Carbon Clean has secured a prominent global recognition. Photo via CarbonClean.com

A United Kingdom-headquartered carbon capture business with a growing presence in Houston has received a distinguishing honor that recognizes climatetech leaders.

Carbon Clean, which has expanded to the United States by way of Houston, has received the Sustainable Markets Initiative 2023 Terra Carta Seal. The distinguishment recognizes global companies that are helping to create a nature-positive future for the climate. This is part of the Sustainable Markets Initiative’s larger mandate to help provide a framework to accelerate the transition to a sustainable future by placing the planet and people first.

“The Sustainable Markets Initiative’s Terra Carta Seal recognises those companies which are taking great strides in delivering real-world outcomes," Jennifer Jordan-Saifi, CEO of Sustainable Markets Initiative, says in the release. "As we stand on the eve of COP28, public, private sector, and philanthropic actors will come together at the inaugural Business and Philanthropy Climate Forum to bridge the gap between ambition and action. It isexamples exemplified by the 2023 Terra Carta Seal winners that are helping to inspire and lead the way.”

The Terra Carta Seal was launched in 2021 during COP26 by His Majesty King Charles III when he was the Prince of Wales. An international panel of experts from the environmental, business, political and philanthropic worlds chose 17 global companies for the honor.

“We are honored to be recognized by the Sustainable Markets Initiative for our contribution to the global transition to net zero, “ says Aniruddha Sharma, chair and CEO of Carbon Clean, in a news release. “Carbon Clean’s mission is simple: to deliver cost-effective, space-saving, modular carbon capture technology, enabling hard-to-abate industries to decarbonise at scale.”

Carbon Clean aims to revolutionize industrial carbon capture with its CycloneCC, which solves large barriers to widespread adoption of industrial carbon capture: cost and space.The technology of CycloneCC will be key in the company’s goal to achieve net zero by 2050.

Carbon Clean develops carbon capture technology for customers such as cement producers, steelmakers, refineries, and waste-to-energy plants. The company bills its offering as the “world’s smallest industrial carbon capture technology.” CycloneCC can reduce the cost of carbon capture by as much as 50 percent with a footprint that’s 50 percent smaller than traditional carbon capture units, according to Carbon Clean. The UK company established its Houston location this year.

Last month, CycloneCC was selected by ADNOC for a carbon capture project at Fertiglobe’s plant located in the Ruways Industrial Complex, Abu Dhabi. The project is the first deployment of a 10 tonnes per day CycloneCC industrial unit.

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CultureMap Emails are Awesome

40+ climatetech startups join Greentown, including a dozen from Houston

green team

More than 40 climatetech startups joined the Greentown Labs Houston community in the second half of 2025. Twelve hail from the Bayou City.

The companies are among a group of nearly 70 that joined the climatetech incubator, which is co-located in Houston and Boston, in Q3 and Q4.

The new companies that have joined the Houston incubator specialize in a variety of clean energy applications, from green hydrogen-producing water-splitting cycles to drones that service wind turbines.

The local startups that joined Greentown Houston include:

  • Houston-based Wise Energie, which delivers turnkey microgrids that blend vertical-axis wind, solar PV, and battery storage into a single, silent system.
  • The Woodlands-based Resollant, which is developing compact, zero-emissions hydrogen and carbon reactors to provide low-cost, scalable clean hydrogen and high-purity carbon for the energy and manufacturing sectors.
  • Houston-based ClarityCastle, which designs and manufactures modular, soundproof work pods that replace traditional drywall construction with reusable, low-waste alternatives made from recycled materials.
  • Houston-based WattSto Energy, which manufactures vanadium redox flow batteries to deliver long-duration storage for both grid-scale projects and off-grid microgrids.
  • Houston-based AMPeers, which delivers advanced, high-temperature superconductors in the U.S. at a fraction of traditional costs.
  • Houston-based Biosimo, which is developing bio-based platform chemicals, pioneering sustainable chemistry for a healthier planet and economy.
  • Houston-based Ententia, which offers purpose-built, generative AI for industry.
  • Houston-based GeoKiln Energy Innovation, which is developing a new way to produce clean hydrogen by accelerating natural geologic reactions in iron-rich rock formations using precision electrical heating.
  • Houston-based Timbergrove, which builds AI and IoT solutions that connect and optimize assets—boosting visibility, safety, and efficiency.
  • Houston-based dataVediK, which combines energy-domain expertise with advanced machine learning and intelligent automation to empower organizations to achieve operational excellence and accelerate their sustainability goals.
  • Houston-based Resonant Thermal Systems, which uses a resonant energy-transfer (RET) system to extract critical minerals from industrial and natural brines without using membranes or grid electricity.
  • Houston-based Torres Orbital Mining (TOM),which develops autonomous excavation systems for extreme environments on Earth and the moon, enabling safe, data-driven resource recovery and laying the groundwork for sustainable off-world industry.

