Unreasonable Impact is an innovative multi-year partnership between Barclays and Unreasonable Group to launch the world’s first international network of accelerators focused on scaling up entrepreneurial solutions that will help employ thousands worldwide while solving some of our most pressing societal challenges. Barclays and Unreasonable share a belief that high-growth entrepreneurs are well-placed to tackle the global problem of unemployment. Furthermore, Barclays and Unreasonable believe that entrepreneurial solutions are best primed for scale when supported by a major corporation that can accelerate their growth. Thus, each program is designed to support growth-stage ventures with advice and guidance from a global community of world-class mentors and industry specialists, including experts from across Barclays. Unreasonable Impact consists of three intensive two-week programmes held annually in three distinct regions: UK & Europe, the Americas, and Asia Pacific. Now having completed three full years of the partnership, the global network consists of 109 ventures that positively impact the lives of more than 187 million customers in more than 180 countries. The third annual Unreasonable Impact World Forum in 2019 spotlights the ventures that participated in the third year of programmes. Moving forward, the partnership will continue to support these high-growth entrepreneurs as they boldly create the jobs of tomorrow.
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FUTURE OF ENERGY
FUTURE OF SUPPLY CHAINS
FUTURE OF FOOD, WATER & AGRICULTURE
FUTURE OF SUSTAINABLE LIVING
06 08 10 12 14 16 18 20
24 26 28 30 32
36 Cambrian Innovation 38 Claro Energy 40 CROWDE 42 Entocycle 44 EM3 AgriServices 46 HISBE Food 48 Jasberry 50 Kuli Kuli 52 Lawrencedale Agro Processing 54 Marvelous Foods 56 OLIO 58 S4S Technologies 60 String Bio 62 Zero Mass Water
66 Abundance Investment 68 Astraea 70 Cleverciti Systems 72 Econic Technologies 74 Ecoware 76 Globechain 78 IGL Coatings 80 OriCiro 82 Plastic Bank 84 Stony Creek Colors 86 Vital Vio
Hydrostor Iceotope Lumos Natel Energy Neutral Fuels Qnergy SaltX Technology ZincFive
Evercomm Evrnu ideaForge Svante The Waste Transformers
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Future of Energy Hydrostor • Iceotope • Lumos • Natel Energy • Neutral Fuels • Qnergy • SaltX Technology • ZincFive
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FUTURE OF ENERGY
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FUTURE OF ENERGY
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Hydrostor hydrostor.ca
Hydrostor is a leader in Advanced Compressed Air Energy Storage (A-CAES), a technology uniquely suited to enable the transition to a cleaner, more reliable electricity grid. A-CAES helps address electricity system needs for dispatchable capacity, renewable integration and optimisation, transmission deferral and ancillary services, and is ideal for use in behind-the-meter or remote applications for mines and large industrial operations. Hydrostor’s solution delivers low-cost, long-duration, bulk energy storage that is synchronous and emission-free, and can be flexibly located, including as replacements for retired fossil fuel plants. The proprietary technology is now the leading low-cost bulk energy storage solution, at half the cost of lithium ion batteries and 10 times the lifespan. Hydrostor has multiple projects in operation and under construction in Australia and Canada, as well as numerous projects in advanced development globally. Hydrostor is backed by sustainable infrastructure developer/funder Meridiam and equipment supplier BakerHughesGE. 6
FUTURE OF ENERGY
Headquarters Toronto, Canada
Sector Clean Energy
Countries of Operation Entrepreneur Australia, Canada, Curtis VanWalleghem Chile, United States Co-Founder & CEO
Curtis VanWalleghem Curtis VanWalleghem is the Co-Founder and CEO of Hydrostor, an energy storage technology and development company of utility-scale projects using a proprietary Advanced Compressed Air Energy Storage (A-CAES) system. Curtis has led the company through technology development and into commercial operations, with more than 25 MWh of projects in operation/construction, and a multi-GW pipeline in North America, Australia and Chile. Previously, Curtis was a Senior Manager in Deloitte’s Corporate Strategy Consulting Practice where he advised and consulted for some of the top energy companies globally. He has also held positions at nuclear and wind generator, Bruce Power, and wind developer, Environmental Electric Company. He has experience working in more than 10 countries, including time volunteering in India. Curtis was a varsity hockey player while earning an Industrial Engineering degree and an MBA from the University of Toronto.
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THE AMERICAS
About
Iceotope iceotope.com
Iceotope’s next generation cooling technologies manage the heat generated by electronics from the cloud to the edge. Their chassis level immersion and precision delivery liquid cooling technologies can easily accommodate the increasing heat loads from the latest processor roadmaps — from relatively modest densities through to 45kw per rack. But if it’s Formula 1 compute, networking and storage you’re looking for, they have already cooled 100kw per rack. Engineered to fit all standard form factors including simple retrofits for Cloud, their technologies can cool the whole IT stack (in every use case) from the cloud to the edge. They can also be compacted into smaller custom form factors to enable edge compute, networking and storage in places that haven’t been possible until now. By removing the need for fans and air-cooling infrastructure, Iceotope’s technologies operate in pure silence — bringing game-changing reduction in energy and water consumption, and significant cost reductions in the design, build and operation of data centres. Because their technologies are sealed, silent and impervious to dust, heat and humidity, they can be deployed in the harshest environments. 8
FUTURE OF ENERGY
Headquarters Catcliffe, England, UK
Sector Cooling
Countries of Operation Bahrain, China, India, Poland, Singapore, United Arab Emirates, United Kingdom, United States
Entrepreneur David Craig CEO
UK & EUROPE
About
David Craig David is a 54 year-old father of three and husband of one. He left school to play bass in punk bands, but when he did not become an international star, he got a job working in Unisys and IBM in global procurement roles. After that, he gained an MBA. He was hired to lead the commercial integration of Prudential Assurance and Scottish Amicable, and from there he moved on to turn around a leading British refrigeration company. After selling that, he started a consultancy and sold it three years later. Then, he was invited to join a late 90s tech boom disaster, which became Scotland’s third largest software company. In addition to running Iceotope, David serves as director of a social housing company, and his family privately runs a charity that educates 740 children in Kenya whilst employing 32 people as teachers and in other roles locally. David still plays bass and serves as a lay minister in his church.
