Dunrie Greiling's Blog

Across industries, there’s growing pressure to build systems that can keep up, from recovering materials to managing water.

Join us for a focused session with two perspectives on how that work is happening now.

George Mitri, Co-Founder and CEO of 2DaLoop, will cover what’s driving the rise in electronics waste and how manufacturers are rethinking reverse logistics and material recovery.

Brittany VanderBeek, Director of Development at AquaAction, will share how emerging companies are solving industry water challenges, with examples already delivering conservation and cost benefits.

Event Details

Coffee and networking from 8:00. Conversation starts at 8:30.

BrightWorks Coworking, 3027 Miller Road, Ann Arbor

Thanks Bill Crane for co-hosting these gatherings.

Register!

So grateful to Ann Arbor SPARK and the Green Business Challenge for their continued support of the Sustainable Innovation Meet Up.

More on this series here

The post From Waste to Value: How Closing the Electronics Loop Transforms Industry + Tapping Innovation in Water appeared first on Scientific Ink.

Ready to learn more about sustainable transportation in Ann Arbor? At our next session, Lilliane Webb, TDM-CP (TheRide / getDowntown), will share how these demand-side approaches are already influencing commuting patterns across Ann Arbor and Ypsilanti, and why that matters for emissions, congestion, and access.

We’ll also kick off this year’s #CommuterChallenge.

Event Details

Thursday, April 23 from 8:00 to 9:30 AM at Bamboo Ann Arbor, 200 S. 1st Street.

8:00–8:30 AM – Coffee and conversation

8:30–9:00 AM – Featured talk

9:00–9:30 AM – Q&A and more networking

Coffee and light breakfast provided.

Edit: Registration is now closed, hope to see you at an upcoming meetup!

Upcoming Events

Thanks Bill Crane for co-hosting these gatherings.

Hosted at Bamboo Ann Arbor with support from Ann Arbor SPARK and the Green Business Challenge.

More on this series here

The post Beyond EVs and Micromobility: Demand?Side Innovation for a Sustainable Transportation Future appeared first on Scientific Ink.

Renovation is often overlooked as a sustainability strategy. Yet reusing existing buildings can preserve greenfield land, reduce embodied carbon, and avoid the emissions associated with manufacturing new construction materials.

On Thursday, February 26, the Sustainable Innovation Meet Up will feature a conversation with Mark Smith of MI-HQ East, focused on how sustainability shows up in real renovation decisions. This session will explore the tradeoffs, constraints, and opportunities that emerge when adapting an existing structure to meet evolving needs.

MI-HQ East offers a particularly interesting lens because sustainability is not limited to the building itself. The team also salvages and reuses equipment and materials from other sites, helping reduce costs while limiting the carbon footprint associated with producing new goods. The result is a pragmatic, experience-driven approach to reuse that balances sustainability, profitability, and customer needs.

As with all Sustainable Innovation Meet Ups, the session will be interactive and discussion-oriented, with time for questions and conversation. The goal is to surface lessons attendees can apply in their own work, whether they are thinking about buildings, infrastructure, or other long-lived assets.

Event Details

February 26, 2026

8:00–8:30 AM – Coffee and conversation

8:30–9:00 AM – Featured talk

9:00–9:30 AM – Q&A and more networking

MI-HQ East, 300 W. Michigan Avenue, Ypsilanti

Coffee and light breakfast provided.

Register!

Thanks Bill Crane for co-hosting these gatherings.

So grateful to Ann Arbor SPARK and the Green Business Challenge for their continued support of the Sustainable Innovation Meet Up.

More on this series here

The post Sustainability Through Renovation: Lessons from the Ongoing Transformation of MI-HQ East appeared first on Scientific Ink.

UPDATE – POSTPONED UNTIL MARCH 26

Early-stage sustainable innovations face distinct challenges long before questions of scale arise. Moving from ideation and research into real-world use requires access to the right resources, partners, and pathways for adoption. In this session, Ashwathi Iyer will explore how innovators navigate this transition, drawing on concrete case studies that illustrate different models for commercialization and adoption by industry or community partners.

The discussion will highlight resources available to innovators, common barriers encountered at this early stage, and practical approaches to achieving real-world uptake. While some examples are specific to the University of Michigan, others draw from Ashwathi’s experience working in the social sector in India, with tools and lessons that apply broadly. The conversation will also surface potential touch points between university researchers and the Ann Arbor business and sustainability community, emphasizing collaboration, translation, and impact.

Event Details

Rescheduled to March 26 (originally January 22).
Cahoots Coworking, 206 E. Huron

8:00–8:30 AM – Coffee and conversation

8:30–9:00 AM – Featured talk

9:00–9:30 AM – Q&A and more networking

Register!

