Urban Innovation Forum – food for thought?
This was my 2nd time visiting the Urban Innovation Forum in Berlin. In comparison with 2025, the attention shifted from climate innovation to innovations in general. Not all the startups that pitched emphasized their solutions as climate solutions. Also, the plastic folks, the single-use cups and dishes in the canteen, or the useless badges with my name (metallic hanger, paper wrapped in plastic, and the cotton string) all hinted at a certain selective approach when it comes to caring for the climate.
My climate anxiety could not stay silent on that; I had to shout it out before discussing what I actually fancied there. And honestly, I liked it more than I disliked it. I still had interesting encounters and met people who inspired me and brought real food for thought.
I particularly enjoyed the session with @BAM! Bock auf Morgen, run by Jan Pechmann and Kerrin Löhe. They raised the critical dilemma of climate morality vs. profitability, or “green washing” vs. “green cashing.” I loved their “binocular” metaphor, which challenges you to maintain a vision that keeps both in sight: the money and the care.
Kerrin even had a slide featuring Elon Musk, though she made sure to apologize and calm the audience down first! Let him be greedy for money, power, and popularity – why should we care if he has actually made an impact on the climate by disrupting the automotive sector with electric cars ? This is, of course, an endless debate that has shifted from purely economic to deeply political.
My self-reflection today after that discussion is that those who are tired -tried to apply circularity in the business and remain today more sceptical than enthusiastic, are more likely to shift from the ‘left’ wing to the being backed nowadays”central” wing; previously perfectionists on saving the planet and today applying selectivity in sustainability in order to keep businesses running.
I also really enjoyed the session with Rafael and Sharlene from the Museum of Mushrooms (today though only a concept). They allowed us to dive into the world of fungi, hear about the chance of creating materials replacing leather manufacture without harming animals and more. Science educated in the entertainment manner. It was so inspiring that I’m now keen to learn more. I’ve even gotten excited about the idea of growing a few on my own to see the cultivation process firsthand!
In case you like analysing case studies and business models like I do, here is a new list of my favourite startups from the pitch session with links you could connect with on LinkedIn as well:
Movolta (Hanno) on the cooling system for track refrigerators, using solar panels, thus solving the issue not only with the noise (which is a strong selling point I guess mostly in Germany), but reducing CO2 once your milk or cheese is delivered from place to place.
Fluxtech – on a data-center-waste-heat turning into electricity, John and Florian are the best to approach for exploring more.
Nanoloope – on turning buildings into batteries. The company page states that the phase change materials can store up to 14-times more energy than typical sensible heat storage systems by a simple phase transition from liquid to solid and vice versa.
CarboSlag (@Tunca Beril Basaran) – on converting steel industry slag into regenerative soil inputs, by the way first pitch and the winner of the audience as well.
Plances (Christopher Liebau and Tim Schröder)- on the operating system for green infrastructure, IoT system enabling efficiency in maintenance costs, water storage and making the urban places hopefully greener.
Orbisens – on on environmental monitoring by simplifying data collection. I am not sure how it works, but would like bring a quote from Nicolas Jalby here which I liked: who are very serious about software, should make hardware’. ‘
Dotch ( Veronika Phender ) – the reuse company with the focus on glass. Not all the glasses are returnable as we know. At the beginning it seemed to me no innovation, as bottle / glass collection already exists. However it seems the company shows a huge shift in the logistics system. It handles the complex logistics of getting those bottles back from retailers those that would be ‘split out’ from the machines before, namely oil or vinegar bottles are now finding a new hope on getting reused. So instead of melting glass at 1,500°C it manages the cleaning at 85°C. And here is the magic for the nature and business profitability in one place.