Techstars Sustainability Challenge winners to be announced and Nicole Systrom, Founder of The Sutro Energy Group and Board Member at Activate & Prime Coalition, to serve as keynote speaker.

BOULDER, Colo. -- Techstars, the worldwide network that helps entrepreneurs succeed, will hold its inaugural Sustainability Summit on April 15. Entrepreneurs, investors, corporations and global policymakers from around the globe will convene virtually to collaborate, share learnings and meet other like-minded entrepreneurs solving climate and sustainability challenges. 

Keynoting the event will be Nicole Systrom, founder of Sutro Energy and a board of directors member at Activate and Prime Coalition. In her roles, Systrom partners with philanthropists, investors and entrepreneurs on innovative solutions for climate change. Systrom has an impressive background in environmental science and has spent her career focused on climate solutions while working across philanthropy, investing and with prominent organizations on the front lines of science and engineering. Systrom will discuss climate and sustainability innovation, highlight what makes scaling technology in the space unique and how effective collaboration underpins it all. 

Techstars’ new CEO Maëlle Gavet will give her first address since joining the company in January. She will examine the critical role entrepreneurship plays in climate and sustainability..

During the summit, Techstars will announce the finalists of this year’s Techstars Sustainability Challenge. The Challenge solicited ideas from the most promising entrepreneurs, startups, inventors and entities that address tough supply chain sustainability needs. A panel of sustainability experts from Techstars and its partners — companies including ABN AMRO, Andlinger Center for Energy and the Environment at Princeton University, Cargill, Comcast NBCUniversal LIFT Labs, EG Group, Endeavor, Equinor, The Heritage Group, The Nature Conservancy, Semapa NEXT, Stanley Black & Decker, Temasek, QBE and wfuna — have reviewed submissions and finalists will be announced during the summit. Those finalists will move into a proof-of-concept with one of the Challenge partners.

The Sustainability Challenge is Techstars’ first effort dedicated to enabling climate and sustainability collaboration at scale. The Challenge identifies a specific problem and then kickstarts relationships among entrepreneurs, corporations, and subject matter experts to get ideas into pilot faster. Challenge Partners see collaborative efforts like this as critical to reducing the negative environmental impacts of supply chains and creating efficiencies that will drive long-term positive impacts for industries, markets and people around the world. 

“We want to see real solutions that address supply chain sustainability, specifically data and automation, materials and end of life impact,” said Cody Simms, Techstars senior vice president of climate and sustainability. “That requires activating proofs-of-concept at a more accelerated pace and we have a unique opportunity to do that through our global Sustainability Challenge. We’re excited to showcase our Challenge finalists, hear from a strong speaker lineup led by Nicole and Maëlle, and cultivate new relationships between Summit participants to kickstart collaboration at scale.” 

To register for the virtual Techstars Sustainability Summit free of charge, please click here.

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