Industrious Labs: Grantee Spotlight (2026)

Grantee Spotlight: Industrious Labs

The Giving Green Fund plans to award a grant to Industrious Labs for its work on cement, chemicals and fertilizers, and aluminum. Industrious Labs is a U.S.-based environmental nonprofit organization that aims to build advocacy networks to decarbonize heavy and light industry.

Industrious work falls within our philanthropic strategy of decarbonizing heavy industry. Please see Giving Green’s strategy report for more information, including potential risks and co-benefits, recommended sub-strategies, theory of change, funding need, and key uncertainties.

Last updated: November 2025

What Is Industrious Labs?

Founded in 2022, Industrious Labs is a U.S.-based organization focused on industrial decarbonization advocacy. It works with partners from across the field—including those representing local community, advocacy, politics, and industry—to identify the unique narratives and levers that will move industrial sectors towards full decarbonization. Industrious Labs’ strategy has four pillars: (1) campaigns, (2) data and analytics, (3) field building, and (4) strategic communications, all of which work in concert to build evidence-based, sustainable advocacy efforts to decarbonize heavy and light industry. Its work is mainly focused on the U.S. but has expanded to include global projects.

What Are We Funding, and How Could It Help Address Climate Change?

We are funding Industrious Labs' work to decarbonize heavy industry across three strategic initiatives: 

• Driving the production of green cement in developing and emerging economies by creating new sources of demand and increasing access to capital for new low-carbon cement facilities. This funding will enable Industrious Labs to expand and build its research and analytical capacity to explore opportunities in new countries such as Indonesia, Vietnam, and South Africa.

• Developing a clean aluminum industry by helping existing clean aluminum smelters stay open and driving demand for new ones. To do this, Industrious Labs will continue to manage the Sustainable Aluminum Network (SAN) and further engage with key states, such as Indiana and Missouri. 

• Supporting a nascent clean chemicals and fertilizer industry by establishing a California-based program that unites different stakeholders and conducts research and communications. The near-term goal of this work is to establish a state commitment to building at least one pilot green fertilizer project as a proof of concept.

In our strategy report on decarbonizing heavy industry, we identify supporting government and industry low-carbon procurement commitments, as well as strengthening civil society presence in regions with high heavy industry production, as impactful sub-strategies. We believe that Industrious Labs' proposed work aligns well with these strategies and has the potential to be impactful. 

Why Do We Think Industrious Labs Will Use This Funding Well?

Industrious Labs is a relatively new organization that has made considerable progress in advancing multiple impactful campaigns over the last three years. For example, its aluminum campaign led to the establishment of the SAN and has helped various industry members access federal investment opportunities under the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act and the Inflation Reduction Act. While there are limited opportunities under the current presidential administration to advance heavy industry decarbonization at the federal level, we are confident that Industrious Labs can still drive progress. The organization is currently shifting to state-level opportunities while still engaging at the federal level when opportunities arise. To make this shift, Industrious Labs is growing its dedicated teams for each industry-specific campaign by adding more regional and state-specific expertise. As a whole, we remain excited about Industrious Labs’ potential for impact because its focus on industry is underrepresented in philanthropy, and the organization has a successful track record.

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Giving Green believes that additional climate donations are likely to be most impactful when directed to our top nonprofits. For several reasons, we may choose to recommend grants to other organizations for work that we believe is at least as impactful as grants to our top recommendations. We are highlighting this grant to offer transparency to donors to the Giving Green Fund, as well as to provide a resource for donors who are particularly interested in this impact strategy. This is a nonpartisan analysis (study or research) and is provided for educational purposes.