Mycocycle Named a Finalist in Fast Company’s 2023 Innovation by Design Awards

The award honors the designers and businesses solving the most crucial problems of today and anticipating the pressing issues of tomorrow.

Mycocycle, Inc., a leader in using mycoremediation to process toxins out of waste, was honored in Fast Company’s Innovation by Design Awards for 2023 in the Small Business: Fewer Than 100 Employees category for their project titled “Biobased raw materials from waste.”

Mycocycle was recognized for their process that removes waste from the supply chain using mushrooms. As nature’s recyclers, fungi efficiently clean petrochemicals like those found in building materials, packaging and textiles. Harnessing this power uses landfilled construction waste to create new biobased raw material fillers for use into new building products--effectively removing waste from the construction supply chain to support circular solutions.

“It is an incredible honor for our remediation process to be recognized with an Innovation By Design Award,” stated Mycocycle CEO and Founder Joanne Rodriguez. “We are creating value streams from the output of our process while building strong, circular economies in the construction industry.”

The Innovation by Design Awards, which can be found in the September 2023 issue of Fast Company, is now in its 12th year and features a range of blue-chip companies, emerging startups and hungry young talents. It is one of the most sought-after design awards in the industry.

The judges include renowned designers from a variety of disciplines, business leaders from some of the most innovative companies in the world, and Fast Company’s own writers and editors. Entries are judged on the key ingredients of innovation: functionality, originality, beauty, sustainability, user insight, cultural impact and business impact.

About Mycocycle

Mycocycle, Inc. is a nature-inspired and woman-owned biotechnology startup that leverages fungi to transform industrial waste into reusable materials. Founded in 2018, the company is on a mission to drive circularity in the construction supply chain and divert waste from landfills with its innovative solution. Mycocycle blends lab-cultivated fungi with debris at the point of waste generation to detoxify hard-to-recycle building materials and turn them into new raw materials. Its customers include companies across the waste management, recycling and manufacturing industries, as well as companies focused on reducing Scope 3 emissions.

In 2023, Mycocycle was issued a Declare label for its "MycoFILL© G" materials through the International Living Futures Institute, which recognized its products as Red List Chemical Free. Mycocycle is a FastCompany World Changing Ideas finalist, and its CEO has been honored as a Environment + Energy Leader Top 100 Leader, Crain's Chicago Top 50 Sustainability Executive and named to the inaugural Forbes Next 1000 list. To learn more visit www.mycocycle.com.

About Fast Company

Fast Company is the only media brand fully dedicated to the vital intersection of business, innovation and design, engaging the most influential leaders, companies and thinkers on the future of business. Headquartered in New York City, Fast Company is published by Mansueto Ventures LLC, along with our sister publication Inc., and can be found online at www.fastcompany.com.