Man smiling at a construction site holding a rectangular object, with scaffolding, construction workers, and equipment in the background.

Critical transforms hard-to-recycle plastics into high-end building panels, blending sustainability and aesthetic design.

Why we invested

Measuring What Matters

Critical’s kaupapa centres around honouring Papatūānuku through innovation to ensure generations to come inherit a more liveable, circular world.

Rather than treating plastic as a disposable commodity, Critical challenges businesses to see it as a resource that must be stewarded. Their systems give organisations a clear, tangible way to take responsibility for their plastic waste and keep it out of landfills.

Their work is driven by the belief that design and sustainability are not opposing forces, but powerful allies. Their circular materials are as beautiful, functional, and durable as traditional options but with a fraction of the environmental impact. Every product tells a story - not just of waste diverted, but of values embedded in form, function, and whakapapa.

Transaction Summary

Portfolio CompanyFund
Te Pae ki te Rangi
Date Invested
April 2023 (Seed) | November 2024 (Bridge)
Instrument
Equity Investment
IRIS+ Category and Theme
Waste, Pollution, Climate | Waste Management, Pollution Prevention, Climate Change Mitigation - Manufacturing

Portfolio CompanyProblem

      Aotearoa is facing a growing crisis of plastic waste and an overreliance on carbon-intensive building materials, with hundreds of thousands of tonnes of used plastic ending up in landfills and construction continuing to drive emissions and resource depletion.
    
What

      Diverting plastic waste from landfill by transforming it into durable, locally-made panels (‘Cleanstone’) and other products.
    
Who

      Businesses taking responsibility for their waste, supplying their waste plastics to Critical for production of panels.

      Architects and designers making environmentally conscious design choices for their clients.
    
How Much

      Scale: Volume of plastic diverted from landfill, and number of projects or businesses who have bought Cleanstone.

      Depth: Clients who are continuously making design choices to adopt circular materials.

      Duration: Ongoing recycling of Cleanstone panels as a circular building material.
    
Contribution

      Without Critical’s solution, the otherwise displaced building materials would still be made from high-carbon, often toxic, non-recyclable materials. Plastic diverted from landfill have no other realistic destination.
    
Impact Risk

      Endurance / Drop-off risk: If panels aren’t returned to Critical to be recycled into new panels, they are likely to end up in landfill, facing the same fate as they would have if they weren’t made into Cleanstone.
    
Impact Measures

      Kilograms of plastic diverted from landfill: quantifying the environmental scale of impact

      Panels returned for recycling: quantifying the extent to which customers are engaging with Critical’s circular offering

      Qualitative insights: how the company is raising awareness of circular materials in construction and educating the market.