In 2022, we launched the fourth instalment of our AI for Social Impact programme series, AI for Sustainability, delivered in partnership with Micrhttps://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoft-for-startups/applicationosoft and the Met Office. 

This accelerator responded to a growing urgency: with only 41% of UK organisations on track to meet 2050 environmental targets, we saw a critical opportunity for AI to support a greener, more sustainable future.

The programme focused on three key environmental themes:

• Reducing carbon emissions and waste

• Preserving water

• Protecting ecosystems

10 ventures benefited from a four-month journey of intensive support, including workshops, seminars, and 1:1 mentoring across business development, climate science, technical innovation, and social impact measurement.

This programme is part of our long-standing collaboration with Microsoft, rooted in a shared belief that AI is most powerful when shaped by people who build the future they want to see.

Meet some of the ventures: 

• Materials Nexus is utilising AI to expedite the discovery of sustainable material alternatives.

• Reewild helps food and drink businesses to score and display the environmental impact of their products to consumers. 

• Treeconomy generates financial value from ecosystem services and natural capital, using an offset-as-a-service business model. 

• Seab Energy creates easy-to-install micro-power plants that turn food and bio-wastes into heat, electricity, water and fertiliser. 

• Modulous creates a globally scalable model for the design and delivery of homes that are sustainable, cost-effective and promote wellbeing for residents.