[Above: A sample-grown mushroom figure stands against one variety of Ecovative’s mushroom material. Photo by Stephen B. Nock]
Martha Winebarger, principal with [en-gage] solutions, is an advisory board member of InnoVision.
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Eben Bayer’s innovations combine sustainability with entrepreneurship
I don’t know about you, but I seem unable to be in a room filled with entrepreneurs and innovators and not look for common characteristics and qualities. I find myself wondering how these traits make a difference in their perspectives when identifying a disruptive solution to a problem, or even the next “great” idea.
My observations have led me to a list of common denominators that I believe that innovators and entrepreneurs possess, including: willingness to break or ignore the conventional rules that most of us follow; having a vision – and the passion and belief in the importance and value of that vision; being flexible and adaptive to the myriad challenges and possibilities that arise; being persistent despite repeated failures on the way to success; and finally, possessing an unbelievably high sense of confidence and belief in self.
The keynote speaker at our 15th annual InnoVision Technology Awards celebration in November was Eben Bayer, cofounder and CEO of Ecovative. Eben fits the bill as an innovator and entrepreneur. Eben grew up on his family’s farm in central Vermont, and for his first 18 years he studied agriculture and farming through hands-on learning. These experiences gave Eben a unique perspective on a wide range of subjects, including respect for the environment and healthy living, and while attending Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, he formed Ecovative with a friend and classmate, Gavin McIntyre.
In a campus building basement, Eben and Gavin created a mushroom-based insulation, originally called Greensulate – a compostable, affordable, eco-friendly replacement for petroleum-based foams, using farm waste that cannot be fed to animals.
At the time, Gavin and McIntyre believed their revolutionary, new manufacturing process, using mushroom “root” fibers to turn waste cellulose into a rigid biological resin, was destined to land the firm in the eco-friendly building business. They filed patents for the material and process while in the RPI business incubator, and went on to enter and win a $700,000 prize at the 2008 Postcode Lottery Green Challenge (the largest annual worldwide competition for sustainable entrepreneurs who can instigate change) for Greensulate.
A short time later, the innovators decided to turn their focus from creating eco-friendly building materials to creating eco-friendly packaging materials, using the same process. It was a risk that landed the company partnerships and contracts with Sealed Air Corporation, Dell, Crate and Barrel, and other Fortune 500 companies who are committed to sustainable packaging.
This past year, Ecovative has reopened the door to sustainable, high-performance building and construction applications. The company has come full circle, so to speak, to their original goal six years ago.
Eben shared the Ecovative Design story with over 240 guests who attended the recent InnoVision Awards Dinner. Every year, InnoVision’s advisory board seeks the “perfect” keynote speaker, who will inspire the audience as well as reaffirm and validate the sometimes frightening, often thrilling, surely at times frustrating, but always uniquely satisfying process of developing and retaining a profitable business through innovation, technological excellence and entrepreneurship.
South Carolina is a growing hotbed for innovators and entrepreneurial ventures of all kinds. For years, InnoVision has been a valued resource for many of these firms. Monthly InnoVision Forums provide inspiration, guidance, and often give a nudge to many to pursue one’s dreams and go for it.
This year, the advisory board is planning to host forums on topics including big data analytics, social design, leveraging the cloud, new product development, crowdfunding and Kickstarter projects, IT, and logistics, to name but a few. We welcome your ideas and suggestions for forum topics. Email info@innovision.org or contact Kate Ham at kham@mcnair.net to share your thoughts with us. We look forward to seeing you soon at an InnoVision Forum and at the 2014 InnoVision Technology Awards banquet.