Thanks Bill Crane for co-hosting these gatherings.

So grateful to Ann Arbor SPARK and the Green Business Challenge for their continued support of the Sustainable Innovation Meet Up.

More on this series here

The post From Ideation to Impact: Commercializing Early-Stage Sustainable Innovation appeared first on Scientific Ink.

Founded by Kathy Sample and Bill Brinkerhoff, Argus set out to solve a simple but stubborn problem: how to make it easy for people to buy local food year-round, in a way that’s fair to farmers and convenient for customers.

In the ten years since opening their first café and market, Argus has become a beloved Ann Arbor institution — and a national model for strengthening local food economies. Through a mix of deep customer discovery, careful data tracking, and close partnerships with local producers, they’ve shown that a community-driven, farmer-first retail model can thrive.

At our November Sustainable Innovation Meet Up, Kathy Sample will share the Argus origin story and lessons learned along the way: what’s changed since launch, the challenges of scaling local food systems, and how Argus is helping others build their own “farm stops” across the country.

Event Details

8:00–8:30 AM – Coffee and conversation

8:30–9:00 AM – Featured talk

9:00–9:30 AM – Q&A and more networking

Join us to connect with local innovators and explore what it takes to build sustainable food systems that truly feed both people and place.

Register!

A big thank you to Bill Crane for his partnership in co-hosting these gatherings.

So grateful to Ann Arbor SPARK and the Green Business Challenge for their continued support of the Sustainable Innovation Meet Up.

The post Lessons from Argus Farm Stop: Building Sustainable Local Food Systems appeared first on Scientific Ink.

We’re excited to announce our next Sustainable Innovation Meet Up on Tuesday, October 21, from 8–9:30 AM at Cahoots.

This month’s theme is Designing for Impact: Sustainable Architecture, Urban Design, and Materials Innovation, featuring guest speaker Jen Maigret, Professor of Architecture and Director of Climate Futures at the University of Michigan’s Taubman College.

Jen is a registered architect whose teaching, research, and design practice explore how architecture can create more sustainable and resilient futures through climate-responsive buildings, equitable urban design, and innovative materials. We’re thrilled to learn from her perspective on how design choices ripple out to shape both people and planet.

Here’s our format:

8:00–8:30 AM – Coffee and conversation8:30–9:00 AM – Featured talk9:00–9:30 AM – Q&A and more networking

Join us to start your morning with ideas, inspiration, and community.

Register!

And don’t forget: if you’re looking for even more sustainability inspiration, the Sustainable Future Forum takes place this Monday, September 29.

Hope to see you at one — or both!

Grateful

A big thank you to Ann Arbor SPARK and the Green Business Challenge for their continued support of the Sustainable Innovation Meet Up, and to Bill Crane for his partnership in co-hosting these gatherings.

The post Designing for Impact: Sustainable Architecture and Urban Futures appeared first on Scientific Ink.

We’re excited to launch a new season of the Sustainable Innovation Meet Up on Wednesday, September 18 from 8:00–9:30 AM at Mothfire Brewing in Ann Arbor.

This month’s session—“Crafting Community: Sustainability & Creativity at Mothfire Brewing”—features David Becker, Co-Founder of Mothfire Brewing. David will share how sustainability and local partnerships are at the heart of Mothfire’s mission.

This September event also serves as a lead-in to the Sustainable Future Forum, part of a2tech360—our region’s biggest week celebrating innovation, technology, and entrepreneurship.

Event details
Wednesday, September 18
8:00–9:30 AM
Mothfire Brewing, 713 W. Ellsworth Rd., Ann Arbor
Coffee and light breakfast will be provided

RSVP

The Sustainable Innovation Meet-Up is a monthly gathering that highlights corporate sustainability innovations and fosters networking and community. Each session brings together professionals, entrepreneurs, and leaders to exchange ideas, learn from local case studies, and spark collaborations that drive positive change.

We’re grateful to our sponsors—Ann Arbor SPARK and the Green Business Challenge—for supporting this series. Like the new look? Thanks to Cathy Colson for graphic design.

The post Crafting Community at Mothfire Brewing: Sustainable Innovation Meet Up appeared first on Scientific Ink.

Join our September 10 mentorship circle with Thressa Nichols to learn how to turn your versatility into your career superpower and find your niche as a generalist.

Wednesday, September 10, 11AM–noon

Cahoots Coworking, 206 E Huron St, Ann Arbor, MI 48104

Finding your niche as a generalist is about more than just skills—it’s about mindset. Thressa Nichols will discuss how to embrace the “human first” approach, cultivate inclusive environments, and turn your versatility into your competitive edge.  Thressa currently serves as VP of Operations for Snappt and is on the board of the Ann Arbor Downtown Development Authority. A community builder and People Ops leader, she is also gearing up to launch her own entrepreneurship journey.

