materials made by mushroom

Materials Made from Mushrooms: Already Replacing Plastics! Ecovative was founded in 2007 by two RPI graduates, with nothing but a good idea. They saw a way to use fungal mycelium (mushroom "roots") as a self assembling glue to create strong, durable materials. Ecovative is now supplying fortune 500 companies with EcoCradle™ packaging, helping them replace Styrofoam and other petrochemical-based packaging foams. Comprised of locally sourced agricultural byproducts bonded together by mycelium, EcoCradle™ custom molded parts can be grown indoors in less than a week. The final materials have comparable performance to Styrofoam and other foamed plastics. In addition to packaging, these materials may be good for a variety of engineering applications. Key Take-Aways: Learn how Ecovative is literally growing replacements for Styrofoam and plastics Understand the need for transitioning to home compostable packaging Learn about the model of distributed manufacturing using varied regional feedstocks Speaker: Presented by Sam Harrington, Environmental Director, Design Engineer, Ecovative An Environmental Director and Design Engineer at Ecovative, Sam Harrington joined the company when it was a "bootstrapping start-up" in the basement of RPI's (Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute) business incubator program. Since then, he has been directly involved in developing the manufacturing system for EcoCradle™ packaging, taking the system from concept to implementation. He has also conducted extensive Life Cycle Assessments for grants from the National Science Foundation and the New York State Environmental Investment Program. An active member of the Sustainable Packaging Coalition, Harrington spends a lot of his free time hiking and mushroom hunting in the Adirondack mountains.