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Lumos lumos-global.com
Lumos offers clean, affordable solar power to a market of 1.3 billion potential customers who live off the electricity grid. Lumos enables people to replace hazardous and expensive kerosene generators and lanterns with modern solar electricity that can power lights, cell phones, fans, computers, TVs and other small electronic devices – all at once, every day. By providing solar power as a service, Lumos offers homes and small businesses a simple and affordable way to pay for electricity in small instalments using their mobile phones. Lumos believes everyone has the right to enjoy a better quality of life offered by access to clean, affordable, and reliable electricity. They make it happen by enabling offgrid customers to take control of their energy generation and usage; providing high level customer support and technical service, leaning on remote monitoring (m2m) and data intelligence to keep systems running smoothly, minimising the need for on-site technicians, and designing durable, energy efficient, worry-free solar power systems suitable for private usage. 10
FUTURE OF ENERGY
Headquarters Netanya, Israel
Sector Clean Energy
Countries of Operation Ivory Coast, Nigeria
Entrepreneur Davidi Vortman Co-Founder & CEO
Davidi Vortman Davidi Vortman is a veteran C-Suite executive and pioneer in the fields of technology and communications, with a strong track record of growing businesses globally. In 2013 Davidi founded Lumos, a disruptive solar company with a focus on emerging markets. As CEO Davidi has led the company’s explosive growth, developing disruptive technologies and innovative business models which include integrated partnerships with major mobile network operators. A leading voice in the off-grid solar industry, Davidi is frequently called upon as a commentator in the press and at leading international events. Davidi has previously held executive positions at Comverse Technologies, a major software developer with 4,500 employees during his tenure, working closely with mobile operators in developed as well as emerging markets. In his last role, Davidi led the hyper growth of Orsus, a startup within the security group at NICE Systems.
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UK & EUROPE
About
Natel Energy natelenergy.com
Natel Energy is solving the problems inhibiting traditional hydropower: capital intensive to develop, negative environmental and community impacts, and inflexible in the face of climate uncertainty. They have launched three systems — hydroEngines, Restoration Hydro, and Upstream — that enable cost-effective production of low impact, distributed reliable renewable energy while maintaining the health of watershed ecosystems and the communities who surround them. hydroEngines are designed for high flows at low heads, generating electricity at or less than $0.05 USD for project sites as small as 1 MW. Restoration Hydro is an innovative development framework that incorporates the concept of biomimicry in the form of low-head, strategically-sited structures proven to restore watershed and ecological function. Upstream is a software platform providing services to monitor and measure natural resources for efficient project implementation. Upstream allows for more efficient siting, screening, development, monitoring, and operation of sustainable, distributed hydropower, as well as accurate, up-to-date analysis of water resources for water managers, investors, and conservation entities. 12
FUTURE OF ENERGY
Headquarters Alameda, CA, USA
Sector Clean Energy
Countries of Operation United States
Entrepreneur Gia Schneider Co-Founder & CEO
Gia Schneider Gia Schneider is co-founder and CEO of Natel Energy. Gia holds a Bachelor of Science in Chemical Engineering from MIT and has 17 years of experience in the energy industry. While in the utility practice at Accenture, she provided strategic and tactical solutions to several major energy companies and has significant experience in energy-related strategy development and deal valuation. After Accenture, she worked at Constellation Energy on optimising generation asset value. Gia left Constellation in 2004 to help start the energy trading desk at Credit Suisse; and in 2005, she started the carbon emissions trading desk, growing it to a profitable business in its first year. Gia is passionate about finding economically viable solutions to mitigate climate change, foster sustainable development, and produce inexpensive renewable energy. In her spare time, she can be found surfing, kiting, cooking, dancing and gardening with friends and family.
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THE AMERICAS
About
Neutral Fuels neutralfuels.com
Neutral Fuels converts used cooking oil into biodiesel, significantly reducing carbon emissions and making environmental sustainability a commercial proposition. After nearly a decade making net-zero biofuels in the fossil fuel capital of the world (with no subsidies, no carbon credits, and no tax incentives), Neutral Fuels determined that the only sustainable way to make net-zero biofuel is to make it from waste. The company has also pioneered the use of Internet of Things (IoT) sensors coupled with their apps to optimise waste and fuel, saving time and money for their customers. Neutral Fuels is a member of The Neutral Group, an international cleantech organisation founded in 2006 to build sustainability strategies for the logistics, energy and hospitality industries and to execute significant reductions in energy spend and CO2 emissions. The company is headquartered in Dubai for easy access to the APMEA region (Asia Pacific/ Middle East/Africa), where they are currently deploying new biorefineries. Neutral Fuels is the first licensed biorefinery in the UAE and has offices in Australia, China, Hong Kong, New Zealand, and South Africa. 14
FUTURE OF ENERGY
Headquarters Dubai, United Arab Emirates
Sector Clean Energy
Countries of Operation Australia, Bahrain, China, India, Kuwait, Malaysia, New Zealand, Oman, Singapore, South Africa, Taiwan, United Arab Emirates
Entrepreneur Karl Feilder Chairman & CEO
Karl Feilder In 2011, Karl pioneered the Middle East’s first net-zero biofuel refinery in Dubai. Today, it’s the largest group of net-zero fuel facilities in the GCC, with over 12 million tonnes of CO2 emissions savings, transforming local waste into net-zero fuel which runs any diesel engine without modifications. Over the past five years, he pioneered Internet of Things (IoT) sensors to optimise waste and fuel management, saving time and money for customers. Karl was recognised as a Technology Pioneer by the World Economic Forum, and has built and sold five companies (the first to Microsoft and the last to DHL) and led two more to IPO. Karl is preparing for his next IPO on AIM, and coaching start-ups at Hult. Karl holds an MBA (Henley Business School), B.Eng. (Hons) Industrial Engineering / German, and he is writing his Ph.D on “Psychological profiling of start-up teams”. He is an international speaker and the lead vocalist for Dubai classic rock band Sandstörm.
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ASIA PACIFIC
About
Qnergy qnergy.com
Qnergy (q-ner-gy) is an emerging leader in maintenance-free generators for the 1-10 kilowatt range. The company uses a freepiston Stirling Engine, which was recognised by NASA as the most reliable generation technology in history. Qnergy’s business model is comprised of selling power generators, engines, licensing, and engineering services, and it serves multiple remote and distributed power sectors. For energy companies, including oil and gas as well as utilities, the company offers superior reliability and environmental performance and a notable reduction of methane emissions at a lower price. While servicing the energy sector, the company is leveraging partnerships to develop additional applications, such as clean energy based on biogas. One of the most challenging drivers of climate change globally is the energy choices of nearly 1 billion people that have access to livestock but lack access to energy and water. Qnergy’s maintenance-free generators enable better choices through turning animal waste into clean energy. 16
FUTURE OF ENERGY
Headquarters Ogden, UT, USA
Sector Clean Energy
Countries of Operation Entrepreneur Austria, Canada, Japan, Mexico, Ory Zik South Korea, United States CEO
THE AMERICAS
About
Ory Zik Ory Zik is a cleantech entrepreneur with more than two decades of executive leadership. Currently, he’s the CEO of Qnergy, a developer of maintenance-free generators based on Stirling Technology. Previously, Ory was the founding CEO of analytics company Energy Points, a developer of a unified metric for energy, carbon and water (acquired by Lux Research). He was the co-founder and CEO of HelioFocus, a solar-thermal company that used concentrated solar power to replace fuel in conventional power plants. He was also the founding CEO of QuantomiX, the first company to image live cells in an electron microscope. QuantomiX products are used by researchers around the world for better imaging results. Ory holds a Ph.D. in Physics from the Weizmann Institute of Science, in addition to a number of worldwide patents. He’s perhaps best known as an environmental activist for founding and leading the Israeli branch of Greenpeace and for being the Scientific Director of Israel’s National Museum of Science.
