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#Greentown10: A Look at Greentown’s Biggest Annual Event Throughout the Years

Every day, there is magic happening at Greentown Labs—from scientists and engineers developing groundbreaking climatetech innovations in our labs to entrepreneurs making impactful connections with each other over coffee. And for one day a year, we open up our lab doors so that you can see the climate action that’s at work here year-round.

#Greentown10 is a celebration of the startups, partners, ecosystem collaborators, and other climate champions who have worked together over Greentown’s first decade. This month, we’re spotlighting our annual DEMO Day event, which in 2020 evolved into the Greentown Labs Climatetech Summit.

We held our first DEMO Day in 2013, two years after Greentown’s founding. Throughout the years, DEMO Day grew into an event that featured lab tours, dynamic speaking programs featuring industry leaders and elected officials, popcorn pitches from our members, and, most crucially, opportunities for the entire climatetech and cleantech ecosystem to connect with our startups. We regularly announced big news at the event, from our in-state expansion to our members’ product launches.

In 2020, we took DEMO Day to the next level. The first-ever Greentown Labs Climatetech Summit introduced what we see as the four pillars of climate action—technology, finance, policy, and justice—and featured programming on each, alongside extra opportunities to network with our startups, including our first investor speed networking. This virtual event drew more than 2,200 attendees from 30 countries around the world. 

This year, we can’t wait for the second annual Climatetech Summit, and hope you’ll join us on Nov. 4 at Greentown HQ, Greentown Houston, or via livestream. At this hybrid event, you will hear directly from Greentown’s entrepreneurs about the solutions they’re developing and what they need to bring them to market. You’ll also learn about key technology areas that are driving momentum to equitably tackle the climate crisis, and explore the plentiful opportunities for everyone to be a part of the energy transition that’s already unfolding. Register for the Greentown Labs Climatetech Summit 2021 here!

Check out DEMO Day and the Climatetech Summit throughout the years:

