I recently needed to have some work done on my home. It was nothing major - I just needed to have some dry-rotted wood removed and a door rehung. I called a residential contractor who had come highly recommended to me. He said that it would be about 2 months before he could come out and give me a quote and another two months before he could get me on his schedule. Wow! That was not the lead time I expected. But I suppose I should not be so surprised. Last fall, I needed to have the drainage in my yard rerouted, and the landscaper’s lead time was similar.

The real challenge in building net-zero energy and net-zero carbon buildings is not the technology or science but the unit economics due to higher material costs. Reframe Systems is developing a novel robotic microfactory with software-driven manufacturing that significantly improves labor productivity and reduces construction costs for net-zero homes by absorbing the incremental cost of better materials. In doing so, we get one step closer in solving our mission of building net-zero carbon homes for all, at massive scale.

We are excited to share more details about our new venture, Reframe Systems. We are on a mission to accelerate and scale the construction of net-zero homes for all. We are developing a parameterizable modular construction system and a network of microfactories that enable us to drive down costs and construction times of net-zero housing to make it economically viable. We are seed-funded by Eclipse Ventures and Foundamental Ventures and are on track to build our prototype microfactory in the Greater Boston area by the end of this year.