The worldwide demand for wooden might develop by 54% between 2010 and 2050, in response to a research by the World Sources Institute. Whereas some constructing supplies like metal get persistently recycled again into the availability chain, wooden doesn’t. Cambium hopes to repair that.
Cambium seems to be to construct the availability chain that retains wooden from being wasted by connecting these with already-been-used wooden to the companies and folk that want it. Cambium co-founder and CEO Ben Christensen not too long ago instructed TechCrunch’s Discovered podcast that solely 5% to 10% of wooden will get reused presently, with most ending up in landfills or become mulch.
“We’re building a better value chain where you can use local material, you can use salvaged material, and all of that is connected through our technology,” Christensen mentioned. “So that’s what we do is we deliver carbon smart wood, locally salvaged wood, tracked on our technology, to large buyers to build buildings, to build furniture, to use any sort of thing that you use wood for. And we do that in a really efficient and cost-competitive way.”
Demand for extra sustainable wooden has been rising lately, Christensen mentioned, however earlier than Cambium there wasn’t a superb system to search out the recycled wooden. Cambium fixes that and extra, he mentioned. The corporate goes to companies with recycled wooden to promote and reveals them the demand for his or her merchandise whereas additionally promoting its software program that helps with stock administration and level of sale to those suppliers.
Cambium additionally helps patrons get higher visibility into the place their wooden is coming from and might additional cut back their carbon footprint by choosing an area vendor, Christensen mentioned.
“People like really, really want to buy this material, we’ve been really overwhelmed with demand there and that helps us get sourcing and volume onto the platform in order to go and meet that demand,” Christensen mentioned.
Christensen added that the corporate has benefited from a generational shift too as building corporations and other people in wood-related trades retire and the subsequent era of parents in these fields look to undertake expertise and be extra environmentally pleasant.
Cambium was based in 2019 and relies in Washington, D.C. The startup has raised greater than $8.5 million in funding from VCs together with The Alumni Fund, Gaingels and MaC Enterprise Capital, amongst others.