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SaltX Technology saltxtechnology.com
SaltX Technology has developed and patented a technology that stores energy in inexpensive, highly available salt and subsequently recovers it in the form of heat or cold. This reduces energy consumption and costs by one-third. The energy is stored chemically by separating salt from water and then released by combining them again. With regular salt, this process can only be performed a few times before the crystals agglomerate and prevent an effective chemical reaction. SaltX has solved this dilemma with their patented nano-coating, allowing energy to be charged and discharged thousands of times. Additionally, SaltX salt is non-corrosive — preventing rust — unlike ordinary salt, and is non-toxic and recyclable. SaltX Technology’s strategy is to develop, deliver, and license the SaltX technology to the world’s leading OEM manufacturers of energy efficient heating and cooling products. Their newest application, EnerStore, is designed to store large amounts of energy and augment existing peak-shaving lithium ion technology. The size of the application can be adjustable from family home size to large energy plant size. 18
FUTURE OF ENERGY
Headquarters Stockholm, Sweden
Sector Energy Storage
Countries of Operation China, Sweden, United States
Entrepreneur Eric Jacobson Head of Growth and Marketing
Eric Jacobson Eric Jacobson has an interdisciplinary international background. Prior to joining SaltX Technology, he had been working at organisations within the banking and start-up sectors, such as Nordea Markets, SACCNY, RecyclingAdvisor, BTS and ZeroMission. Eric has a Master’s Degree from Lund University. At Salt X, Eric’s role includes developing market strategy, identifying and performing growth initiatives. He oversees both short and long-term analysis of market potential, customer segments, customer needs and implementation of growth plans.
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THE AMERICAS
About
ZincFive zincfive.com
ZincFive is the world leader in innovation and delivery of nickelzinc based energy storage and delivery solutions for mission critical applications in data centres, intelligent transportation, and motive power. The company offers turnkey solutions in nickel-zinc battery-based uninterruptible power supplies (UPS) for the data centre and intelligent transportation markets. Nickel-zinc is the ideal battery for UPS backup with its ability to safely deliver large amounts of power in a small footprint with a battery life equal to UPS system life. ZincFive also provides battery solutions to motive power markets for specialty electric vehicles. Nickel-zinc batteries offer twice the power density with higher charge/discharge rates, three times the life, and a wider operating temperature range than lead-acid batteries, as well as containing no hazardous materials. When compared to lithium-ion, nickel-zinc batteries offer higher power density and charge/discharge rates, no thermal runaway, and are fail-safe and fully recyclable. With 97 patents awarded, ZincFive leverages nickel-zinc chemistry to provide high power density and performance along with superior safety and environmental advantages. 20
FUTURE OF ENERGY
Headquarters Oregon, USA
Sector Clean Energy
Countries of Operation Entrepreneur Australia, Canada, China, Tim Hysell Japan, United States Co-Founder & CEO
Tim Hysell For seven years, ZincFive co-founder Tim Hysell has expertly guided the creation and deployment of the world’s first nickel-zinc rechargeable battery technology. He founded and chaired PSI Acquisitions and Millennium Power Solutions – where the UPStealth® was invented – and ZincFive, which establishes nickel-zinc as only the fifth rechargeable battery to scale across the world. Tim has over three decades of entrepreneurial success in founding, owning, and directing profitable business operations in renewable energy, banking, manufacturing, and medical devices. His companies partnered with global giants such as Siemens, Phillips, and Hewlett-Packard. He excels at corporate transaction negotiations, fundraising, merger and acquisitions, IPO preparation, market share growth, and board leadership. Prior to owning his own businesses, Tim worked for General Electric, Hewlett-Packard, and Providence Health Systems. He is also the co-founder and board member of Pacific West Bank in Oregon and a former youth football, basketball, and baseball coach.
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THE AMERICAS
About
Future of Supply Chains Evercomm • Evrnu • ideaForge • Svante • The Waste Transformers
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FUTURE OF ENERGY
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FUTURE OF SUPPLY CHAINS
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Evercomm evercomm.com.sg
Evercomm Singapore provides Asset Performance Management (APM) solutions for energy-intensive enterprises. The core focus of their product is to harness IoT and machine learning technologies to simplify energy complexity and daily operations. The AI-driven APM dramatically reduces integration cost and time, enables realtime analytics correlating sensor data and equipment profiles, and extracts critical operation insights along with indexing equipment performance at scale. The company’s holistic energy management approach (combining both energy supply and demand) is co-developed with the Energy Research Institute at Nanyang Technological University under the Smart Multi-Energy System (SMES) initiative. Evercomm also works with United Nations, country leaders, and large conglomerates to build and train the pipeline of human resources that is needed in order to fill the necessary roles that sustainability and industry digitisation require. 24
FUTURE OF SUPPLY CHAINS
Headquarters Singapore
Sector Renewable Energy
Countries of Operation Israel, Malaysia, Singapore, Taiwan, Thailand
Entrepreneur Chiu-Hao (Ted) Chen Co-Founder, CEO & Chief Product Architect
Chiu-Hao (Ted) Chen Ted is the Co-founder of EverComm Singapore – one of APAC’s top energy IoT startups in the clean-tech sector. Being cited in the Singapore parliament and recognized as one of the digital pioneers in the country, Ted works closely with Singapore’s government on various industry transformation initiatives, and has designed a new, sustainable ICT framework and data policy with the United Nations. Ted has also been invited to speak at various international forums such as the United Nations High-level Political Forum on Sustainable Development, World Urban Forum, and ASEAN +3 Young Entrepreneurs Forum to promote sustainability and green entrepreneurship. In his commitment to expand and advance the role of youth in ICT, Ted works as a Science-Policy Interface Focal Point for the United Nations Major Group for Children & Youth (UN MGCY). Ted received the Nanyang Outstanding Young Alumni Award from Nanyang Technological University in Singapore, and made it to Forbes’ inaugural 30 Under 30 Asia list, under the category of Manufacturing and Energy.
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ASIA PACIFIC
About
Evrnu evrnu.com
Evrnu has invented fiber technology that transforms old clothing into new, highquality raw materials. Working with brands, fiber producers, and mills, Evrnu creates and licenses fiber formulations with unique performance and environmental advantages. These engineered fibers are a solution to the greatest threats currently facing the industry: textile waste, resource consumption, and environmental damage. Evrnu uses 98 percent less water than what is required for virgin cotton production, eliminates 80 percent of typical pollutant emissions, and can be regenerated multiple times. Evrnu offers an environment-sparing alternative for the world’s highest demand fibers — cotton, polyester, and rayon — and is currently being adopted by the world’s best brands and retailers. 26
FUTURE OF SUPPLY CHAINS
TM
Headquarters Seattle, WA, USA
Sector Sustainable Textiles
Countries of Operation United Kingdom, United States
Entrepreneur Stacy Flynn Co-Founder & CEO
Stacy Flynn Stacy Flynn is the CEO and a founding partner of Evrnu. She is an accomplished global textile product specialist and sustainable systems expert. After a diverse background working at the executive level in textile innovation with both startups and large multinational corporations like DuPont, Target, Eddie Bauer, and Rethink Fabrics, Stacy launched Future Resource Collective (FRC), a collaboration hub and incubator for sustainable innovations in the apparel and textile industry. In 2014, FRC launched its first social purpose corporation, Evrnu, which uses a patent-pending technology that recycles cotton garment waste to create premium, renewable fiber. As co-founder and CEO, Stacy drives Evrnu’s mission, market positioning, and branding. She holds an MBA degree in Sustainable Systems and a Bachelor of Science degree in Textile Development and Marketing from the Fashion Institute of Technology. Stacy’s personal mission is to ensure that the textile industry is healthy and able to grow in the future by elegantly managing resources.
