NORTH ADAMS, Mass. —Finalists have been selected for Lever's Berkshire Sustainability Challenge. 

 

Each of these selected finalists will receive a $3,500 scholarship provided by MassCEC, and during Lever's final pitch event on Dec. 3 an expert panel will award a $20,000 Lever Innovation Grant to a high-potential clean energy startup.

 

Over the next few weeks, these business owners will work with Lever to refine their business plans and goals. 

 

This Challenge is supported by the Massachusetts Clean Energy Center (MassCEC).  

 

"MassCEC is pleased to support these next-generation sustainability projects and companies in partnership with Lever," said MassCEC CEO Stephen Pike. "This challenge provides an opportunity to advance the development of small businesses providing solutions that aim to support the Commonwealth's climate goals."

 

Berkshire Sustainability Challenge Finalists

 

Arc Industries

ARC Industries designs and manufactures rooftop-mounted vertical axis wind turbines. The new cutting-edge turbine design addresses the many issues that have traditionally plagued small wind turbines. It is Arc Industries' mission to make renewable energy affordable and accessible to everyone. 

 

SolaBlock

SolaBlock is a Vertical Solar Company that works with our customers to design renewable energy solutions using its Solar Masonry Unit (SMU).

 

Gencores, Inc.

Gencores, Inc. unlocks low-cost and scalable production of ultra-high-performance foam cores. Enabling radical improvement in core performance and manufacturability, Gencores enables high volume manufacturing of structural composites and OEMs to shed 900lb of steel per vehicle, increasing efficiency by 40 percent in the next decade.

 

Emerald Energy

Emerald Energy is equipping the next generation of climate tech workers using online education. Emerald uses primarily online education (and some in-person learning when necessary) to train blue-collar heat pumps and EVs technicians and will expand into the wind and solar sector as the company scales.

 

Sol Clarity

Sol Clarity helps increase solar panel output while saving water, manual labor, and time. SolClarity provides an environmentally conscious cleaning method for solar collectors through the electrodynamic screens (EDS) as overlays for solar panels that use electric fields to automatically remove dust and restore the energy yield/output power of solar panels without the need to wash the panels with water.

 

r-Stream

r-Steam's product is a compact hardware/software system (12ftx7ft footprint) that can sort high volumes of recyclables from trash by organizing a bulk deposit, conveying it, identifying it using machine vision and learning, then sorting it into the proper bin using controls for industrial automation