Jeffrey Straubel used to be Tesla’s CTO, but he came to his senses in 2019 and founded Redwood Materials, a company he’s dedicated to recycling and refining batteries and the not-so-ecofriendly materials used to build them. He aims to address what he believes will be a continually growing demand for EV batteries by extracting the metals necessary to making new batteries from old ones. The concept isn’t just environmentally conscious, it’s also financially attractive with Straubel already raising a cool $1 billion in his latest round of funding. More CEOs and founders would do well to combine financial success with environmental concerns.
