“Cruz Foam isn’t packaging,” claims John Felts, CEO of Cruz Foam, during his keynote speech at Climate Week NYC, “packaging is the problem we are working to solve.”

Felts, alongside other innovative leaders in business and politics, was invited to New York City in September 2024 to participate in the “largest annual climate event of its kind,” a place where like-minded people can drive progress towards a more sustainable world. Here, companies like Cruz Foam, a leader in environmentally friendly shipping solutions, gathered to further a dialogue surrounding planet-saving initiatives that can potentially curb the climate crisis. Felts spoke at a Climate Week NYC event called The ReAssembly, hosted by one of Cruz Foam’s sponsors, Regeneration VC, an investment group that funds climate-centered projects and initiatives. He was able to share more about Cruz Foam’s sustainability mission and announce the company’s new Executive Chair, Tom Chi.

What is Cruz Foam? (Not Just Packaging!)

Cruz Foam is an award-winning company that creates sustainable, biodegradable packaging for various corporations, including Sony, Whirlpool, and Verve Coffee Roasters. They were named the Winner of the Plastic Free Pioneer Award 2024, one of the Most Innovative Companies of 2024 (according to Fast Company), and have received many other notable awards in the realm of sustainability. Above all else, Cruz Foam’s team prioritizes lowering the carbon footprint of their customers while also providing a top-notch unboxing experience that rivals typical unsustainable packaging. The primary products they advertise include their namesake Cruz Foam, made of compostable foam materials; Cruz Cool, their sustainable cold packaging solution; and Eco Vino, their eco-friendly wine shipping container.

Who is Cruz Foam?

John Felts has been the CEO of Cruz Foam for over seven years, pushing the boundaries of sustainability in the corporate and business sectors. Before co-founding his company, Felts worked as a researcher for various institutions, including the University of California: Santa Cruz and the University of Washington. He also worked as an engineer at Tetra Tech for over five years. Addressing the audience at The ReAssembly event, Felts introduced a new addition to the team: Tom Chi. Chi brings ample experience to his new role as Cruz Foam’s Executive Chair as the founder of One Ventures and a founding member of Google X. Chi decided to invest his time fully in sustainable ventures like Cruz Foam in pursuit of a greener planet.

Cruz Foam Keynoting Climate Week NYC

Chi expanded upon the “plastic problem” plaguing our planet during Cruz Foam’s keynote speech, chalking the blame up to the non-biodegradable petrochemical plastics polluting our oceans and ecosystems. Economically, producing petrochemical plastics has an extremely low feedstock, or raw material, cost because they are made from the residuals of oil and gas refinement. The plastic, oil, and gas industries mutually benefit one another, creating a relatively impenetrable raw material market that sustainable products may find challenging to rival. However, Chi identifies that the “Achilles heel” of the petrochemical industry is their processing costs. Plastic requires incredibly high heat to break down and render functional, an expensive process that sustainable solutions can exploit. Sustainable companies must find cheap raw materials with low thermal processing to compete effectively with the plastic industry.

Visit Cruz Foam’s recording of The ReAssembly on their website to listen to Felts’s opening remarks and Chi’s assessment of the economics of sustainability. These short videos are only a sample of the ground-breaking discussions and connections fostered during Climate Week NYC and illustrate the beginnings of monumental shifts in favor of environmentally sustainable living.