Green Island, NY—June 11, 2013—Today, Ecovative, a material science company known for its innovative mycelium technology that replaces plastic foam and other synthetic materials with natural alternatives, announces that new achievements in performance and aesthetics for its mushroom packaging will be on display for attendees at the 2013 East Pack Show in Philadelphia, June 18-20. Sealed Air Corporation, now the exclusive provider of Ecovative’s packaging products in the US and Europe, will be on hand to showcase Restore™ Mushroom® Packaging and the custom-molded processes available for providing a wide range of shipping and packaging solutions across multiple industries.

Since introducing Mushroom® Packaging to the world at East Pack in 2009, Ecovative has won the highest awards in the packaging industry and has become well-known for developing an environmentally responsible replacement to expanded plastics including styrene, polyethylene and polypropylene (commonly called Styrofoam) with its custom-molded protective Mushroom® Packaging that is being used by industry leaders like Dell and Crate & Barrel to ship computers and furniture.

“We look forward to sharing with the East Pack community the continuing breakthroughs in mycelium technology at our R&D Center. Our biomaterials scientists and product development team, working with the leading protective packaging experts from Sealed Air, can now offer more solutions than ever before to the packaging industry,” says Eben Bayer, Ecovative’s Co-founder and CEO.

With its Mushroom® Packaging, Ecovative provides a sustainable and eco-responsible alternative to plastics and plastic foams for packaging, building materials and other applications by using mushroom technology to convert agricultural waste into high-performance, cost effective, and home-compostable materials. “What’s new in mushroom material performance, aesthetics and texture will truly make a new era of eco-responsible packaging a reality,” added Bayer. ‘Now you can protect your package and our planet.”

About the Biopolymer Symposium

At Biopolymers 2013, nearly 60 expert speakers will cover the most important industry issues including sustainable feedstocks; the use of biopolymers in compostable food service ware; rigid and flexible biopolymer packaging and single use applications; innovations in materials; strategic partnerships and more.

Green Island, NY. June 6, 2013. Today, Ecovative, a material science company known for its innovative mycelium technology that replaces plastic foam and other synthetic materials with natural alternatives, announces that new achievements in performance and aesthetics for its mushroom packaging will be on display for attendees at the 2013 East Pack Show in Philadelphia, June 18-20. Sealed Air Corporation, the exclusive provider of Ecovative’s packaging products in the US and Europe, will be on hand to showcase Restore™ Mushroom® Packaging and the custom-molded processes available for providing a wide range of shipping and packaging solutions across multiple industries.

Since introducing Mushroom® Packaging to the world at East Pack in 2009, Ecovative has won the highest awards in the packaging industry and has become well-known for developing an environmentally responsible replacement to expanded plastics including styrene, polyethelene and polypropylene (commonly called Styrofoam) with its custom-molded protective Mushroom® Packaging that is being used by industry leaders like Dell and Crate & Barrel to ship computers and furniture.

“We look forward to sharing with the East Pack community the continuing breakthroughs in mycelium technology at our R&D Center. Our biomaterials scientists and product development team, working with the leading protective packaging experts from Sealed Air, can now offer more solutions than ever before to the packaging industry,” says Eben Bayer, Ecovative’s Co-founder and CEO.

With its Mushroom® Packaging, Ecovative provides a sustainable and eco-responsible alternative to plastics and plastic foams for packaging, building materials and other applications by using mushroom technology to convert agricultural waste into high-performance, cost effective, and home-compostable materials. “What’s new in mushroom material performance, aesthetics and texture will truly make a new era of eco-responsible packaging a reality,” added Bayer. “Now you can protect your package and our planet.”

About Ecovative

Founded in 2007, Ecovative is a materials science company developing a new class of home-compostable bioplastics based on mycelium, an organism akin to a living polymer. Ecovative’s high-performance products serve as environmentally responsible alternatives to traditional foam packaging, insulation, and other plastic-based materials. Ecovative was incubated at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. Rensselaer, together with 3M Company and the DOEN Foundation, are significant investors in Ecovative. Ecovative has been recognized with numerous international awards for sustainability and “green” technologies, and was named a Tech Pioneer at the 2011 World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland. Ecovative’s growth has been fueled by grants, prizes, and support packaging materials made from agricultural byproducts and mycelium, or mushroom roots. In October 2012, Sealed Air launched Restore™ Mushroom® Packaging, its first commercialized product using Ecovative’s biomaterial technology.

