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Articles by Sunena Gupta
Prioritization Is the Product: Where Vegetation Management Is Heading
Utility vegetation management has run for decades on a slow detect-and-react cycle: calendar-based trim schedules, visual foot patrols, and expensive, weather-dependent light detection and ranging (LiDAR) flights. That model assumes trees grow and die at predictable rates. Extreme and erratic weather is breaking that assumption, and it is the main reason utilities are moving from periodic inspection toward continuous monitoring based on artificial intelligence (AI).
When a Weather-Modification Start-Up Raises $100M, We Have to Ask Where It Works
Sunena is an Associate, Resources & Environmental Management at Cleantech Group and is based in the U.S. She is focused on emerging innovation and trends across all cleantech sectors. Prior to joining Cleantech Group, Sunena’s roles involved working on renewable energy projects and economic research. Sunena earned her Master’s in Public Policy from the University of Chicago Harris School of Public Policy, and her Bachelor’s in Political Economy from the University of California, Berkeley.
The Climate Adaptation Market Has a Data Glut, Not a Data Gap
At Cleantech Group, we track hundreds of adaptation and resilience innovators across wildfire, flood, extreme heat, and earth observation, and score them against the same criteria: how novel the underlying technology is, how competitive the costs are, and how much real-world impact and potential to scale it delivers. A pattern has become hard to ignore in that work. The companies pulling ahead on adoption aren’t always the ones with the most advanced sensing.
Climate Adaptation’s Summer of Exits: Atmo, First Street, AiDash
Three deals in five weeks, roughly $540M combined. Individually, none of these would have reshaped how the market talks about climate adaptation. Together, they do something that adaptation advocacy has not managed yet: they give the sector a price. Climate Adaptation has spent most of its life as decarbonization’s supporting act, a category investors nodded at but rarely underwrote at scale. These three deals argue otherwise.
Spain Won the World Cup, Beating the Heat by 2030 Is Another Match
Sunena is an Associate, Resources & Environmental Management at Cleantech Group and is based in the U.S. She is focused on emerging innovation and trends across all cleantech sectors. Prior to joining Cleantech Group, Sunena’s roles involved working on renewable energy projects and economic research. Sunena earned her Master’s in Public Policy from the University of Chicago Harris School of Public Policy, and her Bachelor’s in Political Economy from the University of California, Berkeley.
The Forecast Revolution: How Innovation Is Disrupting the Weather Industry
Weather forecasting has typically been the domain of national meteorological agencies running physics-based models. Today, that paradigm is being upended by a wave of technological innovation, as AI, satellite mini-constellations, and low-cost sensor networks are reshaping how forecasts are made, who makes them, and who pays for them.
Green is the New Gold: Smarter, Cleaner Mining
In Part 1, we explored how AI is revolutionizing mineral discovery by making exploration faster, cheaper, and more precise. Now, we turn to what happens after the discovery: how AI and digital tools are transforming mining operations themselves into smarter, safer, and more sustainable processes. From Discovery to Delivery: Operations Need Innovation Too Finding minerals is just the beginning.
Rock Solid AI: How Digital Tools Are Unearthing a New Era of Mining Exploration
Cleantech Insights, Resources & Environmental Management | 07 July 2025 Why Mineral Exploration Needs a Rethink The world needs vast amounts of critical minerals like copper, nickel, and lithium to build electric vehicles, renewable energy infrastructure, and data centers. But the easy-to-find deposits are mostly depleted, and discovery rates for new mineral deposits have plummeted by ~75% in the last decade.
Fusion’s Inflection Point: Why Asia Is Getting Serious About the Next Great Energy Source
It’s a running joke in energy circles that fusion is always 20 years away. But as we heard at Cleantech Forum Asia, that joke no longer lands. Quietly and rapidly, fusion is transitioning from a physics moonshot to an engineering race—where companies are trading scientific hypotheses for hardware, milestones, and power plant roadmaps. What’s changed? The Asia-Pacific region, long a stronghold of fusion science, is beginning to lead in fusion commercialization.
Highlights from Making Waves: The Future of Water Innovation
We recently hosted the “Making Waves: The Future of Water Innovation” webinar, featuring insights from Sunena Gupta and Parker Bovée of Cleantech Group, Steve Kloos, Partner at Burnt Island Ventures (a water-focused venture capital firm), and Devesh Bharadwaj, CEO of Pani (a water technology company). The discussion dove deep into the dynamic world of water and wastewater technology, revealing exciting trends, pressing challenges, and significant opportunities for innovation and investment.
Great Lakes, Greater Innovation: The Midwest’s Water Tech Momentum
At a time when clean water is increasingly becoming a precious resource, Chicago Water Week spotlighted the technologies, strategies, and start-ups shaping the future of sustainable water management. From quantum sensing systems to regional innovation engines, the week’s conversations pointed to one clear reality: water tech is no longer niche, but rather foundational to climate resilience, economic development, and industrial competitiveness.
Eyes in the Sky: How Earth Observation is Revolutionizing Climate Action
Adaptation & Resilience, Cleantech Insights, Resources & Environmental Management | 02 April 2025 Once the exclusive domain of governments and defense agencies, Earth Observation (EO) is now a vital tool for industries tackling climate risks, supply chain management, and regulatory compliance. As climate change accelerates and global regulations tighten, EO technology is transforming how we monitor and respond to environmental challenges.