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THE AMERICAS
About
ideaForge ideaforge.co.in
ideaForge is the global leader in UAV technology, manufacturing best-in-class drones for defense, enterprise, disaster response, and agricultural applications. As a pioneer in research, development, production and operation of compact, cost-effective and user-friendly Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs), their determination on designing sustainable and efficient products has presented them with an opportunity to become market leaders in their area of expertise. ideaForge is a vertically integrated company which is equipped with in-house R&D, design, manufacturing, software, services and training operations. This provides the flexibility to customise products for an array of requirements. The company also provides end-to-end UAV solutions and services to the industrial and commercial sectors.They are recipients of the Marico Innovation Foundation Award and have been named the Best Product Design Company by IESA. ideaForge is continually innovating and experimenting to transform its aerial platforms, to offer greater performance, higher reliability and autonomy, and greater impact. 28
FUTURE OF SUPPLY CHAINS
Headquarters Navi Mumbai, India
Sector Autonomous Vehicles
Countries of Operation India
Entrepreneur Ankit Mehta Co-Founder & CEO
Ankit Mehta Ankit Mehta is the Co-Founder and CEO of ideaForge Technology, a nextgeneration drone systems company that manufactures advanced Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) for Defense and Geospatial applications. Ankit joined IIT Bombay in the year 2000 to pursue a Dual Degree (B.Tech. and M.Tech.) in Mechanical Engineering, specialising in Computer-Aided Design and Automation. As a student at IITB, he implemented over 20 hardware projects, with a select few being handpicked for patenting. Ankit founded ideaForge straight out of college in 2007. Ankit currently plays a prominent role in defining and standardising the UAV regulations in India, providing neutral policy suggestions to positively impact the entire industry. He was listed as one of the top 35 entrepreneurs under the age of 35 in India, and on a separate occasion, was invited to join 200 other CEOs in a discussion about the future growth of India with the country’s Prime Minister, Mr. Narendra Modi. Ankit is Co-Chair, FICCI Committee on Drones and is also a member of FICCI Young Leaders Forum.
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ASIA PACIFIC
About
Svante inventysinc.com
Carbon is the backbone of the global economy. As the Earth’s population swells to 8 billion and the global energy sector looks for solutions to reduce or even offset its carbon footprint, greenhouse gas emissions continue to pose one of the biggest challenges of our time. Svante is building a carbon dioxide marketplace using second-generation carbon capture technology at half the cost of solventbased systems. At this price point, Svante’ first-of-its-kind demonstration plant will unlock an enormous and lucrative opportunity – carbon capture utilisation and storage (CCUS) – by enabling a mass market for bulk carbon dioxide. The company’s goal is to create a circular economy that values carbon dioxide. By stimulating new ways to create durable products and processes that recycle and sequester carbon dioxide, the technology can help companies generate clean growth while also reducing greenhouse gas emissions. Svante is initially focused on distributed carbon dioxide projects offering a solution for 30-600 tonnes per day, and the company is currently building a 30 tonnes per day demonstration plant with Husky Energy on a CO2-EOR site in Saskatchewan. 30
FUTURE OF SUPPLY CHAINS
Headquarters Vancouver, Canada
Sector Carbon Management
Countries of Operation Canada, France, United States
Entrepreneur Claude Letourneau President & CEO
Claude Letourneau Claude is an industrial projects veteran who brings to Svante a broad range of experience leading large world-class projects. At ease bringing about change, Claude is leveraging his 30 years of experience in advance technology development and commercialisation to help steer the company to be a global leader in building a CO2 marketplace. Previously, Claude held senior management roles with Canam Group Inc., SNC-Lavalin Inc., and Kontron Embedded Computers AG. He also founded two technology companies, Vaperma, Inc. (membrane-based gas separation) and Avestor Inc. (thin-film lithium polymer battery). These past experiences provide the necessary insight for the bilingual executive to forge new strategic alliances and partnerships with like-minded industry leaders and to guide the company’s scaling-up of the business with an aggressive time-to-market game plan. Claude received a Bachelor of Applied Science in Chemical Engineering and a Master’s in Chemical Engineering from University Laval, Quebec.
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THE AMERICAS
About
The Waste Transformers thewastetransformers.com
The Waste Transformers (TWT) create decentralised energy and nutrient hubs (Waste Transformers) by converting organic waste streams into energy, while also recovering the natural resources and water in the waste, all on-site. TWT provide a green, entrepreneurial alternative to the old model of make, use, and discard by creating on-site circular economies around waste for hotels, harbours, shopping malls, communities, and food production companies. Utilising their “Business in a box” model, TWT empower local communities, companies, and governments to leverage their waste to power positive change. Emerging economies are bursting with entrepreneurship. However, the access to important resources, knowledge, and funding for an entrepreneur to flourish are much harder to find. The “Business in a box” program provides local entrepreneurs with all of the support and tools they need to run their own Waste Transformer as a business, cleaning up their neighbourhood and achieving payback times between three to five years. It is a small-scale, high impact approach that is revolutionising the way the planet deals with organic waste. 32
FUTURE OF SUPPLY CHAINS
Headquarters Amsterdam, The Netherlands
Sector Waste Management
Countries of Operation Australia, Chile, Colombia, The Netherlands, Sierra Leone, South Africa, United Arab Emirates
Entrepreneur Lara van Druten Founder & CEO
Lara van Druten Lara is founder and CEO of The Waste Transformers and a recognised thought leader and experienced CEO with a history of working in the renewables and environment industry. She is a pioneer in waste to value, with expertise in the circular economy, innovation and resource recovery. Her experience spans the private and public sector; the corporate and start-up world; governance roles and entrepreneurship. For her achievements at The Waste Transformers, Lara was selected as ‘Role model in International Entrepreneurship’ by the Dutch Enterprise Agency. The Waste Transformers was nominated by Morgan Stanley as one of the Top 3 global impact investment proposals of 2016. The company is also the 2017 winner of the Share Award for the best Circular Company; a 2017 nominee for the Postcode Lottery Green Challenge; the winner of the 2018 West African Forum Clean Energy prize for the best business proposal, sponsored by the African Development Bank and UNIDO; and lastly the winner of the ‘What Design Can Do Energy Challenge’, sponsored by the IKEA Foundation.
