Submitted
2025 Global Climate Challenge

H2Organic Paint

Team Leader
Atharva Mehra
H2Organic Paint is a living, bio-engineered paint that transforms urban walls into active systems that purify air, capture carbon, and filter rainwater. It uses genetically modified cyanobacteria and algae embedded in a transparent hydrogel to photosynthesize, absorb pollutants, and generate oxygen. The system includes three layers: a microbial layer for environmental function, a hydrogel matrix for moisture retention and gas...
What is the name of your organization?
H2Organic Paint
What is the name of your solution?
H2Organic Paint
Provide a one-line summary or tagline for your solution.
A living bio-paint that purifies air, captures CO₂, filters moisture water, and transforms walls in urban areas into climate solutions.
In what city, town, or region is your solution team headquartered?
Dubai - United Arab Emirates
In what country is your solution team headquartered?
ARE
What type of organization is your solution team?
Hybrid of for-profit and nonprofit
Film your elevator pitch.
What specific problem are you solving?
Cities, home to over 4 billion people, generate more than 70% of global CO₂ emissions and are facing escalating crises of air pollution and water scarcity. Over 99% of the world’s population breathes air that exceeds WHO pollution guidelines, contributing to 7 million premature deaths annually. Simultaneously, nearly 2 billion people live in water-stressed regions, where rainfall is often wasted due to poor capture infrastructure. These issues are most severe in rapidly urbanizing, low- and middle-income areas where vulnerable populations suffer the highest health and economic burdens. Conventional mitigation approaches such as green walls or rooftop systems are often expensive, land-intensive, or unsuitable for dense and low-resource environments. What’s missing is a scalable, accessible solution that works with existing urban surfaces to combat these challenges. We are addressing the urgent need for decentralized, climate-positive infrastructure that improves air quality, captures carbon, and provides clean water without requiring large capital projects. By activating idle surfaces like walls with bio-functional technology, we aim to shift buildings from being passive contributors to climate change into active agents of environmental restoration, especially in underserved, high-risk urban communities.
What is your solution?
H2Organic Paint is a living, bio-engineered paint that transforms urban walls into active systems that purify air, capture carbon, and filter rainwater. It uses genetically modified cyanobacteria and algae embedded in a transparent hydrogel to photosynthesize, absorb pollutants, and generate oxygen. The system includes three layers: a microbial layer for environmental function, a hydrogel matrix for moisture retention and gas exchange, and a protective outer layer for durability. The paint can be applied to concrete, metal, or glass, and self-solidifies using UV exposure. In arid regions, engineered microbes retain water and remain active, while selective markers prevent unwanted growth. One square meter can capture up to 0.5 kg of CO₂ daily and filter 20–30 liters of rainwater per year. Scalable and low-maintenance, H2Organic Paint replaces traditional coatings, green walls, and passive infrastructure with a functional, climate-positive alternative. It supports sustainable urban development by turning buildings into micro-scale climate solutions, aligning with SDGs 6 (Clean Water), 11 (Sustainable Cities), and 13 (Climate Action).
Who does your solution serve, and in what ways will the solution impact their lives?
Our solution serves urban communities –especially in rapidly growing, low-resource cities– where air pollution, climate stress, and lack of clean water disproportionately affect low-income households. These populations often live in dense, poorly ventilated housing with limited access to green infrastructure, clean air, or affordable purification systems. H2Organic Paint offers them a low-barrier, passive way to improve environmental conditions right where they live. By turning everyday walls into surfaces that clean the air and produce non-potable water for daily use, the solution reduces exposure to harmful pollutants, eases heat stress, and improves respiratory health. For families, this means less respiratory illnesses, and therefore fewer missed school or workdays and the right to a good quality life; for local governments, it means healthier, more resilient neighborhoods without the need for large capital investments. We also anticipate job creation through local application and maintenance (light cleaning around every 6 months), empowering youth and unemployed workers to take part in building climate-positive cities. In this way, H2Organic Paint doesn't just improve walls, but also improves lives, especially for those who’ve long been excluded from the benefits of sustainable innovation.
Solution Team:
Atharva  Mehra
Atharva Mehra