FEATURE
Fossil-Free PULLING IN NEARLY $50 MILLION A YEAR IN REVENUE, SD’S GENOMATICA IS HELPING BIG BRANDS MAKE PRODUCTS WITH FEWER
Genomatica specializes in “drop-in” materials, creating plant-based ingredients that can seamlessly replace fossil fuel–based materials in a company’s manufacturing process. Skincare brand Dermalogica, for example, utilizes Genomatica’s Brontide, a sustainably produced version of a petroleum-derived additive found in some products.
FOSSIL FUELS BY CLAIRE TRAGESER
After 10 years, Christophe Schilling was ready for his company, Genomatica, to pivot. He launched the brand in 1998 as a bioengineering PhD student at UC San Diego, with the original idea of using computer models to study metabolic engineering in single- cell organisms. But even with a decade of investment, he elected to change course. Instead of focusing on a small aspect of the metabolic process, Schilling wanted to use the computer-modeling techniques he’d developed to replicate the ingredients used in everyday things like soap and fabric. The reason? Ninety-six percent of those materials come from chemicals made using fossil fuels. They are one of the leading drivers of carbon emissions. His idea was to make manufacturing more
sustainable by substituting those products with industrial sugars like corn, sugar beet, and sugar cane—and to do it so effectively that the companies wouldn’t notice the difference in either their manufacturing process or their final products. At the time, other companies were using biotechnology to go after the emerging biofuels markets, but Schilling wanted his company to focus on the high- volume chemicals that make up our clothes, cleaning supplies, shampoos, even carpets. It looks like the right call. Today, the San Diego–based company boasts partnerships with everyone from Cargill to L’Oreal to Lululemon.
It’s all thanks to their innovative tech. Genomatica specializes in what they call “drop-in materials,” a product that can be “dropped in” to a company’s existing manufacturing process. “It shortens the
76 NOVEMBER 2023
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