<body><div><figure><img src="https://img.particlenews.com/image.php?type=thumbnail_580x000&amp;url=0gs9jB_0ukLv7IL00" alt="https://img.particlenews.com/image.php?url=0gs9jB_0ukLv7IL00" width="1000" height="731" ><figcaption>The Ecosphere Organics Team participate in Black Tech Saturdays. Left to Right: Edward Adegboyega, Kameron Dye, Brittanie Dabney and Ali Shakoor.</figcaption></figure>Brittanie Dabney cherished the time she spent outdoors with her parents growing up. Between time spent camping and walking along the Detroit Riverfront, she developed a passion for the environment. But those occasions also exposed her to the reality of environmental racism.“Just going in between both Detroit and then the suburbs where a lot of the camping sites are and seeing how clean it is in certain neighborhoods versus here in Detroit got me more interested in wanting to study the impacts of contamination,” Dabney told Planet Detroit.These days Dabney has taken her adolescent curiosity about waste contamination into an enterprising venture. This spring, she launched Ecosphere Organics, a tech startup that takes food waste from local restaurants and suppliers and converts it into reusable material. “We have a perfect opportunity to bring more Black and Brown-owned businesses into the conversation of sustainability,” she said. “If you think about sustainable materials and stable products, think about how we can be more energy-efficient in processing and reusing food waste.”<h2>Black tech entrepreneurs convene at Michigan Central</h2>Dabney’s ambitions reflect a growing sentiment among Black tech entrepreneurs in and around the city, many of whom have been supported in their ventures through Black Tech Saturdays, a meetup of like-minded tech entrepreneurs and tech-curious individuals held in Newlab at Michigan Central.Launched last March by Detroit natives and startup founders Johnnie and Alexa Turnage, the twice-monthly meetups have become a welcome refuge for enterprising Black technicians around the Metro Detroit area, convening hundreds of individuals through networking events and workshops. For biotech startup founder Crystal Brown, Black Tech Saturday is “a movement” that has exposed her to other like-minded “change leaders making a difference” in their community.“When I look at what we’re doing, it’s really to me a new Black Renaissance,” said Brown, CEO and co-founder of CircNova, a biotech company that uses generative AI to identify and analyze circular RNA for therapeutic uses such as drug discovery and gene therapy. Brown’s team imagines that technology will accelerate the timeframe to get vital drug therapies from concept to the public. “We’re not just talking about developing apps…we’re talking about building our own infrastructure, making sure that we are overseeing our own machine learning and creating our own technology so that we’re sitting at the forefront of innovation,” Brown said.<h2>‘A moment in history’</h2>Khalilah Burton Gaston, executive director of the Song Foundation which supports Black Tech Saturdays, told Planet Detroit that the program supports the organization’s efforts to help grow tech companies founded by people from the Detroit region, rather than relying on outside talent.“We definitely need to be helping companies grow, and our organization does have a belief that we should grow our own,” she said. Whether using 70 pounds of eggshells or a leftover bag of black-eyed peas, Dabney sees limitless possibilities for creating reusable materials that Detroiters can immediately benefit from. As an undergraduate and graduate student, Dabney spent years studying microplastics and the impact it had on drinking water and aquatic life. Now, after some time outside of the state doing research in places as far as Texas and Japan, she’s happy to be closer to home to find solutions to reducing plastic and waste in the city.Through partnerships and collaborations with local food suppliers and nonprofits, Dabney and her small team envision creating paints, oils, and other raw or intermediary materials that will deter organic waste from piling in landfills and provide residents and wholesalers to incorporate into their products.She hopes her company can push conversations locally about finding safer alternatives to fast potentially toxic chemicals found in the manufacturing of everyday items.“We look at the materials that we have now as not having any immediate impact on us, like nobody’s touching a surface and then their hand is falling off, but it could be years down the line when we see asthma or cancer rates that could be attributed to certain types of products other than air pollution,” Dabney said.“I’m in the space of doom and gloom because I have to know about all these different chemicals and I understand how they’re still able to get into the market while still being harmful.”With Detroit poised to be a climate refuge in years to come, Dabney said it’s imperative residents “start building systems to make our communities clean.”Both tech founders see Detroit are encouraged by the increasing resources and spotlight on tech entrepreneurs of color within the city.“I think that’s what’s happening right now is a moment in history,” said Brown. “I think we’re going to come back in five years ago and say ‘What happened in Detroit?’ and I think that’s important.”This article first appeared on Planet Detroit and is republished here under a Creative Commons license.</div></body>

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Climate and public health entrepreneurs find community in Detroit’s Black tech ecosystem

Brittanie Dabney cherished the time she spent outdoors with her parents growing up. Between time spent camping and walking along the Detroit Riverfront, she developed a passion for the environment. But those occasions also exposed her to the reality of environmental racism. “Just going in between both Detroit and then...