ImpactAlpha, February 23 — Building materials and construction account for 11% of annual global greenhouse gas emissions (operations represent an additional 28%).
Luxembourg-based Leko Labs aims to replace steel and concrete with sustainably-sourced wood in homes, apartment and office buildings, and industrial warehouses and data centers. Leko says its wood composite can build as tall as nearly 330 feet and that the insulated wooden walls can cut heating and cooling costs by up to 87%.
Leko’s $21 million Series A round was led by 2150, a European urban sustainability fund that looks for companies with potential to reduce carbon emissions by a gigaton per year. Leko is scaling up to supply real estate partners in Germany, the U.K. and the Nordics.
Already this year, Microsoft’s billion-dollar Climate Innovation Fund has backed Brooklyn-based BlocPower to retrofit old city buildings and Providence, R.I.-based Utilidata, which aims to digitize and decarbonize the electric grid.
