International Women’s Day: Amazon backs bioplastics company to curb plastic pollution and climate change

08 Mar 2023 --- Amazon has invested in bioplastics company Genecis through its Climate Pledge Fund as part of its commitment to support women climate tech entrepreneurs. On International Women’s Day 2023, we sit down with Genecis founder Luna Yu and head of Amazon’s Female Founder Initiative Phoebe Wang to discuss women in climate tech and the role of bioplastics in combating plastic pollution.

The Climate Pledge Fund, which invests in climate tech companies developing innovations that help address global warming, recently announced its Female Founder Initiative to invest US$50 million in women-founded and women-led climate tech companies.

Yu is the first woman CEO to receive investment support through the initiative. Genecis is also the fund’s first investment in a company directly addressing the use of fossil fuel-derived plastics. It uses organic waste like table food scraps to create a biodegradable bioplastic as an alternative to conventional plastic packaging.

Why are women underrepresented in packaging and climate tech, and why is it important that investors help propel women into impactful positions in these areas?
Yu: Unconscious bias and historical exclusion in STEM have created a talent pipeline problem that is being addressed today with targeted network, fundraising and educational programs geared toward closing the gender gap. This isn’t just an issue in STEM fields though – according to Pitchbook, women founders and their companies often receive a fraction of the venture capital funding – less than 3%. Genecis not only has a female founder, but we have a very diverse team advancing innovative biomaterials research and product development. You don’t get innovation by sticking to the status quo. Hiring more women in this field is only going to help us gain new perspectives. Climate change is a complex set of challenges – we need people with diverse backgrounds, viewpoints and ideas to help us reach ambitious climate goals. Yu says hiring more women will help bring new perspectives to tackle big challenges like climate change.

Wang: When it comes to seeking venture capital funding, women face more challenges compared to our male counterparts, and this is certainly true in climate tech. As Luna mentioned, women currently receive less than 3% of venture capital funding. Amazon is deeply committed to promoting gender equity, including closing the gender gap that exists for women in climate tech. We need many different perspectives to address such a massive problem as global warming. I hope, together, we can inspire young girls to really explore these disciplines early on and propel the future of female leadership in these fields. 

How can Genecis bioplastics help alleviate plastic pollution and climate change?
Yu: Traditional plastics are created using petroleum and a key source of pollution. Nearly 400 million metric tons of plastics are produced every year using fossil fuels, less than 10% of which get recycled, and more than half of which end up in landfills. Genecis’ bioplastics have the potential to help address this challenge by replacing plastic products with fully biodegradable options. PHA is naturally made by bacteria and is non-toxic to produce and use. When PHA products break down in the natural environment, if they aren’t collected via an organics collection system like composting, they are broken down by microorganisms like bacteria, fungi or algae that are able to use it as a source of carbon and energy.

How will Amazon and Genecis benefit from this partnership?
Wang: Amazon is evaluating ways to leverage Genesis’s technology. In the future, Genecis bioplastics could offer Amazon customers the opportunity to receive grocery and pharmacy items in packaging that is biodegradable and easily recyclable. The Climate Pledge Fund invests in companies like Genecis to help them scale, with the goal of also using their technologies to help decarbonize Amazon’s business. Examples of this work include Amazon Studios working with Moxion Power to replace diesel fuel generators with Moxion’s cleaner energy batteries on movie sets in Los Angeles, and Amazon Fresh selling Hippo Harvest’s low-water leafy greens to its online Fresh customers.Genecis converts food and agricultural waste into PHA to combat food waste and plastic pollution simultaneously.

Yu: Genecis is using this funding to scale its waste-to-PHA fermentation technology, including scaling its demonstration facility with StormFisher, and increasing PHA production via contract manufacturing, a capital-light scaling path common for biotechnologies.

To what extent does the US government support the emerging bioplastics industry?
Yu: The Break Free from Plastic Act was reintroduced to Congress in 2021. President Biden announced a National Biotech and Biomanufacturing Initiative in September 2022. In some states, including California, PHA is misclassified as a single-use plastic. While the bill correctly poses restrictions on single-use plastics and packaging, banning biodegradable options for single-use plastics restricts the development and manufacturing of biomaterials that are under development to solve the plastic pollution crisis.

How does Genecis’ bioplastic compare to petrochemical plastics in terms of functionality and cost?
Yu: As a waste-to-PHA technology company, our goal is to solve the related climate crises of food waste and plastic pollution with one circular economy solution: bioplastic made from organic waste. PHA is a naturally occurring polymer found in the cells of bacteria that can be used as a non-toxic and biodegradable replacement for oil-based polymers. Other PHA producers use food-source or food-competing feedstocks like soy or canola, which have a land, water and carbon footprint. Genecis uses existing food and agricultural wastes, lowering its environmental impact, valorizing waste streams and dropping the cost of PHA production. The bioplastics innovator will use Amazon’s funding to scale its waste-to-PHA fermentation tech.

Our PHA is also customizable. PHA tends to be hard and brittle, making it challenging to produce PHA-based products that have flexible or amorphous characteristics. Genecis, however, can finetune the PHA comonomer ratio, allowing it to design PHA-based products with a wider range of applications, including single-use plastics packaging, clothing and textiles, automotive interiors and medical tools.

Genecis works with corporate partners interested in creating more sustainable products and supply chains. We work with businesses to de-risk their transition to sustainable products by helping them incorporate biomaterials into new product designs so they can make a difference without sacrificing quality or profitability.

By Joshua Poole