List Recognizes the Top Private Companies in Clean Technology
ST. CLAIR, Michigan – Jan. 26, 2015 – Kebony, the sustainable alternative to tropical hardwood, today announced it was named in the prestigious 2015 Global Cleantech 100, produced by Cleantech Group, whose mission is to connect corporates to sustainable innovation through its i3 Connect platform and global events.
The Global Cleantech 100 represents the most innovative and promising ideas in cleantech. Featuring companies that are best positioned to solve tomorrow’s clean technology challenges, Global Cleantech 100 is a comprehensive list of private companies with the highest potential to make the most significant market impact. This list is collated by combining proprietary Cleantech Group research data, with weighted qualitative judgments of hundreds of nominations, and specific inputs from a global 100-person Expert Panel. To qualify for the list, companies must be independent, for-profit, cleantech companies that are not listed on any major stock exchange.
This is the fifth time that Kebony has received this widely respected award, a testament to the company’s ongoing effort to providing a solution to the depletion of tropical hardwood which is reaching critical levels. Builders, architects and specifiers are increasingly turning to more sustainable options and Kebony has responded to these demands by expanding its product offer and distribution partners throughout Europe and the US. In addition the company is currently progressing plans to build a new factory in Belgium, having recently raised $20.7 million to fund a second European factory and increase capacity further, following many years of strong growth.
Developed in Norway, Kebony’s revolutionary technology is an environmentally friendly, patented process, which enhances the properties of sustainable softwood with a bio-based liquid. The process permanently modifies the wood cell walls giving Kebony premium, hardwood characteristics. The future for Kebony is full of potential as climate change rises up the political and corporate agenda. Kebony is centered on sustainability and indeed its product acts like a carbon ‘sink’ by locking in CO2 for seven times longer than untreated wood.
This year, a record number of nominations were received: 6,900 distinct companies from 60 countries. These companies were weighted and scored to create a short list of 323 companies. Short-listed nominees were reviewed by Cleantech Group’s Expert Panel, resulting in a finalised list of 100 companies from 17 countries.
The 100-member expert panel was drawn equally from leading financial investors and representatives of multi-national corporations and industrials active in technology and innovation scouting across Asia, Europe, and North America. The composition of the expert panel broadly represents the global cleantech community, from pioneers and leaders to veterans and new entrants. The diversity of panelists results in a list of companies that command an expansive base of respect and support from many important players within the global cleantech innovation ecosystem.
“The Global Cleantech 100 provides us with insight into the collective opinion of key market players on which megatrends and innovation companies are most likely to have a significant impact in the next 5-10 years,” said Michele Parad, Senior Manager at Cleantech Group and lead author of the Global Cleantech 100 Report. “Now in its 7th year, the Global Cleantech 100 program reveals which themes are staying relevant and which sectors are taking center stage.”
“We are thrilled with the announcement that Kebony has once again maintained its position for a fifth time on the prestigious Global Cleantech 100 list,” said Christian Jensen, CEO of Kebony. “This comes at a very important time for Kebony following the announcement that funding has been recently been secured enabling us to build a new factory in Belgium”
- The complete list of 100 companies was revealed on January 25th at Cleantech Forum San Francisco: http://events.cleantech.com/cleantech-forum-sf/
- For complete information on Kebony’s leadership within the cleantech space, access i3 by visiting i3connect.com—Cleantech Group’s leading market intelligence platform—and search for Kebony
- The list is accompanied by a full report with commentary and insight on the 2015 Global Cleantech 100—authored by Cleantech Group, powered by data from i3, and sponsored by Chubb. Download the report at: http://www.cleantech.com/indexes/global-cleantech-100/2015-global-cleantech-100/
- The complete list of Global Cleantech 100 expert panel members is available at http://www.cleantech.com/indexes/global-cleantech-100/expert-panelists/
About Cleantech Group
Founded in 2002, Cleantech Group’s mission is to accelerate sustainable innovation. Core to this mission is i3, an online platform that connects corporates with innovation, at scale, by allowing them to find, vet, and connect with start-ups—efficiently building an innovation pipeline. The i3 platform comes to life at our global Events, which convene corporates and start-ups, along with other players shaping the future of sustainable innovation.
Cleantech Group is headquartered in San Francisco and has offices in London.
For more information, visit; www.cleantech.com
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* Kebony Technology
The Kebony technology is a patented process which enhances the properties of non-durable wood species to give them similar characteristics to the best performing woods. Through a sustainable process wood species such as pines and some non-durable hardwoods are impregnated with a bio-based liquid derived from agricultural crop waste. With the addition of heat, the furfuryl polymer is permanently grafted into the wood cell wall, resulting in greatly improved durability and dimensional stability.
*Kebony Wood
Kebony is suitable for both internal and external applications that demand high performance and great aesthetics including: decking, flooring, cladding, roofing, windows, indoor and outdoor furniture. Over time Kebony acquires its characteristic silver-grey patina whilst not losing its performance characteristics. With improved durability and dimensional stability Kebony is becoming increasingly the choice of leading architects and developers enabling them to use wood in projects without causing environmental degradation. Kebony has been used internationally in projects from commercial, public, residential and marine, for example Hunter’s Point in New York, the Mary Rose museum and both residential and commercial buildings on the UK’s seafront. A study by Norwegian environmental consulting firm Bergfald & Co. demonstrated that Kebony has a substantially lower carbon footprint than its tropical hardwood equivalents.
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