Other startups from around the world joined the Houston incubator in the same time period, including:

More than 100 startups joined Greentown this year, according to an end-of-year reflection shared by Greentown CEO Georgina Campbell Flatter.

Flatter joined Greentown in the top leadership role in February 2025. She succeeded former CEO and president Kevin Knobloch, who stepped down in July 2024.

"I moved back to the United States in March 2025 after six years overseas—2,000 miles, three children, and one very patient husband later. Over these months, I’ve had the chance to hear from the entrepreneurs, industry leaders, investors, and partners who make this community thrive. What I’ve experienced has left me brimming with urgent optimism for the future we’re building together," she said in the release.

According to Flatter, Greentown alumni raised more than $2 billion this year and created more than 3,000 jobs.

"Greentown startups and ecosystem leaders—from Boston, Houston, and beyond—are showing that we can move further and faster together. That we don’t have to choose between more energy or lower emissions, or between increasing sustainability and boosting profit. I call this the power of 'and,'" Flatter added. "We’re working for energy and climate, innovation and scale, legacy industry and startups, prosperity for people and planet. The 'and' is where possibility expands."

NRG makes latest partnership to grow virtual power plant

VPP partners

Houston-based NRG Energy recently announced a new long-term partnership with San Francisco-based Sunrun that aims to meet Texas’ surging energy demands and accelerate the adoption of home battery storage in Texas. The partnership also aligns with NRG’s goal of developing a 1-gigawatt virtual power plant by connecting thousands of decentralized energy sources by 2035.

Through the partnership, the companies will offer Texas residents home energy solutions that pair Sunrun’s solar-plus-storage systems with optimized rate plans and smart battery programming through Reliant, NRG’s retail electricity provider. As new customers enroll, their stored energy can be aggregated and dispatched to the ERCOT grid, according to a news release.

Additionally, Sunrun and NRG will work to create customer plans that aggregate and dispatch distributed power and provide electricity to Texas’ grid during peak periods.

“Texas is growing fast, and our electricity supply must keep pace,” Brad Bentley, executive vice president and president of NRG Consumer, said in the release. “By teaming up with Sunrun, we’re unlocking a new source of dispatchable, flexible energy while giving customers the opportunity to unlock value from their homes and contribute to a more resilient grid

Participating Reliant customers will be paid for sharing their stored solar energy through the partnership. Sunrun will be compensated for aggregating the stored capacity.

“This partnership demonstrates the scale and strength of Sunrun’s storage and solar distributed power plant assets,” Sunrun CEO Mary Powell added in the release. “We are delivering critical energy infrastructure that gives Texas families affordable, resilient power and builds a reliable, flexible power plant for the grid.”

In December, Reliant also teamed up with San Francisco tech company GoodLeap to bolster residential battery participation and accelerate the growth of NRG’s virtual power plant network in Texas.

In 2024, NRG partnered with California-based Renew Home to distribute hundreds of thousands of VPP-enabled smart thermostats by 2035 to help households manage and lower their energy costs. At the time, the company reported that its 1-gigawatt VPP would be able to provide energy to 200,000 homes during peak demand.