About Sealed Air

Sealed Air is a global leader in food safety and security, facility hygiene and product protection. With widely recognized and inventive brands such as Bubble Wrap® brand cushioning, Cryovac® brand food packaging solutions and Diversey™ brand cleaning and hygiene solutions, Sealed Air offers efficient and sustainable solutions that create business value for customers, enhance the quality of life for consumers and provide a cleaner and healthier environment for future generations. Sealed Air generated revenue of approximately $7.6 billion in 2012, and has approximately 25,000 employees who serve customers in 175 countries. To learn more, visit www.sealedair.com

According to the SBA, a study conducted by R&D Magazine between 2002 and 2006 concluded that 25 percent of the annual Top 100 Innovations came from companies that had received SBIR funding. In 2008, Ecovative received its first SBIR grant. Over the past five years, the company has achieved extensive progress toward the development of cost competitive and environmentally preferable biomaterials. In these efforts and accomplishments, the company has been supported by diverse forms of private and commercial funding, including five SBIR grants, three of which led to Phase II programs. Partnerships have included government agencies, academic institutions, and commercial representatives. Ecovative attributes its past successes and future opportunities to the many strategic decisions that have moved forward under a common, strongly supported mission to produce material products that offer safer, higher performing, and economically competitive choices.

The Tibbetts Award honors companies and individuals who demonstrate top quality performance in high technology research and deliver progress. Roland Tibbetts, founder of the SBIR program, joined SBA Administrator Karen Mills and Senator Mary Landrieu, Chair of the Senate Small Business and Entrepreneurship Committee in presenting 18 company awards and 3 individual awards for the 2013 event. After five years of research in the SBIR program, Ecovative is proud to join the SBA and the other award recipients in receiving this honor.

The print edition will hit newsstands this week and access is available online for subscribers. Be sure to get your copy and share with friends or family.

Here’s a sneak preview:

Gavin McIntyre, the co-inventor of a process that grows all-natural substitutes for plastic from the tissue of mushrooms, holds a pen or pencil in an unusual way. Gripping it between two fingers of his right hand, he moves his arm across the paper so that his wrist grazes the inscribed line; because of this, he uses pens with ink that doesn’t smear. When he draws an explanatory diagram of the chitin molecule–chitin is the principal component of mycelium, the white, rootlike vegetative structure of fungi–he bends over his work, then looks up earnestly to see if his hearer has understood. The gesture makes him appear younger than his age, which is twenty-eight. He wears glasses and has straight black hair, dark eyes, and several piercings, with studs in his lip and ears.

The other co-inventor, Eben Bayer, won’t be twenty-eight until June. Bayer is almost six-five, and often assumes the benign expression of a large and friendly older brother. His hair is brown, short, and spiky, his face is long, and his self-effacing manner hides the grand ambitions that people who come from small towns (Bayer grew up in South Royalton, in central Vermont) sometimes have. When he says, of the company that he and McIntyre founded, “We want to be the Dow or DuPont of this century,” he is serious. He is their company’s C.E.O., McIntyre its Chief Scientist. People with money and influence have bet that they will succeed.

Ecovative has been awarded a Phase 1 Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) grant from the US Environmental Protection Agency. This grant funds the development of Myco-material alternatives to plastics such as polyurethane and exotic woods like balsa. Ecovative will be exploring new fungal species and growth methods, and studying the resulting material properties. This research could lead to new material innovations that could have wide ranging applications from consumer products to aerospace.

The EPA has been a great supporter of Ecovative’s development, and has previously provided grants that lead to the commercialization of Mushroom® Packaging. If you want to know the history, check out this link the EPA SBIR program put together: http://epa.gov/ncer/multimedia/videos/sbir/ecovative.html

We’re not just building a tiny house, we’re growing it. That’s right, the Mushroom Insulation in the walls is literally alive and growing. This is a radical test of Ecovative’s building materials that are under development.

Last year the two companies announced Sealed Air as the exclusive licensee for protective packaging in North America for Mushroom® Packaging, a new technology for rapidly renewable and environmentally responsible packaging materials made from agricultural byproducts and mycelium, or mushroom roots. In October 2012, Sealed Air launched Restore™ Mushroom® Packaging, its first commercialized product using Ecovative’s biomaterial technology.

