Nuveen, the $1.3 trillion investment management arm of New York-based financial services giant TIAA, has made a $30 million equity investment in Austin-based CleanPlanet’s recycling solution for industrial solvents. The machines, hundreds of which have been installed in packaging, coatings, automotive and chemical facilities globally, are tackling waste and emissions for “a true waste to value solution,” said Clean Planet’s Alex Richert. “Our technology can recover most solvents, transforming them into a perpetually reusable product that is both cost-effective and sustainable.”
Some solvents were banned under the Toxic Substances Control Act by the US Environmental Protection Agency in the final months of the Biden administration. Traditional solvent disposal methods, like incineration and chemical neutralization, are carbon-intensive; transporting them poses major environmental and health risks.
CleanPlanet’s machines, the size of large refrigerators, recycle industrial solvents into reusable, virgin-quality products onsite. “CleanPlanet offers a game-changing approach to industrial waste reduction that directly lines up with our investment thesis,” said Nuveen’s Ted Maa.
Hazardous waste management
Globally, more than 80% of solvents generated each year are disposed of rather than recycled, according to Ritchert. CleanPlanet plans to use the equity investment from Nuveen to scale up the onsite waste recycling technology.
On its website, the company promotes the recycling machines’ ability to track every drop of waste in a facility using more than 40 machine learning sensors. The recycling technology offers customers a day one cost saving of up to 50% with no capital expenditures, Richert said. CleanPlanet charges for its recycling services and repairing the machines.
Last year, CleanPlanet says it recycled more than 15 million pounds of solvent waste and saved customers millions of dollars, while avoiding over 32,000 metric tons of greenhouse gas emissions.
Climate justice
CleanPlanet is the fourth investment from Nuveen’s second Climate Inclusion Fund, which has secured roughly $150 million in commitments toward its $400 million target, according to a recent filing. Nuveen’s Rekha Unnithan says she is betting that “climate change and inequality, two of the biggest challenges the world faces, can be addressed by commercial businesses.”
Low-income and minority US neighborhoods are more likely to get exposed to environmental and health risks from toxic chemical waste leakage, often due to the locations of hazardous waste sites.
LPs in the climate inclusion fund include Velliv, a Danish pension fund.