It’s Getting Hot in Here: Climate Resilient Infrastructure to Combat Urban Heat Island Effect
As global temperatures continue to rise, cities are becoming increasingly vulnerable to the Urban Heat Island (UHI) effect, where urban areas experience significantly higher temperatures than their rural surroundings. This occurs due to the extensive use of heat-absorbing materials and surfaces in buildings, roads, and pavements, which trap and radiate heat. estimates that deaths from extreme heat could rise by 50% by 2050, emphasizing the urgent need for innovative solutions.
The Future of Food Traceability: Cleantech Innovations
The food industry is under immense pressure to balance consumer demand for transparency, regulatory compliance, and the fight against food fraud. As global supply chains expand, so do their vulnerabilities, with food fraud alone costing the industry over $50B annually. However, innovative cleantech solutions are reshaping the way we trace food from farm to table, offering new potential for traceability solutions in a market mostly dominated by incumbents such as IBM and Nestlé.
Taking A Byte of Transparency: The Tech Behind Agri-Food Traceability
As consumers demand more transparency around the safety and sustainability of the food they consume, governments are responding with stricter rules. A flurry of recent regulation, including the U.S. Food Safety Modernization Act (FSMA) and the EU Deforestation Regulation (EUDR), is pushing agri-food producers to implement more robust traceability systems. To achieve this, they are turning to cutting-edge technologies.
Digital Tools Accelerate Materials Discovery
Cleantech Insights, Materials & Chemicals | 15 August 2024 We have the privilege of overabundance of data and big data from a combination of research institutions, company projects, field experiments, etc. The challenge now: how do we process and translate this data into real-world applications to discover new materials? We can’t expect to find the next-generation of materials the way we discovered penicillin—by chance. In 2022, the total revenue of the global chemicals industry topped $5.72T.
Recent Deals - 13 August 2024
Agrovision (2017) develops technology that combines genetics and data analysis to streamline farming operations and grow superfruits. Currently, Agrovision operates berry brand Fruitist, which is made available by global retailers across Europe, the UK, U.S., Asia and the Middle East. Its other brand, Big Skye, focuses on China.
The Electrolyzer Ecosystem: Disruptive Innovations from Advanced Ionics and Newtrace
The electrolyzer market, crucial for the production of green hydrogen, has traditionally been dominated by four main types: Alkaline (AEL) Proton Exchange Membrane (PEM) Anion Exchange Membrane (AEM), and to some extent, Solid Oxide Electrolyzer Cells (SOEC) While these technologies have been pivotal in the growth of hydrogen production, there has been an emergence of start-ups pioneering innovative approaches that address the inherent limitations of these traditional systems.
High Efficiency, High Costs: Is There Space for Solid Oxide Electrolyzers in the Hydrogen Industry?
Solid oxide electrolyzers (SOECs) are emerging to be a hot topic in the world of energy. They use a solid ceramic material to split water into hydrogen and oxygen at extremely high temperatures (600°C to 850°C). Due to the high operating temperature, they are also highly efficient, hitting energy efficiency levels between 80-100%.
The Future of E-bikes, Capital Opportunities and Challenges, and Incoming Innovation
Urban populations are growing across the globe, and as population density increases so does the need for practical, efficient, and climate-friendly personal mobility. Urban transport accounts for approximately 25% of cities’ GHG emissions and is a major contributor to air pollution.
Recent Deals - 16 July 2024
Agriculture & Food, Cleantech Insights, Energy & Power, Materials & Chemicals, Recent Deals, Resources & Environmental Management, Transportation & Logistics, Waste & Recycling | 16 July 2024 Feedstock derived SAF, polystyrene recycling, and a milestone round for Indonesian renewable energy: Recent Deals worth looking at NovoNutrients (2017) is a developer of technology that transforms CO2 into protein products.
We’re Going Underground: New Advent for Geothermal Drilling
Cleantech Insights, Energy & Power | 10 July 2024 It has been a pivotal year for the geothermal sector. Innovator Fervo Energy demonstrated a 70% reduction in drilling time at its campaign in Utah, a significant breakthrough for the industry that has been mainly held back by high project risks and high drilling costs.
Nicole Cerulli and Sunena Gupta, Author at Cleantech Group
4 minute read Maritime shipping is a key stage of the global freight supply chain, transporting between 80% and 90% of global freight. It is also…
Ports: Kingmakers of Maritime Shipping Decarbonization
Maritime shipping is a key stage of the global freight supply chain, transporting between 80% and 90% of global freight. It is also a critical target for decarbonization, responsible for 3% of global greenhouse gas emissions. This could rise up to 17% of global emissions by 2050, as maritime traffic is projected to increase by 240% — 1,200% by 2050.
Innovation Takes Fight With Sustainable Aviation Fuels
In 2022, the aviation industry accounted for 2% of global CO2 emissions, drawing attention to the industry’s significantly faster rate of emissions growth compared to rail, road, or shipping. As the aviation industry grows exponentially, the pressure is on for country and industry leads to put in place net-zero aviation goals, with the largest opportunity for reduction being via the scaling up of Sustainable Aviation Fuels (SAF).
Recent Deals - 17 October 2023
Sustainable packaging derived from seaweed; reusable spacecrafts, an all-electric seaglider – Recent deals worth looking at: Umiami (2019) is a developer of plant-based protein products, focused on whole cuts and is known for their unique protein texturing technology called Umisation. Umiami’s additional Series A funding round raised $34M by October 3rd.
Smart Waste Collection
The world generates 2.1 billion tons of municipal solid waste annually, and this amount is expected to increase by 70% in the next 30 years as the world’s population and urbanization grow exponentially. The status quo of waste collection includes trucks with predetermined routes that are proving to be inefficient in dealing with increasing waste generation.
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