Cleaner Tech

Green Cement Startup Slashes Staff After Trump Cuts Support

Massachusetts-based Sublime Systems has cut two-thirds of its current workforce, casting doubt on a deal to supply Microsoft with low-carbon material.

A Sublime Systems concrete cylinder. 

Photographer: Bob O'Connor/Sublime Systems

Green cement startup Sublime Systems has laid off two-thirds of its current workforce after President Donald Trump’s administration canceled a crucial grant that would have supported the producer’s first major manufacturing facility.

As a result of the loss of an $87 million grant from the US Department of Energy, “the company has faced compounding challenges in assembling the capital stack required to scale our operations,” a Sublime spokesperson wrote in an email. Prior to the layoffs, the company employed between 80 and 90 people.