From Forager to Founder: CEO Chat with Collin Cavote on his Mission to Bring Plants into Every Workplace
In our first CEO Chat of Season 6 of The Trend Report, Collin Cavote of BIOME joins me to discuss Bridging Nature and Technology: How Biome is Revolutionizing Biophilic Design in Workspaces
In an era where the call for sustainable, healthy workspaces grows louder by the day, innovative companies like Biome are answering with groundbreaking solutions that merge technology with nature. Founded by Colin Cavote, this Oakland-based company has spent a decade perfecting what they call the intersection of technology, plants, and landscaping – creating modular, self-sustaining living walls that bring the benefits of nature indoors without the traditional maintenance headaches.
The conventional living wall has long been problematic for commercial spaces. Typically, they're construction projects requiring reinforced walls, plumbing, custom lighting, and ongoing maintenance contracts that can cost hundreds of dollars monthly. The result is often beautiful but impractical – impressive lobby centerpieces that frequently suffer from poor maintenance, resulting in dying plants that detract rather than enhance the space. Biome recognized this fundamental disconnect between the desire for biophilia in workplaces and the practical reality of maintaining living plants in commercial environments.
What sets Biome's approach apart is their integrated technology stack that treats plants as a critical component of the solution – what they've coined as "greenware." Their patented modular wall-mounted systems hang like TVs directly on drywall, requiring no soil (they're completely hydroponic), making them lightweight, pest-resistant, and clean. The built-in technology allows the systems to sense temperature and humidity in the space, adjusting their settings accordingly and dramatically reducing maintenance requirements. Rather than weekly professional maintenance, users simply receive notifications once or twice monthly to top off water reservoirs.
Perhaps most impressive is Biome's latest innovation – self-watering technology that harvests moisture directly from ambient air. Inspired by a dehumidifier, this patented technology allows their next-generation products to maintain themselves indefinitely, pulling clean, chemical-free water from the air without ever requiring refills. This represents a quantum leap in making biophilia truly accessible and maintenance-free for commercial spaces.
Beyond the immediate benefits of easier maintenance and healthier plants, Biome has embraced circular economy principles from the ground up. Their products are designed for 15-year lifecycles, avoiding harmful materials like PVC, and include a comprehensive take-back program. At the end of their first lifecycle, Biome refurbishes the walls with new components and donates them to schools and other organizations that might not otherwise afford them, extending their useful life by another 5-10 years and keeping them out of landfills.
For workplace strategists and designers, the implications are significant. Instead of relegating living walls to showcase lobby installations, Biome's technology enables distributed biophilia throughout a space – conference rooms, break areas, open offices – bringing nature's benefits directly to where employees actually spend their time. As younger workers increasingly prioritize natural elements in their workspaces, solutions that elegantly bridge technology and nature will become essential differentiators for forward-thinking companies.
The journey of Biome itself reflects a powerful narrative about business as a force for good. Founded by Cavote after time spent living off-grid and foraging in the Pacific Northwest, the company represents his attempt to answer a fundamental question: can capitalism be leveraged to create scalable positive impact? Ten years of careful development, testing, and refinement suggest the answer may be yes – through patient innovation, sustainable design principles, and a genuine commitment to creating products that get better, not worse, with scale.