The Eight Pillars of Cleantech

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Cleantech encompasses a broad array of different types of technologies and businesses. Technologies that are beneficial to the environment or our ability to live sustainably on Earth can be considered cleantech. Of the many types of clean technologies currently in existence or being researched, they can all be broken down into one more more of these 8 categories.

1. Renewable Energies 
   1. Hydrogen
   2. Nuclear
   3. Hydroelectric
   4. Geothermal
   5. Wave
   6. Transition Fuels
2. Green/Blue Chemistry 
   1. Biomass/Biochar 
   2. Concrete
   3. Materials & Advanced Materials
   4. Ammonia
   5. Plastics
3. Pollution/Air Quality
   1. Greenhouse Gas (GHG) Emissions Reduction
   2. Ocean Pollution Cleantech (Bluetech)
   3. Carbon (CO2) Utilization
   4. Carbon (CO2) Capture
   5. Smog Reduction
4. Agricultural Tech 
   1. Soil Remediation
   2. Regenerative Agriculture
5. Battery/Energy Storage 
   1. Electric Vehicles
   2. Battery
   3. Energy Storage
6. Energy Efficiency 
   1. Electric Grid Optimization
   2. Computer Servers/Data Centers
   3. Smart Cities
      1. City Planning
      2. Real Estate
      3. Smart Homes
   4. Fuel Use Optimization
7. Water Tech 
   1. Purification
   2. Desalinization
8. Waste/Landfill Tech 
   1. Recycling
   2. Waste-to-Energy
   3. Organic Waste Conversion

Many clean technologies have significant overlap, and can be classified in multiple categories. An example of such would be a bacteria that eats certain landfill waste products and excretes a chemical beneficial to farmers, which would include Green Chemistry, AgTech and Waste Tech. In such cases, include all relevant pillars--particularly if you're looking for VC investors with varying specialties.