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UK & EUROPE
About
Future of Food, Water & Agriculture Cambrian Innovation • Claro Energy • CROWDE • Entocycle • EM3 AgriServices • HISBE Food • Jasberry • Kuli Kuli • Lawrencedale Agro Processing • Marvelous Foods • OLIO • S4S Technologies • String Bio • Zero Mass Water
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FUTURE OF SUPPLY CHAINS
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FUTURE OF FOOD, WATER & AGRICULTURE
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Cambrian Innovation cambrianinnovation.com
Water and energy, the planet’s most crucial resources, are inextricably linked. Cambrian Innovation develops and implements innovative solutions that change the way industrial businesses use these resources. They are a globally-recognised, industrial biotechnology company committed to helping the industrial sector close resource loops by extracting clean water and energy from wastewater streams. Cambrian’s award-winning EcoVolt® Product Suite is a modular, pre-fabricated, and scalable wastewater treatment plant that helps customers simply and robustly reduce wastewater managing costs while recovering up to 400 kilowatts of power and 400,000 GPD of recycled quality water. Cambrian offers EcoVolt as a product or as a service via its water-energy purchase agreement (WEPA). Leveraging concepts developed in the solar Power Purchase Agreement, a WEPA converts EcoVolt plants into distributed utilities, enabling customers to pay by the gallon with no up-front costs, little operating risk, and instant savings. 36
FUTURE OF FOOD, WATER & AGRICULTURE
Headquarters Watertown, MA, USA
Sector Clean Energy & Water
Countries of Operation Mexico, United States
Entrepreneur Matthew Silver Founder & CEO
THE AMERICAS
About
Matthew Silver Matthew Silver has sixteen years of experience in engineering design, entrepreneurship, and business strategy. As Founder and CEO of Cambrian Innovation, he has played a key role in developing and scaling the underlying technology, building the team, fundraising, and successfully penetrating commercial markets. Prior to founding Cambrian Innovation, Matt worked for ten years in the aerospace sector. He is the co-inventor on several awarded patents, author of over 25 research and conference publications, and he has testified before the United States Senate on early stage innovation in 2011. Matt was a founding board member of the New England Water Innovation Network (NEWIN), a final 50 candidate for the NASA Astronaut Corp., and a World Economic Forum Technology Pioneer. He received a Doctorate in Engineering Systems and two Master’s Degrees, one in Astronautical Engineering and the other in Technology and Policy from MIT. He has a Bachelor’s from Williams College, cum laude.
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Claro Energy claroenergy.in
India’s future is inherently linked to rural prosperity. Claro Energy aims to make water affordable and readily available for farmers and rural communities in India. The company operates in high power deficit, diesel dependent, agrarian, and poor economic regions, using solar energy to develop mass irrigation solutions and generate power at point of use. They offer the entire spectrum of solar pumping solutions, ranging from 0.5 Horse Power (HP) to 10HP, AC and DC solar pumps, Surface and Submersible pumps, across applications such as irrigation, drinking water, aeration, and fisheries. Claro Energy’s farmers experience an increase in income, reduced cost of irrigation by 50 percent, significant reduction of diesel, and more sustainable and prosperous economies. Claro has expanded their value-add to include mini-grid power systems, which become the economic centre of the villages in which they operate, as well as a produce marketplace to serve their farmers end-to-end. 38
FUTURE OF FOOD, WATER & AGRICULTURE
Headquarters New Delhi, India
Sector Clean Energy
Countries of Operation India
Entrepreneur Soumitra Mishra Co-Founder & CEO
Soumitra Mishra Soumitra is Co-Founder and CEO of Claro Energy. Soumitra is responsible for setting the strategic direction of the company in the agriculture and solar energy markets in India. He is also responsible for product, technology, and raising equity financing for the company. Soumitra brings significant engineering, operations, and market development experience. Before Claro Energy, Soumitra worked with SunEdison, Solyndra, Biogen, and Genentech in the United States. Soumitra has a Bachelor of Technology from IIT Bombay, a Master of Engineering from MIT Cambridge, and an MBA from Kellogg School of Management.
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ASIA PACIFIC
About
CROWDE crowde.co
CROWDE is an agriculture-focused fintech startup that empowers farmers across Indonesia with technology and capital, connecting borrowers to retail and institutional lenders. Beyond connecting investors and farmers, CROWDE also integrates the entire agriculture ecosystem from suppliers to customers through technology, so that disbursement can be cashless and transparent. Capital is raised from crowd-investors as well as banks; but instead of given to farmers as cash, it is transferred to input providers who provide farmers with heavily discounted inputs due to the economy of scale. CROWDE also informs farmers what types of produce to grow based on market needs from CROWDE’s marketplace. When it is time to harvest, the farmer has no worries if the market is ripe for their product because a buyer has already been lined up. Profits are then shared with the farmers and investors at the end of the process. In this way, the farmers do not need to manage cash and receive the absolute best return — currently, three times their normal income — due to CROWDE’s market insights and economy of scale. 40
FUTURE OF FOOD, WATER & AGRICULTURE
Headquarters Jakarta, Indonesia
Sector Financial Technology
Countries of Operation Indonesia
Entrepreneur Yohanes Sugihtononugroho Co-Founder & CEO
Yohanes Sugihtononugroho Yohanes started the journey to founding CROWDE after having worked as a farmer himself, planting chilies and mushrooms in the Bogor area, and moving on to poultry farming a few years later. He enjoyed every aspect of it and has had a passion for agriculture ever since. However, he learned the hard way that the result of farming on his personal finances was not as pleasant as the process of farming itself. After going bankrupt, he realized that farmers in Indonesia are in desperate need of help. It made no sense that in Indonesia, an agrarian nation whose growth depends on the agricultural sector, so many farmers live below the line. So Yohanes decided, along with his dear friend, Risyad, to build CROWDE in order to revolutionize the agricultural sector in Indonesia. Today, CROWDE reaches more than 10,000 farmers with the help of more than 20,000 personal lenders, and has collaborated with three major institutional lenders.
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ASIA PACIFIC
About
Entocycle entocycle.com
Like humans, animals need protein in order to grow. However, the protein that livestock are fed typically comes from soy, which adds to current mass deforestation, or fish caught from oceans that are already drastically overfished. The production and sourcing of these common proteins is creating habitat-loss and dead zones in the sea, and it’s significantly increasing global greenhouse gas emissions. By enabling widespread adoption of insect protein as a sustainable alternative to soy and fishmeal, Entocycle is helping feed the Earth’s animals without destroying the natural world. Entocycle uses technology to bring world-leading efficiencies to help convert waste organic matter into protein by means of insects. The company’s modular, environmentally controlled, and automated indoor system allows farmers to create sustainable insect protein from organic waste, anywhere in the world, 365 days a year. In so doing, Entocycle makes healthy food for farmed animals without the harmful effects on the planet. 42
FUTURE OF FOOD, WATER & AGRICULTURE
Headquarters London, England, UK
Sector Biotechnology & Farming
Countries of Operation United Kingdom
Entrepreneur Keiran Olivares Whitaker Founder & CEO
UK & EUROPE
About
Keiran Olivares Whitaker Seeing first-hand the damage our global food chains had on our planet, Keiran Olivares Whitaker was influenced to build financial-led conservation projects whilst being a Scuba Diving Instructor in countries such as Indonesia, Malaysia, and Honduras. This experience, combined with his background in Environmental Design (BA from Oxford Brookes and MSc from the University of Manchester), inspired Keiran to launch Entocycle. He has successfully established a proof of concept in the UK and an R&D facility in Brazil, and he has facilitated the building of two generations of pilot facilities in London. Keiran is a keen country/hill walker, a passionate footballer, and he’s crazy about cycling and scuba diving.
