September 8, 2025 in United States, Climate Innovation & Adaptation
Three startups fuse bio-innovation, storytelling, and design to reframe sustainability—not as tech alone, but as cultural and ecological transformation.
Climate change isn't just a technical problem. It's also a cultural one. What we value as a culture becomes policy, shapes our priorities, and fuels collective commitment. And while governments can set regulations and individuals can make lifestyle changes, neither can solve the crisis alone – we need corporations to take responsibility and actively partner in turning things around. The impact-creating startups redefining the next era of climate action aren’t only building greener tech – they’re rebuilding the stories we tell, the values we uphold, and the relationships we create that shape our world.
Three boundary-pushing startups – a biotech innovator turning food waste into plastic alternatives, an immersive design studio making sustainability emotional, and an inspired team working on wildfire prevention – are moving the needle, as part of the Sage Impact Entrepreneurship program by Village Capital with support from Sage Foundation. What ties them together isn’t just their shared climate mission. Their belief that real change means reshaping both systems and stories we live by, a belief that is palpable when you speak to them, as we did in this exclusive interview.
The climate crisis isn’t just a crisis of carbon – it’s a crisis of culture. While technology and policy are critical, research shows that up to 70% of climate solutions rely on behavioral and social change, not just engineering fixes, according to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). Yet most climate conversations get stuck in jargon and policy talk, leaving out the human stories, emotions, and values that truly shape our choices.
Food waste alone illustrates the scale of the disconnect. Roughly one-third of all food produced globally – approximately 1.3 billion tons – is wasted each year, generating nearly 10% of global greenhouse gas emissions (UNEP, 2021). But much of this waste doesn’t stem from scarcity or logistics – it comes from cultural habits, expectations, and norms that promote excess and undervalue resources.
Wildfires, too, are not only made worse by drought or heat. Wildfires can be worsened by long-standing land management practices and land grabs. As fire historian Stephen Pyne puts it, “We don’t have a fire problem – we have a people problem with fire.” To make climate action effective, we need to reshape the cultural narratives and relational systems that underpin these crises, not just patch them with new tools.
For Lance Adler, Founder of Witching Hour based in the US, climate solutions must go deeper than policy or profit – they must reconnect us with our desire to leave a mark on the world.
“I started my first business in high school, did the Amazon side hustle thing, but none of it felt meaningful,” Adler recalls. “When I looked into UN climate challenges, wildfire prevention stood out. That’s where Witching Hour began.”
Originally focused on drone-based wildfire detection, Adler’s team has shifted to insulating power cables in situ – a low-disruption alternative to massive infrastructure replacement. “We realized traditional solutions like undergrounding were slow and expensive. Our method requires fewer permits and gets results faster,” Adler explains. Their approach could help prevent utility-sparked wildfires – an increasingly deadly problem in the western US.
But Witching Hour is more than tech. It’s a cultural provocation. Through their work, they explore how storytelling can open up new ways of imagining technology, community, and care. “We use speculative fiction and mythology to challenge colonial and capitalist narratives,” Adler says. “We want to reclaim futures that aren’t driven solely by profit or extraction.”
Still in its research and development phase, the startup plans to begin field implementation in late 2025. In the meantime, Adler sees the work as part of a larger ethos: “Rapid detection was phase one in wildfire tech. Rapid suppression is next. But ultimately, we’re also about reconnecting with the land – through science and through story.”
For Mi Terro Founder Robert Luo, the question was simple but paradigm-shifting: “What if waste could be repurposed to fight another form of waste?”
Mi Terro transforms agricultural byproducts – like spent grain and spoiled milk – into biodegradable proteins that can replace conventional plastics. The science is sophisticated, involving molecular bio-polymer crosslinking and green chemistry, but the impact is clear: a material that dissolves in water, maintains the tactile feel of plastic, and protects products just as effectively.
“We had to innovate at the molecular level,” Luo explains. “Traditional protein-based materials are biodegradable but often lack mechanical strength or water resistance. Our proprietary process now allows us to produce materials that match or exceed the functionality of conventional plastics.”
The implications are massive. Mi Terro's materials have helped partners reduce packaging costs by over 30% and are already replacing petroleum-based plastics across sectors. Luo sees this as just the beginning: “Long term, we see Mi Terro as the bio-petrochemical alternative company that can reshape how materials are made and disposed of across industries.”
Ivan Zou never thought food waste reduction was a real issue – until university changed his perspective. “I almost always finished my food – and assumed everyone did too,” he says. But overflowing campus trash bins full of untouched meals told a different story.
Enter Raccoon Eyes, an experience design company that fuses AI, behavioral science, and narrative to food waste reduction and shift eating habits. Their platform gathers granular data on student consumption – down to which food gets left unfinished. Their friendly mascot, Rowdy the Raccoon, is a camera-equipped attachment that fits onto dining hall bins, making the process fun and accessible. It uses computer vision to scan discarded plate items and then works with kitchens to redesign menus that minimize waste.
“We’ve seen as much as a 34% decrease in food waste over a semester from better menus and student habits,” Zou notes. “It’s about feedback loops that inspire behavior change, not just guilt or rules.”
Zou also emphasizes the business case. “Dining services used to treat waste like a sunk cost. But wasted food is wasted labor and wasted money. When you track it, you see it’s an opportunity.”
From universities to elementary schools – where lunchrooms discard up to 100 unused milk cartons a day – Raccoon Eyes is creating a measurable impact while telling a bigger story: that sustainability can be joyful, personal, and embedded in everyday culture.
The work of Mi Terro, Raccoon Eyes, and Witching Hour shows us what’s possible when innovation begins with narrative. These startups prove that climate action isn’t just about what we build – it’s about what we believe, value, and imagine together. And that belief must be shared across sectors – with corporations stepping up alongside governments, communities, and individuals – because without their scale, resources, and influence, the cultural and systemic shifts we need won’t happen fast enough.
So here’s your invitation:
We don’t just need greener products or faster tech. We need new culture, new rituals, and bold impact startups. And every choice you make helps write that future.
These founders don’t just innovate – they narrate. Across disciplines, what unites Mi Terro, Raccoon Eyes, and Witching Hour is their commitment to merging science with story, infrastructure with imagination, and data with feeling.
They demonstrate that sustainability isn't only about better materials or smarter systems. It’s about transforming how we see ourselves, our waste, and our place in the world.
When impact-creating startups lead with culture, climate innovation doesn’t just scale – it resonates.
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