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By Laura Mabry
The world Gabe Tavas envisions has more trees. A lot more trees. Like before humans started cutting them down to make products we need and want like homes and hutches, decks and docks.
These products still exist in the world Tavas intends to help create. But they would be made from an innovative marriage of food waste and active bacteria. Tavas and his team created Pyrus as a sustainable wood alternative to shape a better future for our planet.
Tavas is founder and chief executive officer of SymmetryWood. The startup was born at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, Tavas’ alma mater. A research powerhouse, UIUC is part of the University of Illinois System, which prioritizes innovation that improves lives in the state and beyond. SymmetryWood’s work targets reducing – ideally ending – rainforest deforestation
“The exotic wood industry cuts down 30 other trees to harvest one ebony, mahogany or rosewood tree,” Tavas said. “It’s devastating, and it’s unsustainable. We have to do something.”
If Pyrus replaced wood in a host of applications, more trees would remain in Earth’s rainforests. That’s an essential step for getting climate change in check, something the U of I System pushes for progress on every day under the Research and Scholarship with Global Impact pillar of the system’s strategic framework.
What is Pyrus?
Pyrus uses a kombucha component called a SCOBY – short for symbiotic culture of bacteria and yeast. Producers reuse SCOBY discs to brew more of the popular fermented drink. But they may end up discarding what can be an ever-growing supply as the cellulose discs replicate themselves.
Tavas’ colleagues blend the cellulose and add a binding agent which turns it into a gel. They then press out any liquid and dry the material to get Pyrus, which looks and functions like wood. As they experimented with their process, they created small items like guitar picks. The team progressed to making jewelry that looks like ebony and the other exotic woods they’re trying to preserve.
Tavas started working on Pyrus at UIUC’s Community Fab Lab then shifted to using space at Seibel Center for Design (SCD). SymmetryWood operates out of Chicago now, another example of graduates from system universities staying in Illinois to help fuel advances and the state’s economy.
SCD’s lab and equipment manager Neil Pearse likes being a small part of environmentally valuable inventions like Tavas’. In his role at the 2-year-old design center that brings together people from all corners of the UIUC campus, Pearse delivers tools, supplies and guidance so makers can turn their ideas into something they can hold.
“What Gabe has today is not the same product as when he started,” Pearse said. “When it comes to working through prototype stages, SymmetryWood has followed exactly the model we preach.”
Getting started
A product of Chicago Public Schools’ Northside College Preparatory High School, Tavas started researching startups in high school. He considers the early start essential.
“The teacher who encouraged me to do my first science fair in middle school was so important. She was passionate about climate change, engraining in me an attitude of being a steward of nature,” Tavas said. “She taught me to think bold, be curious and do the research.”
His determination reached a boiling point during a volunteer stint in the mountains in Ecuador. The Indigenous elders warned about melting ice caps while the community burned its plastic waste.
“Creating exposure to noxious chemicals in one of the most natural places on earth really hit me. While it’s better to design with wood than plastic, deforestation is quickly claiming the world’s trees,” Tavas said.
“I needed to find a different way.”
Back home, Tavas discovered a Ted Talk about designers using bacterial cellulose to create textiles for clothing. But when he told engineers and others he wanted to make wood-like products from bacteria, many used the word “impossible.”
“There were some really tough times early on. But my dogged stubbornness around environmental issues made me unwilling to quit,” Tavas said.
Student influence
When Tavas hit roadblocks, having students who believed in him boosted his productivity.
His UIUC interns extol their mentor’s virtues.
“Gabe is kind and humble,” said St. Louis' Brian Cheng, who plans to work in earth-friendly biotechnology after he graduates this spring. “People stay with him because he’s encouraging while letting us be independent in our work.”
Angie Lewis added, “Gabe is the most welcoming person. He made me want to go to work every day. I’d wake up and think, ‘I get to help save the planet.’”
Some in Generation Z resent having to help fix a world that other generations put in peril. Not so for two of Tavas’ instrumental interns.
“Getting to help solve some pretty serious environmental problems is motivating,” said Lewis. She’s a sophomore from the Chicago area majoring in industrial design. “Making materials that are better for the environment lets me make a positive impact.”
iVenture Accelerator
Lewis and Cheng were interns at key points of SymmetryWood’s participation in the eighth iVenture Accelerator cohort. Part of UIUC’s Gies College of Business, iVenture supports student-led entrepreneurial endeavors with expertise and capital.
“At iVenture, we got to show off our biggest samples of Pyrus yet. We showed Pyrus in use on a ukulele fingerboard, and people really started to see how it could be used in mainstream products,” he said.
Being part of iVenture prompted Tavas to “to start dreaming much bigger.” The winner of the prestigious U.S. National James Dyson Award and DePaul University Pitch Madness participant is courting investors so he can scale up Pyrus production.
And he’s influencing the next generation.
Cheng said, “The best part of my SymmetryWood internship was experiencing the startup route. I plan to start my own business, so I got to see what being a founder really looks like.”
As SymmetryWood continues to aim big, Tavas also hopes niche industries latch on to Pyrus. He’s now used his wood substitute to create a guitar fret and envisions whole string instruments composed from his creation.
“We want to reach major markets but also build community around the solutions needed for improving our world,” Tavas said. “It will be beautiful to see how that turns out.”
The University of Illinois System’s impact through networks of expertise and support for innovators is just part of what makes us Altogether Extraordinary. To share a story idea, please message lmabry@uillinois.edu.
