Industry
Industrial manufacturing accounts for more than 20 percent of the global carbon footprint, and it is a challenging sector to decarbonize. The transition to sustainable industries requires reinventing how everything is made, from steel and concrete to plastics and chemicals. This flagship destination aims to seed innovation and develop partnerships to scale technologies that will transform industries of the future.
Accelerator contacts
Recent news
2025 projects
Eight dynamic industry projects were awarded funding in May 2025. Focusing on process and material innovations that promise to boost industrial productivity while significantly reducing emissions, these projects span critical industrial segments, including, but not limited to, steel, chemicals, and cement. These projects will seed innovations that are needed to scale the sustainable industries of the future and reduce gigatons of greenhouse gas emissions per year.
Designing battery circularity: Co-design of pyrometallurgy and hydrometallurgy processes
Digitally designed, micro-architected carbon- and ceramic-based materials for sustainable systems
Elucidating the multiphysical properties of mycelium biocomposite foams for scalable, energy-efficient thermal insulation
Making sustainable plastics more competitive by improving their performance
Phlego cement: sustainable innovation, seamless integration
Stanford’s role de-risking zero-emissions steel production
Techno-economic assessment and performance optimization of electrochemical lithium extraction from brines
Transforming materials processing with atmospheric pressure plasmas: A path to sustainability
Previously funded projects
In 2022, the Stanford Sustainability Accelerator funded 31 research teams. Several of these multidisciplinary projects advanced sustainability solutions in the area of Industry.
Catalyst technology for scalable and high-efficiency power-to-liquid fuel systems
Electrified carbon dioxide utilization for syngas production with high frequency induction-powered reactors
Establishing Stanford’s place in the carbon-zero steelmaking economy
Refining a technology to reduce black carbon emissions from South Asian brick kilns
Use of carbon dioxide as a solvent and water replacement for “dry” manufacturing in the microelectronics, industrials and pharmaceuticals processing industries
