Made in Colorado Awards 2023: Emerging Manufacturer

There’s a common misconception that the United States doesn’t manufacture much anymore. In reality, the country continues to out-manufacture China on a per capita basis, and domestic growth outpaced the global average for the first time in years in late 2022.

Colorado is a case in point. Data from the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis shows that employment in Colorado’s manufacturing sector peaked in 1998 at 192,200 workers. That plummeted to 122,200 employees in 2010, but the state’s manufacturing workforce has steadily grown to surpass 150,000 as of late 2023.

With these dynamics front and center, this year’s “Made in Colorado” profiles illuminate 10 of the state’s pioneering manufacturers, makers of whiskey, satellites and just about everything in between.

READ: Inside the Colorado Semiconductor Industry Renaissance — CHIPS Act Sparks Manufacturing Revival

EMERGING MANUFACTURER

WINNER — Prometheus Materials

Longmont, Colorado

Website: www.prometheusmaterials.com

A project by the University of Colorado and the U.S. Department of Defense’s Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) led to a method to decarbonize concrete.

DARPA “wanted to see if there was a way to use living materials and local sand … to create protective structures for troops and high-value assets,” says Loren Burnett, the company’s president and CEO.

Using algae and biomimicry that replicates the natural processes that create seashells and coral reefs, the researchers found that the algae sequestered carbon. “At the end, they realized, ‘Well, geez, not only did we create bioconcrete, but we created zero-carbon bioconcrete,’” Burnett says, noting that concrete and cement are responsible for 8 percent of global CO2 emissions.

The result wasn’t exactly what DARPA was looking for, but Burnett saw huge potential in pivoting the application from defense to construction and joined forces with the researchers to license the technology from CU and start the company in 2021.

Since raising an $8 million Series A round in 2022, the 16-employee company has established a pilot production facility in Longmont to grow algae and manufacture at a demonstration-level volume. Its first products, Bio-Blocks, are now being showcased during the Chicago Architecture Biennial in a spiral wall designed by global architectural leader Skidmore, Owings & Merrill.

“We’re in the process of raising a Series B round of funding that will enable us to complete a 35,000-square-foot bioconcrete production facility within about a 20-mile radius of our facility here in Longmont,” Burnett says.

Once the round closes, the catalog will expand in a big way, he adds. “We’re not a block company. That’s just our first form factor. We are a zero-carbon biocement and zero-carbon bioconcrete company that can make any number of different types of precast products that include blocks but certainly are not limited to that. Then, a year from now, we’ll be delivering our ready-mix version of bioconcrete.”

FINALIST — Friction Labs

Denver, Colorado

Website — www.frictionlabs.com

Setting a new standard making chalk for athletes in need of a good grip, Friction Labs has grown dramatically since Kevin Brown and Keah Kalantari co-founded the company in 2014. Customers of the catalog of loose, liquid and disc chalks include rock climbers, weightlifters and gymnasts. 

FINALIST — Pretred

Aurora, Colorado

Website — www.pretred.com

Recycling waste tires into barriers for highways, construction sites and other locations, Pretred launched its first manufacturing facility in Aurora in 2022. Every mile of barrier diverts more than 1.4 million pounds of waste tires from landfills or burning, with a 98 percent reduction in CO2 emissions from traditional concrete barriers. 

Denver-based writer Eric Peterson is the author of Frommer’s Colorado, Frommer’s Montana & Wyoming, Frommer’s Yellowstone & Grand Teton National Parks and the Ramble series of guidebooks, featuring first-person travelogues covering everything from atomic landmarks in New Mexico to celebrity gone wrong in Hollywood. Peterson has also recently written about backpacking in Yosemite, cross-country skiing in Yellowstone and downhill skiing in Colorado for such publications as Denver’s Westword and The New York Daily News. He can be reached at [email protected].