Building materials contribute significantly to greenhouse gas emissions, comprising nearly 11% of emissions within the real estate sector. To address this challenge, the construction industry is seeking innovative approaches to promote sustainability. In response, there is a growing demand for environmental disclosures from material manufacturers, including Environmental Product Declarations (EPDs). These declarations provide summaries of Life Cycle Analyses (LCAs), which offer verified assessments of a building material’s environmental impact. However, the manual creation of LCAs and EPDs is costly, complex, inaccurate, and time-consuming, typically taking 6-12 months.
Pathways, a New York-based climate AI startup, addresses this issue with its AI-enabled platform. The platform automates the creation of real-time LCAs and EPDs for material manufacturers, allowing for the automatic generation of EPDs by leveraging data from a customer’s IT infrastructure concerning raw materials inputs, transportation, and manufacturing processes.
Recently, Pathways secured $2.5 million in a pre-seed funding round led by Pi Labs and Zacua Ventures, notable investors who have previously backed sustainability startups like Concrete4Change. Other investors in this round include Blue Lion Global, Positive Ventures, Jetstream, Refashiond, Great Wave Ventures, and Anglet. Remarkably, the round was oversubscribed by an additional $1.5 million.
The funding will support Pathways in further developing its AI-driven sustainability platform, aimed at decarbonizing building materials and assisting manufacturers in measuring and minimizing emissions.
Pathways, founded in 2022 by Harvard alumni Leise Sandeman and Alex Cooper, offers a platform that simplifies the creation of product life cycle analyses for building materials manufacturers. This platform functions similarly to environmental nutrition facts for materials, measuring carbon and chemicals instead of calories and carbs.
Pathways’ AI-enabled technologies integrate across operations, aggregating supplier data to provide manufacturers with insights into environmental emissions impact. This facilitates product decarbonization by identifying emission hot spots, evaluating material lifetime trade-offs, and facilitating the creation of EPDs.
Notable among Pathways’ early customers is Stella-Jones, a leading provider of pressure-treated wood products in North America.
Leise Sandeman, Co-Founder of Pathways, expressed excitement about the company’s mission to help material manufacturers decarbonize and expand the data layer for sustainable construction by generating LCAs and EPDs across various product categories using their AI-enabled platform. The support from Pi Labs, Zacua Ventures, and other investors will accelerate their mission by allowing the company to expand its engineering and sales team.
Faisal Butt, Founder and Managing Partner of Pi Labs, emphasized the growth potential of Pathways, highlighting the company’s plans to expand beyond building materials into other product categories, including furniture. He expressed Pi Labs’ commitment to sustainability in the built environment and technology innovation.
Rhiannah Carver, Senior Director of Sustainability at Stella-Jones, emphasized the importance of sustainability for their business and expressed how innovative technologies like Pathways’ platform help them stay at the forefront of sustainability efforts by providing product-level life-cycle analysis and improving visibility into emissions and environmental impacts along their value chain.
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By Proptechbuzz
By Ravi Kumar