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EM3 AgriServices em3agri.com
EM3 AgriServices brings expensive farming technology to farmers on a pay-for-use basis in order to help small-scale farmers keep up with globalisation and advances in agriculture tech. It does so through its farming-as-a-service platform, Samadhan, which deploys an app, physical call centers, and human representatives that interact with its largely offline consumer base. Each center, managed through IT-enabled systems and manned by agri-professionals, is equipped to handle a comprehensive suite of basic and precision farm operations throughout the entire crop production cycle: land preparation, sowing/transplanting, crop management, harvesting, and post-harvest farm management. Like any businessman, a farmer needs standardised quality, transparent billing, and timely service, all provided on the platform. Farmers can easily reach EM3 to book their services, can monitor the work being done on their fields, and can manage all transactions through Samadhan. A recent $10 million USD Series B funding round expanded EM3’s work to more provinces in India, and the company has also partnered with local governments and leading Indian and global equipment manufacturers. 44
FUTURE OF FOOD, WATER & AGRICULTURE
Headquarters New Delhi, India
Sector Agricultural Technology
Countries of Operation India
Entrepreneur Adwitiya Mal Co-Founder & CEO
Adwitiya Mal Adwitiya is co-founder and CEO of EM3 AgriServices. He holds a Bachelor’s Degree in Economics (with Honors) from Delhi University and completed his MBA at the Simon School of Business, University of Rochester. He started his career as a front line sales manager with ICICI Prudential, a leading private insurance company in India. Following his MBA, he moved to Hong Kong where he was the Strategy Manager at AXA Insurance’s Asia Headquarters and was responsible for developing corporate strategy for the group’s 19 businesses across 10 countries in Asia. The desire to do something large and impactful in India brought Adwitiya back to cofound EM3 AgriServices.
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ASIA PACIFIC
About
HISBE Food hisbe.co.uk
HISBE stands for ‘How It Should Be’. Founded in 2010 by sisters Amy and Ruth Anslow, it is an innovative type of supermarket, powered by local people, community spirit, and a social enterprise business model. By encouraging people to buy from their dispenser range of over 100 unpackaged products, HISBE and their customers save over 15,000 pieces of packaging every month. HISBE helps people understand the impact of their food choices. They’re on a mission to provide healthier and more ethical options for consumers, give suppliers a fair price for quality products, and make ethical and sustainable shopping more affordable for more people. The HISBE Pilot Store has been trading for nearly five years. It has turned over EURO 5.5 million, serves 4,000 customers a week, and supports over 90 local suppliers. The founders are working on a resilient chain of 10 local stores in Sussex to help scale-up their suppliers and make good food more accessible for 30,000 local people. 46
FUTURE OF FOOD, WATER & AGRICULTURE
Headquarters Brighton, England, UK
Sector Food
Countries of Operation United Kingdom
Entrepreneur Amy Anslow Founder & Director
Amy Anslow Before starting HISBE, Amy spent most of her working life in public and third sector roles within organisations such as the Metropolitan Police, London Fire Brigade, Princes Trust and Groundwork. She was predominantly tasked with creating, delivering, and managing programs and interventions that were intended to create specific behaviour change in identified target groups of “at risk” individuals. Amy then briefly ran a coffee business selling directly traded coffee from a social enterprise. This eventually led to collaborative thinking with her sister, Ruth, on creating a business for good centred around food. After months of discussions learning about social enterprise, democratic and purpose-led business, ethical consumerism, and shameful behaviours in the UK food industry by its dominant retailers, they decided they knew enough about the “How It Is” with British Supermarkets. Thus, Amy and her sister felt compelled to create their own version of “How It Should Be” — a chain of supermarkets with values and social impact at its heart that would transform the food industry through people power.
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UK & EUROPE
About
Jasberry jasberry.net
Jasberry is a social enterprise that aims to solve the problem of farmer poverty through innovative organic products with global appeal. Employing an inclusive business model, they partner with over 2,500 small-scale farmers’ families in rural Thailand to grow Jasberry rice, a new variety of ultra-nutritious, non-GMO, wholegrain rice developed by scientists in Thailand over the last 10 years. As a social business, Jasberry generated over $1.8M USD in additional income and benefits for their farmers last year. Daily pay has increased from $0.40 to about $6 a day, crop yields are increasing 60 percent per year, and costs have declined 25 percent during the past five years. By creating a network of co-operatives that function under the same ethos, principles, and regulations, the company can launch organic products into an international market with consistent quality and availability. Additionally, Jasberry helps farmers diversify their income streams and capabilities by providing access to loans via a partnership with Kiva. 48
FUTURE OF FOOD, WATER & AGRICULTURE
Headquarters Bangkok, Thailand
Sector Sustainable Agriculture
Countries of Operation Thailand
Entrepreneur Peetachai “Neil” Dejkraisak Co-Founder & CEO
Peetachai “Neil” Dejkraisak Peetachai (Neil) is CEO and co-founder of Siam Organic, established with a mission to alleviate the problem of poverty among Thai farmers. Founded in 2011, Siam Organic solves the problem of farmer poverty through innovative organic products with a global appeal under the brand Jasberry®. Siam Organic currently works with over 2,500 small-scale farmers’ households in the Northeastern part of Thailand, helping them to increase their income multiple times by managing the entire agricultural value chain. Siam Organic has been recognised globally for its third-party verified social impact. Some of the awards they have won include: Winner of the Chivas Venture 2017 $1M prize for best social enterprise in the world, ‘Spark the Fire’ Champion at Global Entrepreneurship Summit 2016, and Grand Prize Winner at DBS-NUS Social Venture Challenge Asia 2016.
