BOSTON, MA — Suffolk recently hosted its second annual Climate Tech Forum at its headquarters in Boston, Massachusetts. The event, co-hosted by Suffolk’s Sustainability Group and Suffolk Technologies, convened construction industry leaders, climate tech startup founders, investors, and institutional partners to explore practical strategies and real-world case studies for accelerating sustainable innovation across the built environment.
This year’s forum focused on achieving climate technology adoption through three high-impact areas: energy and grid readiness, building performance, and materials innovation. By bringing together key stakeholders, the event aims to identify, test, and scale solutions that can reduce emissions, strengthen resilience, and improve outcomes to transform the industry. Breakout discussions highlighted how technologies can move from pilot to scaled implementation while supporting constructability and operational efficiency.
“The unprecedented interest in this year’s forum reflects how urgently the industry is looking for practical, scalable climate solutions,” said Steven Burke, Senior Director of Sustainability at Suffolk. “At Suffolk, we have the opportunity to help connect innovation with implementation, and we designed this convening to focus on the areas where we see the greatest potential for impact. Bringing together the right stakeholders helps create clearer pathways to pilot, evaluate, and scale technologies that can make a tangible difference.”
Heather Henriksen, Chief Sustainability Officer at Harvard University, delivered the keynote address and emphasized that higher education can serve as a testing ground for practical solutions that can be piloted, evaluated, and scaled across complex portfolios. Suffolk also highlighted its broader sustainability footprint, noting that the company ranks among the country’s top green contractors and that 67 percent of its revenue last year incorporated advanced efficiency measures and green technologies beyond standard requirements. Through Suffolk Technologies, the venture capital affiliate of Suffolk that invests in early-stage built world startups, the company has backed more than 60 startups since 2019, several of which presented at the forum.
“The next generation of climate solutions will come from founders rethinking how the built world performs at every level,” said Jonson Berman, Vice President, Investments and Sustainability Lead at Suffolk Technologies. “Our role is to identify those breakthroughs early and bring them into the mainstream by pairing investment with real-world application and industry collaboration. Events like this are one way we help catalyze that broader ecosystem and accelerate the path from innovation to adoption.”
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Participating companies that pitched their ideas included Thalo Labs, Transaera, AeroShield, Prometheus Materials, Ouros Materials, Infinite Recycled Technologies, Dig Energy, Radiant Nuclear, and Luminous, showcasing solutions across building performance, low-carbon materials, circularity, geothermal, portable power, and solar robotics. Presentations focused on practical applications that can reduce emissions, improve efficiency, and help accelerate adoption across the built environment. The forum also featured case studies focused on implementation, including a planned geothermal pilot at Suffolk’s own Boston headquarters.
