Back in 2007, Gavin McIntyre and his friend Eben Bayer decided to launch a business to tackle one of the biggest environmental problems of the twenty-first century: the plastic crisis. The key? Mushrooms, or more specifically, their underground, thready root-like structure, called mycelium.
They named their company Ecovative. And their gamble was good: today, Ecovative is growing mycelium that does truly replace plastic, mostly the foams ubiquitous in everything from building insulation to single-use packaging. And not at a huge price premium either. Their work is a response to their realization more than 20 years ago that more plastic production equals more reliance on fossil fuels. Given that the feedstocks for traditional plastics are derived from oil and gas, they have managed to create an alternative that is both easier on the environment and avoids the greenhouse gas emissions rapidly warming the planet. A fungi miracle with countless applications from bacon to coffins.
Tell Congress: Protect Families From the Plastics and Petrochemical Industry
Read on for more about Gavin’s circular, regenerative approach to farming, his inspirations, and his plans for the future.
What does Ecovative do?
We’re farmers who cultivate materials and meat substitutes. We grow our mycelium in a controlled-environment vertical farm. This is the infrastructure for conventional button mushroom farms, and part of my role as Chief Commercialization Officer is to partner with other mushroom farms to convert some of their capacity to mycelium to diversify crops.
The mycelium grows in the dark over a period of 4 to 18 days, depending on the final product and mushroom strain. The other raw materials involved in the process are wholly waste biomass, such as soybean hulls or sawdust, and water. The mycelium consumes the biomass we give it and converts it into the products that we harvest. The waste from our production is organic compost.
What do you actually grow at your farm?
Today, Ecovative and our sister company, MyForest, grow mycelium as a plastic foam and pleather alternative sold as packaging, insulation, and apparel, as well as a bacon alternative sold in natural groceries.
We have our own farm, and we also enable others to grow products with our strains and techniques. We have over 10 licensees and producers, primarily in Europe, that manufacture products ranging from earplugs and packaging to acoustic tiles and coffins. The earplugs and coffins were listed in TIME’s Best Inventions of 2025, and it’s pretty neat supporting people who build and grow with our technology.
What do you do on the job day-to-day?
Photo courtesy of Gavin McIntyre.
Primarily, I work with our research and engineering teams on developing new products and transferring our existing products to other farmers and entrepreneurs. There’s lots of interest in mycelium as a new source for materials and food, and often people from different industries reach out to see if it could solve a problem unique to their space. I get to learn about all the different challenges across a range of industries and then share the material properties of mycelium to see if there is a collaborative opportunity that makes economic sense for both parties.
I also spend a lot of time in farms—either seeing current mycelium production or pilot trials, or evaluating whether a farm would be suitable for the production of mycelium.
How does Ecovative help fight the climate crisis?
We choose to focus our efforts on displacing products that have a measurable, negative impact on the planet. For example, our packaging product requires a fraction of the energy and emits a fraction of the carbon dioxide equivalent as a comparable polypropylene plastic foam. Our bacon substitute consumes less energy, time, water, and land use than the factory farming of pigs.
Is there a specific moment when you decided you wanted to have a climate job? What was it?
I realized I wanted to think differently about how the economy operates in a class I took at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI) taught by Professor Rayvon Fouché. He recommended his students read Paul Hawken’s Natural Capitalism, a book that points out inherent inefficiencies in our globalized economy and how products we buy could be services instead. I wanted to find the right opportunity to challenge norms to do something positive for the planet.
When thinking about eventually scaling and commercializing mycelium materials, it seemed like a real opportunity to work within capitalism but also do it differently. Our products are cost-competitive because our raw materials are others’ waste and available everywhere. The energy and labor consumption is relatively low as the products self-assemble in the dark.
Can you share a recent win or special achievement at Ecovative?
Our ability to scale our mycelium technology in conventional button mushroom farms has been a major milestone. This has enabled us to produce over 10 tons of mycelium every week and continue to expand to serve the growing demand for our products.
Who is your career mentor or idol?
Burt Swersey was an important mentor in the history of Ecovative. He led the Inventor’s Studio at RPI, where we originally developed the mycelium technology.
Burt was a serial entrepreneur, primarily in the medical device field. One of his philosophies was “don’t do nonsense,” to focus on solving real problems with a global impact. His classes were about problem identification and understanding; both of which were needed before we attempted to create a solution to avoid unintended consequences. Burt would not compromise. He always pushed us to make our products more accessible and to find more opportunities to create value for the world.
Without Burt’s support and guidance, we would not have focused on starting a business or persevered through early challenges and roadblocks. Burt passed away in 2015, and we have named our farm in his honor, Swersey Silos.
Tell Congress: Protect Families From the Plastics and Petrochemical Industry