What’s happening? Next year, New Belgium Brewing will swap out one of the four natural-gas-powered boilers at its main brewing facility in Fort Collins, Colorado, for an electrified version designed to cut greenhouse-gas emissions. The pilot boiler system was developed by AtmosZero, a startup also based in Fort Collins and coming out of stealth today.
Why it’s important: Heat production from industry may account for around 10% of global carbon dioxide pollution. The sector relies heavily on steam to transfer heat, sterilize equipment and goods, and separate chemicals. New Belgium Brewing is working with startup AtmosZero to use heat pump technology, which can be far more efficient than the kinds of boilers the sector generally uses.
But… The company’s products may struggle to compete against the very low cost of natural-gas-fueled boilers in some markets. Read the full story.
—James Temple
This app is helping workers reclaim millions in lost wages
Reclamo, a new web app, helps immigrant workers who have experienced wage theft. It guides them through assembling case details, and ultimately produces finished legal claims that can be filed instantly. A process that would otherwise take multiple meetings with an attorney can now be done within an hour.
A significant amount of wage theft targets immigrants, both legal and undocumented, in part because of communication barriers and their perceived lack of power or legal recourse. But the app is already making a difference—helping workers to reclaim $1 million in lost wages since it started beta testing in October last year. Read the full story.
—Patrick Sisson