4 minutes… Mark Herrema. Co-founder and CEO, Newlight Technologies

Tell us about your company and it’s role in the Advanced Bioeconomy.

Newlight is harnessing methane-based carbon emissions as a resource to replace oil and reduce the cost of plastics production–fundamentally changing both the economics and environmental impact of the plastics industry.

Tell us about your role and what you are focused on in the next 12 months.

Newlight was founded in 2003. Last year, 2013, was a breakthrough year for Newlight. After a decade of research and development, which included a technology breakthrough increasing biocatalyst yield by 9 times over previous technologies, Newlight successfully scaled up to commercial scale at a four-story manufacturing facility in California, converting methane emissions into high-performance AirCarbon plastic. Since scale-up, Newlight’s sales volume has increased dramatically; today, Newlight is working with over 60 Fortune 500 companies across 9 major market segments to launch AirCarbon products. AirCarbon’s value proposition is unique in the market: harnessing methane-based carbon emissions as a resource to displace oil and reduce the cost of plastics. Newlight’s focus today is expanding production capacity, and the company is currently working to expand to 50 million pounds per year capacity to meet demand.

What do you feel are the most important milestones the industry must achieve in the next 5 years?  

Global scale profitability.

What’s the biggest lesson you ever learned during a period of adversity?  

10 years to commercial scale up teaches lessons in adversity.

The most important: never give up.

Adapt, improve, challenge, change, but never give up.

Always believe you can find a way, and never give up.