From clean water to second life for plastics: eco-startups backed by Moscow Government
Moscow has consistently supported the development of green technologies. The city now provides everything necessary to launch projects that protect nature and foster an ecological culture. Thanks to this support, innovators are creating advanced water and air purification systems, plastic recycling complexes, digital services for pollution monitoring, and much more.
Three large-scale city programs are helping eco-startups grow; these include the Academy of Innovators, the Moscow Innovator mayor’s award, and the Digital Transformation Leaders hackathon. On Earth Day, celebrated on March 30, we look at how the innovative work of tech entrepreneurs is helping to preserve natural resources.
All for cleaner air
The operation of thermal power plants is critically important for major Russian cities, ensuring a steady supply of heat and electricity to homes, public institutions and factories. A team of scientists from the Zelinsky Institute of Organic Chemistry at the Russian Academy of Sciences has developed a system to clean smokestack emissions from these plants. The device is a metal mesh filter placed inside a chimney. It is filled with small spherical granules of zeolite — a microporous crystal that has been specially treated. Inside the filter, acid gases (Nitrogen and Sulfur oxides) break down into simple substances. The process relies on a catalytic reaction that produces no toxic waste. The advantage of this Russian development is that it uses cheap domestic raw materials — zinc and copper, instead of noble and rare-earth metals.
For this innovation, Pavel Sokolovsky, Head of the Environmental Research Laboratory, and his colleagues Alexander Greish and Leonid Kustov received the Moscow Innovator mayor’s award in 2022. The invention is patented in Russia and has already drawn interest from investors and industrial companies.
Cleaning water and tracking its level
The Russian company Dobrokhim has created a device to produce a safe reagent that treats wastewater and natural water. Sodium ferrate is a unique compound that does not create toxic byproducts. It can be used to neutralize biological pollutants, heavy metals and even radioactive isotopes. The system automatically doses the reagent based on pollution levels, cutting consumption by two to ten times compared with alternatives. With Ferrator technology, Russian companies can reduce their environmental impact. The project made it into the top 10 of the 7 th cohort of the Academy of Innovators program in 2025. The team received a patent, attracted investment from the Lobachevsky Fund and delivered equipment to Saudi Arabia.
A development by Strategy Group — the ST-KIMG.SP alarm system — helps monitor floodwater levels. The system relies on smart sensors powered by solar panels that transmit signals over cellular networks. The device tracks water levels, monitors changes and detects critical rises, automatically alerting emergency services. In 2025, the startup won an award at the Moscow Innovator contest. The system is now operating in 12 Russian regions, including Moscow, Sakhalin and Kaliningrad.
Space-based monitoring of coastal areas
An innovation from SR Data helps keep the shores of Russian rivers, lakes and seas clean. The team built a web service that detects pollution using satellite and drone imagery. AI analyzes the images, pinpoints the location, composition and volume of waste, and assesses the environmental impact.
In 2024, the company joined a large-scale environmental project called Clean Shore. It combines cutting-edge technology with volunteer efforts to fight plastic pollution along Russia’s coastlines. The project is coordinated by the Defenders of Nature Foundation, which organizes volunteer cleanups. Yandex Cloud develops neural network algorithms to analyze images, while SR Data provides satellite imagery and geospatial data processing technology. Using this information, volunteers and environmental agencies plan routes and calculate how many vehicles and trash bags they will need. Last year, for example, volunteers collected and removed about three tons of waste from the South Kamchatka Federal Reserve. The project is now expanding rapidly: after Kamchatka, Clean Shore is moving to the coasts of Primorye, the Baltic Sea and the Caspian Sea. In 2025, it won the Digital Transformation Leaders hackathon.
A second life for plastics
Plastics have become an essential part of daily life as they are used to make countless products. But the material’s strength and durability pose a serious problem for nature: it can take hundreds of years to break down. Recycling offers a solution, turning waste into reusable raw materials, reducing landfills and easing the burden on the environment.
That is exactly the approach taken by the Moscow startup Zanovo. A team of young developers led by Vasily Shupikov has built a unique system to recycle plastics into new products. Its main advantage over other systems is its small size. The recycling unit takes up just one and a half square meters, requires no special ventilation or high voltage, and can be installed in an eco-center, a school, a shopping mall or even an apartment building entrance.
The equipment includes a storage and sorting system, a shredder to grind plastic and an extruder to make new items. The system can produce home decor, accessories and souvenirs: small dishes for trinkets or pets, pots for houseplants, desk organizers, combs, buttons and much more.
The creators received an award at the Moscow Innovator competition in 2024; that same year, the startup took part in the Academy of Innovators program, which helped the team develop a strategy for the project.
Last year, a unit by Zanovo was installed in five eco-centers in different Russian cities. The developers also upgraded the system with their own cooling mechanism, allowing it to process more waste and expand the product line. New equipment — the Zanovo heat press — is scheduled for release this year.
The Moscow Government’s Academy of Innovators program and Moscow Innovator competition assist inventors at every stage, from the initial idea to acquiring first customers and scaling up. Young IT specialists can propose digital solutions for the city or large businesses at the annual Digital Transformation Leaders hackathon. All three projects are run by the Human Capital Development Autonomous Non-Profit Organization subordinate to the Moscow Department of Entrepreneurship and Innovative Development.