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ASIA PACIFIC
About
Kuli Kuli Foods kulikulifoods.com
Kuli Kuli is the world’s leading moringa brand with the highest quality moringa on the market. Moringa is a leafy green with more nutritious value than kale that provides powerful anti-inflammatory benefits rivalling those of turmeric. Their Moringa Superfood Bars, Pure Organic Moringa Powder, Moringa Green Energy Shots, and Organic Moringa Green Smoothie Mixes are made in the U.S. with moringa sourced directly from women’s cooperatives and small family farmers around the world. Over 60 percent of Americans say incorporating more vegetables into their diet is their top priority, but only 4 percent of Americans actually consume the recommended serving amount per day. Kuli Kuli’s products make it easy for Americans to get their greens on the go. To date, Kuli Kuli has planted over 12 million moringa trees, partnered with over 2,000 farmers, and has provided more than $4 million USD in income to women-led farming cooperatives, non-profits, and family farms. You can find their products in over 7,000 stores across the U.S., including Whole Foods, Sprouts, and Safeway. 50
FUTURE OF FOOD, WATER & AGRICULTURE
Headquarters Oakland, CA, USA
Sector Food
Countries of Operation Canada, Mexico, United States
Entrepreneur Lisa Curtis Founder & CEO
THE AMERICAS
About
Lisa Curtis Lisa Curtis is the Founder & CEO of Kuli Kuli, the first brand to introduce the green superfood moringa to the U.S. market. Lisa founded Kuli Kuli after working with moringa as a Peace Corps Volunteer, growing it into a multi-million-dollar enterprise that sells its products in over 7,000 stores. Lisa and Kuli Kuli have been featured in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Forbes and hundreds of other publications. Prior to Kuli Kuli, Lisa served as the Communications Director at Mosaic. Previously, Lisa wrote political briefings for President Obama in the White House, served as a United Nations Environment Programme Youth Advisor, and worked at an impact investment firm in India. Lisa has been recognised as a StartingBloc Fellow, a Wild Gift Better World Entrepreneur, an Ashoka Emerging Innovator and a Udall Scholar. She was honoured as a 30 Under 30 Leader by Forbes, GreenBiz and the University of California and was also named to the Forbes 30 Under 30 “Top of the Class� for Social Entrepreneurship.
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Lawrencedale Agro Processing lawrencedale.com
Lawrencedale Agro Processing is India’s leading end-to-end supply chain specialist in fresh produce, owning the entire value chain — right from harvest to retail shelves. With this expertise in post-harvest management, they are pioneering India’s most trusted fresh produce brand, ’LEAF’. Lawrencedale’s modus operandi is designed to empower every stakeholder in the value chain, meaning better margins for farmers, value added services for retailers, and fresh and safe products for consumers. LEAF community farming interventions are designed to enhance every stage of the crop life cycle, allowing farmers to increase both quality and quantity of their yield and bypass intermediaries. The company ensures that produce stays fresh and safe throughout the value chain journey, using state-of-the-art, automated processing units to clean, grade, dry, store, treat, package, and re-package for retail. With technology at the helm of its integrated coldchain logistics model, LEAF promises quality produce while drastically reducing wastage and returning that margin gain to the farmers. 52
FUTURE OF FOOD, WATER & AGRICULTURE
Headquarters Ooty, India
Sector Agricultural Technology
Country of Operation India
Entrepreneur Vijayaraghavan Palat CEO
ASIA PACIFIC
About
Vijayaraghavan Palat Vijayaraghavan spent over a decade in rural development services, based out of the Nilgiris district in Tamil Nadu. As the economy of the district is driven by horticulture, Vijay saw a business opportunity in this space. Given the state of traditional agriculture and the uniqueness of Nilgiris produce, Vijay put together a plan to improve the farming practices by engaging with the farming community and postharvest management of crops with the help of technology. This led to the founding of LEAF in 2009 along with a few friends who shared his dream. Under his leadership, LEAF has created a business that engages directly with the farmers, and that processes, sorts, grades, packs, and supplies safe and fresh vegetables. Today, LEAF is a pioneer in several aspects of the horticulture value chain, benefiting farmers, consumers, and retailers in southern India. LEAF has ambitious plans to expand its base of operations to other parts of the country.
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Marvelous Foods
Marvelous Foods is a China-based company aiming to sustainably nourish the world’s fastest-growing consumer market with delicious and innovative plant-powered superfoods. It is dedicated to creating attractive modern plant-based products and brands, targeted at Chinese flavor preferences and consumption habits, that consumers will happily choose over traditionally animal-based products for superior taste, nutrition and environmental impact. The company first emerged as an answer to health issues the Founder developed upon moving to China. In a country where 80 percent of the population experiences lactose intolerance, she was surprised to find little to no alternative food options (in particular absolutely no plant-based yogurt). Raised in New Zealand to Chinese parents, she was passionate about plant-based nutrition as a tool for healing, so she created China’s first dairy-free coconut yogurt brand, Yeyo. Marvelous Foods is currently building China’s first production line for dairy-free coconut yogurt, and seeking investment to bring on other product lines, including dairy-alternative products and plantbased protein products. 54
FUTURE OF FOOD, WATER & AGRICULTURE
Headquarters Beijing, China
Sector Plant-Based Food
Country of Operation China
Entrepreneur Christiana Zhu Co-Founder & CEO
Christiana Zhu Christiana Zhu, Co-Founder and CEO of Marvelous Foods, is a Chinese-Kiwi entrepreneur based in Beijing. Christiana transitioned into entrepreneurship after a career in consumer marketing where she was a China specialist for New Zealand tourism boards and head of marketing for award-winning sustainable luxury travel company WildChina. Christiana discovered her passion for health and nutrition after developing severe food allergies on her relocation to Beijing and mending her health through plant-based eating. The experience opened her eyes to how few options there were for sustainable, allergy-friendly packaged foods in China. She founded Marvelous Foods to address this gap, starting with China’s first dairy-free coconut yogurt, Yeyo. Christiana believes that maintaining a healthy and environmentally friendly lifestyle becomes easier when there are better product options in restaurants and shops. Her mission is to create delicious food products that are superior in taste, nutrition, and environmental friendliness to empower consumers to live healthier lives while creating a positive environmental impact.
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ASIA PACIFIC
About
OLIO olioex.com
OLIO is a free app tackling the problem of food waste by connecting users with unwanted food from households or local businesses with nearby neighbors who would like it. Launched in the U.K. in January 2016, OLIO now has over 1.2 million users who have, together, shared over 2 million portions of food, which is the environmental equivalent of taking 5.5 million car miles off the road. This has been achieved in large part thanks to over 38,000 volunteers who spread the word about OLIO in their local communities and collect and re-distribute unsold food from local retailers. OLIO is the world’s only neighbor-to-neighbor food sharing app, and food has been successfully shared in 49 countries so far. 56
FUTURE OF FOOD, WATER & AGRICULTURE
OLIO
Headquarters London, England, UK
Sector Food Technology
Countries of Operation Guernsey, Jersey, Sweden, United Kingdom, United States
Entrepreneur Tessa Clarke Co-Founder & CEO
Tessa Clarke Tessa is a farmer’s daughter from the north of England, who spent her childhood working on the farm and gaining an early appreciation for the meaning of hard work! After graduating in Social & Political Sciences from Cambridge University, Tessa began her professional career as a Strategy Consultant with Boston Consulting Group. Since then she has had over 15 years’ experience as a Managing Director in a variety of global digital businesses in media (Emap Plc, FTSE 100), retail (Dyson) and financial services (turning around Wonga UK). In February 2015 Tessa Co-Founded OLIO with Saasha Celestial-One who she had met whilst studying for her MBA at Stanford University. OLIO recently raised a $6m Series A to accelerate the growth of the business.