Join Us!

The Cahoots Mentorship Circle, hosted by Ayishwariya Menon and Dunrie Greiling, is an occasional series featuring guest speakers and open discussions for founders, innovators, and community builders.

The post The Power of Versatility: Finding Your Unique Fit appeared first on Scientific Ink.

What do plants on sheets, insects on pins, and frogs in jars have to do with entrepreneurship? 

Heliconius charitonius tuckeri specimen from Tall Timbers Research Station, Florida imaged by Virginia Craig, photo courtesy Gil Nelson.

Naturalists and scientists have been collecting butterflies, pressing plants, and catching fish to document the evolution, radiation, and diversity of the world’s organisms since the early 1700s. These preserved voucher specimens have been locked away in research and private collections for centuries, difficult to access even by scientists who didn’t know where everything was. Close to 15 years ago, the National Science Foundation created iDigBio as the U.S. hub for digitizing and mobilizing biological collections data. iDigBio led by elevating members of the community doing digitization well and then they built the foundation to aggregate the data created during this work. Its servers on the University of Florida campus currently host over 147 million specimen records and 66 million associated media files.

In December 2023, I joined the team at iDigBio as an embedded entrepreneur to explore mission-aligned pathways to sustainability for one of the largest and most important scientific data infrastructures in the country.

This work was part of a larger initiative launched by the National Science Foundation (NSF) and NobleReach Emerge to help research infrastructure projects transition toward broader impact and long-term viability. iDigBio was selected as one of just eleven projects nationwide to participate in this visionary program supporting research translation and sustainability.
Read the press release

Our cohort of science infrastructure projects faced a shared challenge: how do you sustain open, mission-critical data platforms without a built-in revenue model?

What Science Entrepreneurship Looked Like in Practice

The goal wasn’t a commercial spinout, but rather a durable structure to support iDigBio’s mission and values. 

My work as an embedded entrepreneur centered on strategic discovery, stakeholder alignment, and identifying viable, mission-consistent revenue models for long-term sustainability. This included conducting over 70 interviews with biodiversity scientists, collections professionals, policy experts, and applied ecologists to map community needs and emerging opportunities. We talked to people familiar with iDigBio and those we thought would benefit but did not (yet) use biodiversity specimen data for environmental decision-making.

We found common challenges around incomplete data, technical aspects of mobilizing these data (for data publishers), and locating cleaned, relevant data at scale for research. We heard many calls for the digital extended specimen, especially integration with genetic sequence data. Several interviewees expressed an interest in a natural language chat-like interface for finding what they sought in the database (yes, this is foreshadowing).

We found that people not yet familiar with iDigBio did not understand the scope of its work at first glance, and so we refreshed the homepage and included new calls to action for corporate sponsorship and data services.

Refreshed iDigBio homepage as of summer 2025.Additional calls to action included corporate sponsorship as of summer 2025.

We used the identified community needs to guide internal and community conversations around sponsorship, data services, philanthropic funding, and operational partnerships. We outlined a vision where digitized biodiversity and extended specimen data underpin research, policy, and economic decision-making. These specimen data provide an unmatched historical baseline for environmental monitoring.

A Passionate, Collaborative Community

iDigBio’s strength lies in its community—curators, technologists, researchers, and collections professionals committed to making biodiversity data available, discoverable, and useful. I was fortunate to work alongside existing partners—AIBS, NSCA, and SPNHC—and to initiate conversations with related organizations such as the Nature Tech Collective, a dynamic network of researchers, technologists, and entrepreneurs exploring the intersection of nature and data.

For example, Gil Nelson, iDigBio’s Director, spoke on “The Power of Digitized Voucher Records for Biodiversity Monitoring” at the Nature Tech Collective NTC Now webinar in June 2024, highlighting how specimen data supports real-time environmental decision-making.

Data from digitized natural history collections provides an important source of information for environmental decision making.Field Notes from a Mostly Remote Year

While most of this work took place remotely, there were energizing in-person moments along the way. We kicked off with an in-person meeting in Gainesville, and then I traveled to Tempe to meet with the Symbiota team. I joined the community at Digital Data 8 in Lawrence, Kansas, and participated in the Advances in Digital Media workshop at Yale in New Haven, Connecticut. While most of the interviews were online, I jumped at the chance to visit and collaborate in person with researchers at the University of Michigan Research Museum Center here in Ann Arbor.