2013
Nov. 14, 2013
Nov. 14, 2013
  • After moving a few miles from Boston’s Seaport District to Somerville’s Union Square—nearly doubling the square footage of its incubator in the process—Greentown hosted its first-ever DEMO Day. The event included tours of the lab with introductions to our startups, refreshments, and a speaking program that featured Somerville Mayor Joseph A. Curtatone, Next Step Living Founder and CEO Geoff Chapin and Greentown CEO Emily Reichert.
  • The event was made possible by presenting partner Foley Hoag (one of Greentown’s longest-standing partners—read more here) and event partners Cleantech Open Northeast, ACTION New England, and Global Cleantech Meetup.
2014
Oct. 30, 2014
Oct. 30, 2014
  • The second annual DEMO Day featured company presentations held throughout the 33,000-square-foot Somerville, MA incubator. Guests had the opportunity to visit and explore the prototyping lab and meet with our 45 startups. The speaker lineup included Somerville Mayor Joseph A. Curtatone, Massachusetts Clean Energy Center then-CEO Alicia Barton, EnerNOC CEO Tim Healy, and Greentown CEO Emily Reichert.
  • The 2014 DEMO Day was hosted in partnership with Global Cleantech Meetup Week, which was organized by the Massachusetts Clean Energy Center and ACTION New England.
2015
Oct. 29, 2015
Oct. 29, 2015
  • We had big news to announce at the 2015 DEMO Day: an expansion to our current headquarters, 444 Somerville Ave. in Somerville, MA! The expansion would more than double Greentown’s size, creating a 100,000-square-foot campus with enough space for more than 100 climate-oriented startups. Read more about the expansion announcement here in the Boston Business Journal.
  • Massachusetts Governor Charlie Baker; Massachusetts Lt. Governor Karyn Polito; then-Massachusetts Secretary of Energy and Environmental Affairs Matthew Beaton; and Somerville Mayor Joseph A. Curtatone also toured the lab and met with entrepreneurs who shared their work and progress. Companies showcased their technologies, which included robotic railroad inspection systems, aquaponic systems for growing food in your home, the world’s first floating wind turbine, and more. Learn about two of these companies, Altaeros and RailPod, here and here.
  • The fourth annual DEMO Day was one of four connected events organized by Greentown and the Northeast Clean Energy Council (NECEC) on Oct. 29, 2015. The morning held NECEC’s Strategic Partner Network Emerging Markets Seminar and Lunch, which led into Greentown’s DEMO Day in the afternoon. The festivities wrapped up with NECEC’s annual Green Tie Gala.
  • Featured speakers:
  • Lead event partners:
    • Foley Hoag
    • Massachusetts Clean Energy Center
    • Northeast Clean Energy Council
    • Zipcar
2016
Oct. 26, 2016
Oct. 26, 2016
  • At the 2016 DEMO Day, we added popcorn pitches for the first time—an element we’ve kept ever since! Meet the startups that gave these lightning-quick pitches to the full DEMO Day audience:
    • AquaFresco, which develops a smart, localized wastewater solution.
    • Autonomous Marine Systems, a marine data-services company.
    • Grove, a startup reimagining the home as a living ecosystem.
    • Prime Lightworks, which builds electric propulsion systems for space satellites and spacecraft.
    • RISE Robotics, which partners with heavy machinery manufacturers to implement a fully electric movement platform as a replacement for hydraulic systems.
    • Silverside Detectors, which is building for the next generation of nuclear security.
    • Sparkplug Power, which builds, owns, and operates networks of distributed energy storage as a service for municipal utilities and commercial businesses.
    • Tagup, which has developed new machine learning methods and a software platform to predict industrial equipment failure, making physical infrastructure safer and more reliable.
    • Tank Utility, which is taking propane tank monitoring to a new level.
    • WrightGrid, which designs, engineers, and manufactures industrial-strength, point-of-use power products to enhance mobile connectivity.
  • Other featured speakers included Jonas Svedlund, then-General Counsel of GE Ventures, a former Greentown partner; Eric Graham, CEO and Co-founder of Greentown alum CrowdComfort; and Greentown CEO Emily Reichert. Graham and Greentown announced that CrowdComfort had signed on as Greentown’s first-ever member-turned-partner!
  • Zipcar and InTeahouse were the 2016 DEMO Day event partners. Read more about the event here!
2018
May 9, 2018
May 9, 2018
  • After taking a hiatus in 2017 while Greentown’s headquarters were under construction, DEMO Day returned in 2018 and doubled as the Grand Opening of Greentown HQ! We were thrilled to welcome the climatetech and cleantech ecosystem into our newest building, which incorporated technologies from many of our members and partners, including Saint-Gobain’s decoustic materials and SageGlass windows, CrowdComfort’s Human Sensor Network, and more. Read press coverage of the Grand Opening here and watch a video recap of the event here.
  • Startup popcorn pitches:
    • C16 Biosciences, which uses innovative processes found in nature to brew sustainable alternatives to palm oil.
    • Eden GeoTech, which develops sustainable geotechnical solutions for petroleum, geothermal, and water desalination applications.  
    • Green Gas USA, which captures agricultural methane through an anaerobic digester and converts it to fuel.
    • Heila Technologies, which has created a platform to connect distributed energy resources and create self-organizing and self-regulating microgrids.
