Industrious Labs: Grantee Spotlight (Q3 2026)

The Giving Green Fund is awarding a grant to Industrious Labs for its global cement program. Industrious Labs is a U.S.-based nonprofit organization that conducts technical analysis, builds advocacy networks, and engages with governments and corporations to decarbonize industry.

Industrious Labs’ work falls within our philanthropic strategy of decarbonizing cement and concrete. 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: October 2026

What Is Industrious Labs?

Founded in 2022, Industrious Labs focuses on industrial decarbonization advocacy. It works with partners from across the field, representing local communities, politics, and industry, to identify the unique narratives and levers that will move industrial sectors towards 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 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?

Most of the world's new cement capacity through 2100 will be built in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs). However, civil society capacity and funding to shape how it is produced remain concentrated in North America and Europe. In 2025, Industrious Labs launched the Concrete Futures Network seeking to:

1. Reshape demand through in-country campaigns to promote green public procurement and performance-based concrete standards, which allow for low-emissions cement formulations. 
2. Support early-mover projects for low-carbon cement formulations based on locally available low-carbon materials, thereby generating the evidence that officials need to implement procurement policy and update standards. 
3. Build durable local power by establishing advocacy networks and coordinating shared campaign strategies. Industrious Labs hires in-country staff and partners with local organizations to execute campaigns. It plans to transfer governance of this campaign to a LMIC-led governing body as the project matures.
4. Secure access to climate finance by advocating for revised performance standards and lending criteria from development banks like the International Finance Corporation, which is currently reviewing its Sustainability Framework.

Our grant will anchor the program for the next two years, supporting its existing campaigns in India and Tanzania, and expanding to several more countries in Southeast Asia and sub-Saharan Africa.

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

Industrious Labs’ cement program is young, but it is already gaining traction. The Concrete Futures Network now includes 30 organizations across seven countries, and Industrious Labs has formed valuable relationships in its first two active countries. For example, Tanzania's National Carbon Monitoring Centre (NCMC) has invited Industrious Labs to work directly in its Dodoma headquarters, and Industrious Labs is now partnering with NCMC to design Tanzania’s first cement sector emissions baseline and launch low-carbon pilot projects. In India, it formed a coalition of seven national and state civil society organizations co-developing a strategy to promote green public procurement. 

More broadly, we have been impressed by Industrious Labs’ track record and team. For example, its aluminum campaign led to the establishment of the Sustainable Aluminum Network and has helped various industry members access federal investment opportunities under the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act and the Inflation Reduction Act. In partnership with Earthjustice, it also secured new incentives to deploy clean heat for industrial facilities in California.

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We publish grant spotlights to offer transparency to Giving Green Fund donors and resources for those interested in the impact strategies each grant supports. Giving Green believes our Top Climate Nonprofits have the greatest impact potential for large, unrestricted gifts. For several reasons, we also disburse and recommend grants to other organizations surfaced through our research process for work that we believe is at least as impactful as grants to our top recommendations. 

This is a non-partisan analysis (study or research) and is provided for educational purposes.

Industrious Labs has both 501(c)(3) and LLC entities. As Giving Green is itself a charitable, tax-exempt organization, we are only offering an opinion on the charitable activities of Industrious Labs’ 501(c)(3) arm, the Industrious Education Fund - a registered nonprofit in the U.S.