we will explore this market further with our developing grant-funded biopolymer, a 100% mycelium material that is stronger, lighter, and more shapeable (but only available in 12” tiles today!)
In the meantime, we’re excited to share our material with those trying to make the world a more environmentally friendly place. We have been thrilled with the interest and enthusiasm and hope this translates into some awesome products for the industry!
- Alex Carlton
]]>At Ecovative, excitement is always in the air. We’re excited about replacing toxic products, promoting sustainability, and changing the world. How can a team of young scientists and engineers NOT be enthusiastic about that prospect? While Ecovative’s team is filled with diverse people who have varying experience and expertise, it is no surprise that the entire company shares a mentality with the Co-founders' Alma Mater.
Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute’s mantra of “Why not change the world?” resonates heavily within the walls of our office and warehouse. With about 25% of Ecovative employees having studied at RPI, we certainly feel a connection to the institute. Additionally, RPI’s Incubator Program is to thank for Ecovative’s first operating space, and through the current Emerging Ventures Ecosystem program, Ecovative is able to use RPI facilities to broaden the scope of our research projects. For these reasons and more, we were ecstatic to take part in RPI’s 4th Annual Spirit Day.
This event gave us the perfect excuse to show off our constant enthusiasm for changing the world in a different light – and with pompoms! Here at Ecovative, we are proud of our origins and thrilled with the success that has allowed our company to grow into what it is today. GO RED!!
- Deb Kraft, '13
]]>Thoughts of warmer temperatures, blue skies and pecan pie filled my head as I left last Tuesday afternoon bound for Atlanta, Georgia. I arose the next morning, put on my down coat, hat and mittens and thought, “It will warm up.” Well everything is relative. Compared to the subzero temperatures I left behind in upstate New York, the brisk 25oF felt pretty good.
My host and hostess from the Mushroom Club of Georgia, took me to a green belt along the Chattahoochee River. My mission was to find fungi growing on southern tree species. Within the first 30 minutes we had the two species I came for. I grew more delighted as the 3 of us spotted others, including two conks from the southeast this northerner did not know before. One, Phlebia incarnata, is a real gem. The rosy pink suede topside stood out like a beacon on the dark log. Flipped over, its spore-bearing surface was a creamy puckered crescent - quite unique to the genera Phlebia and Merulius. There are neither pores, nor gills, but wrinkles similar to the underside of a chanterelle. Along the way we spotted a flock of Cedar waxwings, a Brown Thrasher, a Veery and were warned by the cry of a Cooper’s hawk perched overhead adjacent to the wetland. The mobbing caws of a half dozen crows led us to the hawk’s mate in a tree a few yards away. We watched as they flew off together, a sign that mating season is underway. Content with our morning’s haul and the sunshine that had broken through morning clouds, we returned to the house for a quick lunch of delicious mushroom pate on toast.
The next two stops were in downtown Atlanta for Ecovative business visits. The coolest thing I learned about Georgia is that the state subsidizes, to the tune of 5 grand, the purchase of an electric Nissan Leaf, and there are free charging stations in most of the parking lots and garages. Guess what the most frequent car was on the congested highways of Atlanta? I saw more Leafs than anything else.
I ended the day just outside Atlanta with the Mushroom Club of Georgia at their first monthly meeting of 2015. The gathering of 80 folks from places as far as Athens, GA was very receptive to the creative use of mushrooms for Ecovative’s packaging and engineered wood product lines. I was able to make lots of connections with people working in the fields of product safety, extended product responsibility legislation, sustainable Georgia, indirect sales, and economic development for the state. I just love being among my peeps.
- Sue Van Hook
]]>Back in September, I received an email from a graphic design student in Sao Paulo, Brazil. His name is Julio Glatt and he was interested in creating a book about biomimicry and life’s principles. Naturally, he envisioned creating the book out of sustainable materials, and he turned to Ecovative for help with this. He was hoping to create the cover and back of the book using Mushroom® Materials.
At the time, our Grow it Yourself (GIY) program was not an option yet, so I directed him to our webstore where he could purchase some of our sample materials. Julio ordered some Myco Foam tiles and when he found that they were thicker than he wanted for his project, he cut them to size, coated them with a transparent paper to give him the desired texture, and then sewed the whole book together. Look at how awesome it turned out!
You can see more pictures of the book and details of the project at: https://www.behance.net/gallery/22894191/BIOMIMETICA Ecovative receives at least a dozen emails each week from enthusiastic and motivated students that are interested in incorporating Mushroom® Materials into their projects. It’s inspiring for us to see how many students are motivated by sustainable design, and reminds us just how important our work of replacing toxic and unsustainable materials is. Stay tuned for more projects that we hope to share from the GIY program!
- Melissa Jacobsen
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