Earth Day Spotlight: Missouri’s CoverCress Leads the Way in Greentech
- April 22, 2024
CoverCress Named TIME Magazine’s America’s Top GreenTech Companies, Bloomberg New Energy Finance (BNEF) Pioneers 2024 Winner
CoverCress, a St. Louis-based agtech firm in pursuit of a renewable and sustainable energy sources for fuel and feed, is proving to be a leader in the green-technology sector. Through advanced breeding and gene editing, CoverCress developed the eponymous CoverCress®, a weed that when used as cover-crop mitigates soil erosion, improves soil health, and reduces water and nutrient movement while sequestering carbon and preventing organic soil carbon loss.
Out of 250 companies that made TIME magazine’s America’s Top GreenTech Companies, CoverCress landed at number 34. Nominees were evaluated on environmental impact, financial health, and innovation. According to TIME, Greentech companies leverage innovation and new business models to curb greenhouse-gas emissions, displace unsustainable materials, and reduce the demand for non-renewable natural resources.
The climate-smart company was also named a Bloomberg New Energy Finance (BNEF) Pioneers 2024 winner. According to BNEF’s Climate-Tech Companies to Watch in 2024: BNEF Pioneers, CoverCress® has a very low carbon intensity and creates a new revenue stream for farmers and two co-products: oil and meal. CoverCress was one of four U.S. companies to make the list and was honored in the category of “Creating the Next Generation of Net-Zero Fuels.”
St. Louis is emerging as one of the USA’s best locations for an agtech company with institutions like the Danforth Plant Science Center and world-renowned innovation centers driving research, collaboration, and innovation in agriculture. The city also offers a lower cost of living compared to coastal tech hubs and an excellent workforce. CoverCress is one of the seven anchor institutions at St. Louis’ leading agri-food tech and plant science hub, 39 North.