WORLD LEADERS IN SAIL RECYCLING
Meet the Team
At the helm of Sustainable Extricko are two brothers with a shared passion for sustainability and innovation. Dr Joe Penhaul Smith and Sam Penhaul have combined their unique skills and experiences to create a company that’s transforming the way industries approach waste.
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The younger brother and professional sailor
Sam is a highly accomplished sailor and boat builder, having worked and built boats for prestigious teams including America’s Cup, RC44s and Vendee Globe teams.
His specialty is building teams and systems to capitalise on all of those marginal gains that race teams leave on the shelf. When combined with a talent for building novel composite components and developing recycled and bio-composite components, Sam is pushing forwards the limits of sailing
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Joe Penhaul Smith, the older of the two brothers, is a professional scientist with over nine years of experience in biotechnology and green chemistry. With a PhD. focused on the intersection of industrial biotechnology and green chemistry, Joe has dedicated his career to translating laboratory innovations into scalable industrial solutions. His recent work includes collaborating with B&M Longworth, the original inventors of pressolysis, to further develop the revolutionary Extricko process. Outside of the lab, Joe remains connected to his passion for sailing, often found racing Europe Dinghies.
We’re two brothers—a sailor and a scientist—on a mission to change the industry. Shocked that less than 1% of sails are recycled, we developed Extrico, a breakthrough in green chemistry that recycles every sail component with zero waste. We've proven it works and believe it should be the new industry standard. Our goal is to expand this technology across the outdoor world.
WHAT WE DO
Shortlisted for the Moonshot Platform Start-Up award 2022
AWARDS
Shortlisted for the Maritime UK Start-up of the Year award 2024