“The agreement builds upon our successful, ground breaking relationship with Sealed Air and continues the overall momentum for providing an innovative and effective alternative to petrochemical based packaging on a much larger scale,” said Eben Bayer, CEO of Ecovative. “We are confident that we can extend this momentum into the European marketplace.”

“Ecovative has had a great deal of success using the unique properties of mycelium for protective packaging. We are looking forward to meeting the performance needs of potential European customers through a variety of packaging applications using this technology,” said Ryan Flanagan, President of Sealed Air’s Protective Packaging business.  “Through our SmartLife™ commitment, we are reducing waste throughout the supply chain and helping our customers achieve their sustainability objectives by choosing the right solutions for the right needs, without sacrificing performance or cost competitiveness.”

Details of the transaction were not disclosed.  Sealed Air does not expect the transaction to be material to its consolidated financial position or results of operations.

About Sealed Air
Sealed Air is a global leader in food safety and security, facility hygiene and product protection. With widely recognized and inventive brands such as Bubble Wrap^® brand cushioning, Cryovac^® brand food packaging solutions and Diversey^TM brand cleaning and hygiene solutions, Sealed Air offers efficient and sustainable solutions that create business value for customers, enhance the quality of life for consumers and provide a cleaner and healthier environment for future generations. Sealed Air generated revenue of approximately $7.6 billion in 2012, and has approximately 25,000 employees who serve customers in 175 countries. To learn more, visit www.sealedair.com.

About Ecovative
Founded in 2007, Ecovative is a materials science company developing a new class of home-compostable bioplastics based on mycelium, an organism akin to a living polymer. Ecovative’s high-performance products serve as environmentally responsible alternatives to traditional foam packaging, insulation, and other plastic-based materials. Ecovative was incubated at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. Rensselaer, together with 3M Company and the DOEN Foundation, are significant investors in Ecovative. Ecovative has been recognized with numerous international awards for sustainability and “green” technologies, and was named a Tech Pioneer at the 2011 World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland. Ecovative’s growth has been fueled by grants, prizes, and support from key partners including the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority, the National Science Foundation, the U.S. Department of Agriculture, the Environmental Protection Agency, and the National Collegiate Inventors and Innovators Alliance. For more information, visit  www.ecovativedesign.com, and follow @ecovative on Twitter.

Forward-Looking Statements

Company statements in this press release may be forward-looking.  These statements include comments as to future events that may affect the Company, which are based upon management’s current expectations and are subject to uncertainties, many of which are outside the Company’s control.  Forward-looking statements can be identified by such words as “anticipates,” “expects,” “will” and similar expressions. A variety of factors may cause actual results to differ materially from these expectations, including:  economic conditions affecting packaging utilization; changes in raw material costs; currency translation effects; and legal proceedings. For more extensive information, see “Risk Factors” and “Cautionary Notice Regarding Forward-Looking Statements,” which appear in Sealed Air’s most recent Annual Report on Form 10-K, as filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission, and as may be revised and updated by Quarterly Reports on Form 10-Q and Current Reports on Form 8-K.

Media Contacts:

Ken Aurichio                                                  Sam Harrington

Sealed Air Corporation                                   Ecovative

(201) 791-7600                                               (518) 273-3753 ext. 1004

Ken.aurichio@sealedair.com                           sam@ecovativedesign.com

Ecovative scientists worked with the local team to design and grow custom shapes, specifically molded to the average driver’s body. While the competition does not regulate the performance of the side bolsters, judges prefer protection for the driver’s arm and chest. Ecovative’s solution allowed the Hybrid team to eliminate their traditional seat pan, reducing the weight of the seat with an upholstered aluminum seat plate.

Rensselaer Formula Hybrid will race at the 2013 International Formula Hybrid Competition April 29 – May 2 in Loudonville, NH. Ecovative wishes the team our best luck in driving the future of sustainable racing materials.

As part of his visit and keynote speech at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Gallagher’s visit included a tour of the facility, focusing on Ecovative’s technological advancement in collaboration with RPI, New York State agencies, and other area colleges and universities. In appreciation for his support of Ecovative’s partnerships and efforts, Gallagher received a home-grown, custom engraved Mushroom® Plaque.