    • Ivys Energy Solutions, which has created a hydrogen generation and dispensing appliance that uses water and electricity to produce high-purity, fuel-cell-grade hydrogen. 
    • Prime Lightworks, which develops electric propulsion systems for space satellites that are solar-powered, fully renewable, and consume zero fuel. 
    • PV Pure, which designs and deploys on-site solar powered purified water systems. 
    • Raptor Maps, which builds software that increases operation-wide efficiency, reduces costs, and mitigates risk for the solar industry. 
    • Tagup, which uses artificial intelligence to make the machines that power the world safer, more reliable, and more efficient. 
  • Featured speakers:
2019
June 7, 2019
June 7, 2019
  • There was plenty of news to announce at our 2019 DEMO Day! Two of our members launched their products: Ivys Energy Solutions unveiled the first SimpleFuel hydrogen refueling station in the Northeast at Greentown, and SparkCharge revealed its fully portable, ultra-fast, and modular electric vehicle charger. Additionally, we announced Saint-Gobain as the presenting partner of our headquarters’ Town Green event space.
  • We were honored to have U.S. Senator Edward J. Markey give the keynote address at the event. “Greentown Labs is proof positive that Massachusetts isn’t just the Bay State, we are the Brain State,” he said during his remarks. “Our economy, our environment, and our ability to combat climate change all flow from innovative solutions like those being developed at Greentown Labs.”
  • Other featured speakers included:
  • Startup popcorn pitches:
    • Agira Photonics, which designs optical films for superior light management. 
    • Heila Technologies, which has created a platform to connect distributed energy resources and create self-organizing and self-regulating microgrids.
    • Metalmark Innovations, which develops novel materials to break down air contaminants and improve energy efficiency. 
    • Medley Thermal, which has developed a dynamic electrification system that switches steam generation from fossil fuels to electricity at times when electricity is cheap and clean.
    • OffGridBox, which uses solar energy to purify water and distribute energy. 
    • Onvector, which provides industrial water treatment technology powered by lightning. 
    • Pecos Wind Power, which has created a wind turbine optimized for low-wind-speed power generation. 
    • SolarKal, which advises organizations looking to implement solar power. 
    • Tagup, which uses artificial intelligence to make the machines that power the world safer, more reliable, and more efficient. 
    • Titan Advanced Energy Solutions, which uses ultrasound to improve battery performance and health. 
    • Via Separations, which uses a novel membrane to eliminate 90 percent of the energy currently used in thermal separations.
  • Watch a recap of DEMO Day 2019 here or read one here.
2020
Nov. 4-5, 2020
Nov. 4-5, 2020
  • In 2020, DEMO Day evolved into the first-ever Greentown Labs Climatetech Summit—a virtual event that drew more than 2,200 climate champions from 30 countries. The summit brought the climate ecosystem together to engage across what we see as the pillars of climate action—technology, finance, policy, and justice—discover groundbreaking startups and their climatetech solutions, learn from industry experts, and forge the connections needed in order to take meaningful action on climate. 
  • And in another first, the Climatetech Summit featured not only Greentown HQ members; after announcing our planned expansion to Houston, TX earlier in 2020, we welcomed more than a dozen Greentown Houston Inaugural Members.
  • The Climatetech Summit’s speaking program included a Fireside Chat between Houston Mayor Sylvester Turner and Somerville Mayor Joseph Curtatone, moderated by Greentown CEO Emily Reichert, and remarks from Secretary of Massachusetts’ Executive Office of Energy and Environmental Affairs Kathleen A. Theoharides; VP Energy Industry at our partner Microsoft Darryl Willis; and Chief Supply Officer at our partner Unilever Marc Engel. We were thrilled to have Gina McCarthy, then-CEO of the Natural Resources Defense Council and former administrator of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, give the summit’s keynote address!
  • The summit featured lightning pitches from 27 startup members and gave a platform to an additional 27 featured speakers. Watch recordings of the sessions here and read 10 takeaways from the summit here!
2021
Nov. 4, 2021
Nov. 4, 2021
  • The 2021 Climatetech Summit will be a deep dive focused on empowering the technology of tomorrow. Climatetech entrepreneurs are developing the solutions that are the core of global decarbonization, yet they need support, cooperation, and collaboration from investors, policymakers, and the growing climatetech workforce in order to scale their critical technologies. The energy transition is here, and the climatetech ecosystem needs your involvement to keep the momentum going!
  • On Nov. 4, we’re inviting you, your colleagues, and all the climate champions in your life into our Somerville, MA and Houston, TX incubators for a day of hands-on exploration with our 180+ startups and their climatetech solutions; keynotes and sessions featuring leaders across climatetech, finance, policy, and justice; and networking with key climate action pioneers.
  • The summit will culminate with a celebration of Greentown’s first decade of impact. We’ll highlight the momentum our startups, partners, and ecosystem collaborators have been building together and how it will set the stage for the next decade of climate action.
  • Register here!