Problem-free palm oil

Shara Ticku, C16 Biosciences CEO and Co-founder

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We're enabling consumers to buy the products they love without contributing to climate change.

C16 Biosciences combine nature and biotechnology to produce a clean oil that can be used in place of palm oil or other vegetable oils. They use fermentation – the same process used to make beer, cheese and bread – along with the latest technology to improve a yeast that produces oil.
Palm oil is in about half of the packaged products on supermarket shelves¹from Nutella to soap, and demand could triple by 2050 as the population increases². However, its production is contributing to habitat destruction and deforestation, which is responsible for billions of tons of CO2 each year^{3, 4}.
C16 say their technology could reduce the greenhouse gas footprint of oil production by up to 73% and clean up supply chains to avoid human rights violations that occur on many plantations.
They already have investment from Bill Gates's Breakthrough Energy Ventures, and grants from MIT, Harvard University, and the US Department of Energy.
C16 were runners-up in the Harvard President’s Innovation Challenge Award and received a $25,000 grant⁵.

¹Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil Fact Sheet (PDF)

²A Shared Vision, RSPO, June 2015 (PDF)

³Consumer Goods and Deforestation, Forest Trends, Sept 2014

⁴The Impacts of Oil Palm on Recent Deforestation and Biodiversity Loss, PLOS, July 2016

⁵The Harvard Gazette, May 2017

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