Austin Mast speaking to attendees at the 2024 Advances in Digital Media conference in New Haven, CT.

Although remote, it was hardly a lonesome year. The online collaboration was lively, with good humor and critical thinking in equal measure. We were buoyed by the enthusiasm and creativity shown by every community member we interviewed or met in person. iDigBio really had a strong community, valued what they had received, and were eager to participate in shaping our sustainability planning. 

No Missed Jackpot — But Plenty of Insight

At Digital Data 8, iDigBio held a session on sustaining scientific infrastructure, including experts from iDigBio, Environmental Data Initiative, MorphoSource, NobleReach, Specify Collections Consortium, and USA National Phenology Network. Leads of these important community resources spoke to the attendees about lessons learned and challenges faced as they transitioned from NSF grant funding to something more community-supported. More recently, the USA National Phenology Network, published a paper with their embedded entrepreneur showing their work on this topic: their future sustainability likely lies in a blend of public funding, grants, philanthropy, and mission-aligned service offerings.
Read their perspective

Our team, like others in the NSF/NobleReach cohort, faced a hard truth: open scientific infrastructure doesn’t often produce the kind of intellectual property that drives university spinouts. That openness is a feature, not a flaw, but it does complicate the business model.

This experience deepened my conviction that science entrepreneurship doesn’t always mean spinning out a product or chasing a venture-scale outcome. Sometimes, it means protecting and evolving open infrastructure in ways that preserve its value and grow its impact. Increasing access to these data is a key principle, and so many congratulations to the advanced computing and information systems team at University of Florida for launching the biodiversity chatbot: iChatBio this spring. 

Me, Libby Ellwood, and Gil Nelson in Washington D.C. for the NSCA Board Meeting December 2024.Deep Gratitude for Thoughtful Collaboration

Working with the iDigBio team was one of the most rewarding parts of this project. Their open, good-natured, and thoughtful collaboration made it a joy to contribute to such an important and community-centered initiative. I’m especially grateful for the opportunity to work alongside:

Gil Nelson, whose enthusiasm, warmth, and commitment to inclusion sustained the team and shaped the spirit of this engagement from day one—I learned so much from his deep belief in iDigBio’s people and mission.Austin Mast, who brought long-term strategic vision and a sustainability mindset to both iDigBio and the Digitization Academy, and whose thoughtful questions pushed the work forward.Jose Fortes, who brought focus to scale and systems, and always contributed unexpected, generous observations that deepened the conversation.Pam Soltis, who regularly recentered the group on iDigBio’s integrated vision, shared valuable global insights drawn from her broad scientific engagements, and—along with her students—kept us focused on the ecological and environmental applications of these data.Libby Ellwood, a generous collaborator whose broad community perspective helped align vision with action—from partnership development to keeping iDigBio focused on its core strengths.Nico Franz, whose work on Symbiota exemplified practical sustainability and who brought intellectual energy and a willingness to challenge assumptions that helped refine our thinking.David Jennings, whose critical thinking, organizational rigor, and steady support helped hold the team together—his candor and guidance were key to every piece of progress we made.The teams at the University of Florida, Florida Museum, Florida State University, and University of Kansas that I had the pleasure of meeting and who gave generously of their time, wisdom, and wit throughout the project.

I’m proud of the work we did and inspired by the community I met. As iDigBio and others continue integrating biodiversity data into the decisions shaping our planet, I’ll be cheering from the sidelines—and seeking out the next opportunity to connect science, data, and sustainability at scale.

The post Navigating Open Science and Sustainability: My Year as an Embedded Entrepreneur with iDigBio appeared first on Scientific Ink.

Join us for the June Sustainability & Innovation Coffee Meet Up.

50 States of Sustainability: Lessons from Veridian
A short film and live Q&A on reimagining development in America

Join us for an inspiring morning under the tent at Veridian at County Farm! We’ll screen the 20-minute documentary 50 States of Sustainability: Veridian, followed by a live conversation with sustainable development leaders Matthew Grocoff and Sara Hammerschmidt.

This event offers a rare behind-the-scenes look at a groundbreaking net-zero community. Hear from the team reshaping how we think about housing, neighborhoods, and the future of development.

Veridian at County Farm (tent on site) Wednesday, June 4, 2025 8:00–9:30 AM Rain location: onsite garage Optional site tour to follow

Free of charge.

Register

Thanks to Cathy Colson for graphic design.

 A big thank you to our sponsors, the Green Business Challenge and Ann Arbor SPARK.

Visit Sustainability & Innovation Events to sign up for our email list or to learn more about this series. Hope to see you there!

The post Lessons from Veridian on Reimagining Development – June 2025 Meetup appeared first on Scientific Ink.