57
UK & EUROPE
About
S4S Technologies s4stechnologies.com
In India, farmers often sell their produce for a cheaper price in the evening, as it otherwise rots. S4S Technologies has developed a business model that dehydrates and processes these excess vegetables and fruits, and builds a supply chain to get them to the market. The company developed a solar conduction dryer that increases the shelf life of vegetables to six months. S4S developed the machine specifically for, and with input from, female farmers. The company identifies women entrepreneurs in villages who become aggregators that work with 15-20 micro-entrepreneurs each. Based on market demand, these microentrepreneurs dry items like ginger, garlic, carrot and beetroot. Once dried, aggregators supply the products back to S4S, which then sells the produce to institutional clients. The dryers are well-suited for farmers working under erratic electricity conditions, and the rent-based model makes the product affordable and helps generate additional income for farmers. S4S works directly with more than 2,700 farmer and farmer cooperatives under its solar-powered dehydration initiative supported by USAID, UKAID, Gates Foundation, and the Government of India. 58
FUTURE OF FOOD, WATER & AGRICULTURE
Headquarters Navi Mumbai, India
Sector Agricultural Technology
Country of Operation Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Kenya, Nepal, Rwanda
Entrepreneur Vaibhav Tidke Co-Founder & CEO
Vaibhav Tidke S4S Technologies is the food preservation company that invents new food processing machines. S4S sells these machines to farmers to produce the highest quality processed food. Under the leadership of Vaibhav, S4S has developed and commercialised a range of patented food dehydration technologies for farmers and industries. Vaibhav uses a fundamental scientific understanding to develop new technologies, and finds sustainable ways of commercialisation in order to make a social impact through S4S. This positions his business as a pioneer in the sustainable food dehydration space. S4S works directly with more than 2,700 farmers and farmer cooperatives under its solar-powered dehydration initiative supported by USAID, UKAID, the Gates Foundation and the Government of India. Under his dynamic leadership, S4S brought together a range of private, government, and agri value chain members under a single umbrella and nurtured high-level intrapreneurship at S4S Technologies. He is an active consultant in food and renewable energy and supports startups in numerous ways.
59
ASIA PACIFIC
About
String Bio stringbio.com
String Bio envisions an ecologically sustainable world in which robust, cradle-to-cradle solutions provide the global population with cleaner ways of living. The company leverages methane as a source of carbon in order to manufacture green chemicals and food/animal feed ingredients. The products address multi-billion dollar markets. String is among a handful of companies worldwide — and the only Asian company — to successfully enable a methane-based value chain. Its proprietary platform (SIMP: String Integrated Methane Platform), leverages advances in synthetic biology, fermentation technology, chemistry, and process engineering to build a circular value chain. String Bio’s work has been recognised by several international awards and grants, including the Future Food Asia Award and the EnABLE startup awards in the Industrial Biotechnology sector. The company’s first product to market, String Pro, is a high-quality protein that addresses the growing worldwide demand for sustainable protein. It is a cost-effective and high-performance protein for the aquaculture market. String is presently scaling its protein production. 60
FUTURE OF FOOD, WATER & AGRICULTURE
Headquarters Bangalore, India
Sector Biotechnology
Vinod Kumar
Country of Operation India
Entrepreneur Vinod Kumar Co-Founder & Managing Director Ezhil Subbian Co-Founder & CEO
Prior to co-founding String Bio in 2012, Vinod had 17+ years of experience leading large, cross-functional teams at Fortune 500 companies. He held several leadership roles from product development, supply chain management, manufacturing operations, information technology, customer and partner experience, to end-to-end business transformation. Vinod holds a Bachelor’s degree in Mechanical Engineering from Bangalore University, a Master’s degree in Industrial & Manufacturing Systems Engineering and Supply Chain Management from Ohio University, and Certification in Corporate Finance from the University of Berkeley, California. Vinod now serves as the Managing Director of String Bio.
Ezhil Subbian Ezhil Subbian co-founded String Bio after working for 15+ years on engineering and scaling up various bio-based products. Ezhil was part of the founding team at Gevo, a Caltech startup that commercialised biobutanol production. After Gevo, Ezhil worked first at Codexis Inc and then at Intrexon, helping both companies transition into the bioindustrial space. All three of the companies have had successful IPOs. Ezhil’s work was most recently recognised with the prestigious ‘Women Transforming India’ Award 2018 from the United Nations/NITI Aayog. Ezhil has a PhD in Molecular Biology & Biochemistry from Oregon Health and Sciences University, Oregon and a B.Tech in Industrial Biotechnology from Anna University, India.
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ASIA PACIFIC
About
Zero Mass Water zeromasswater.com
Zero Mass Water’s mission is to make drinking water an unlimited resource. SOURCE is a Hydropanel™ that creates drinking water by combining sunlight and air — made possible by the application of advanced materials science, thermodynamics, and controls technology. Hydropanel arrays are sized to meet the water consumption needs of any application, yielding any volume of water production. Uniquely independent of infrastructure, SOURCE is the only technology capable of making high-quality, delicious drinking water without plugging into an additional electric or water supply. Today, SOURCE Hydropanel arrays are installed across five continents and in 16 countries making water for schools, homes, orphanages, communities, resorts, farms, offices, and more. Zero Mass Water’s partners include the Asian Development Bank, USAID, ARENA, Duke Energy, and the Royal Jordanian Court. In a world where every person experiences water stress, SOURCE gives people drinking water peace of mind. 62
FUTURE OF FOOD, WATER & AGRICULTURE
Headquarters Scottsdale, AZ, USA
Sector Clean Water
Cody Friesen
Countries of Operation Entrepreneur Australia, Ecuador, Cody Friesen Fiji, Indonesia, Jamaica, Jordan, Founder & CEO Kenya, Kuwait, Lebanon, Mexico, Philippines, Puerto Rico, Singapore, South Africa, United States, Vanuatu
THE AMERICAS
About
Dr. Cody Friesen is a technology innovator, entrepreneur and materials scientist. Founder and CEO of Zero Mass Water, Cody and his team developed SOURCE, a solar panel that makes safe, great-tasting drinking water from the air, independent of infrastructure. Friesen is also the founder of Fluidic Energy, an advanced battery company powering remote grids worldwide. He is the Fulton Engineering Professor of Innovation at Arizona State University and is a Senior Sustainability Scientist at the ASU Global Institute of Sustainability. Cody was named by The Aspen Institute as a 2015 Henry Crown Fellow. He was named among the top 35 innovators in the world under 35 years old by MIT’s Technology Review in 2009. He previously served on the US Manufacturing Council for the US Department of Commerce, as the co-chair of the Energy subcommittee. He has 145 active patent matters worldwide and 42 granted patents. He earned a BSE in Materials Science and Engineering from Arizona State University, and a Ph.D. in the same discipline from MIT.
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Future of Sustainable Living Abundance Investment • Astraea • Cleverciti Systems • Econic Technologies • Ecoware • Globechain • IGL Coatings • OriCiro • Plastic Bank • Stony Creek Colors • Vital Vio
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FUTURE OF FOOD, WATER & AGRICULTURE
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FUTURE OF SUSTAINABLE LIVING
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Abundance Investment abundanceinvestment.com
Abundance is a leading direct investment platform that empowers people to take control of their dollars. Since 2012, they have aimed to build a better future by creating avenues for their users to invest in green and social infrastructure. Abundance allows users to contribute to solving major global issues such as climate change and social inequality with smart, informed investments of their money. People can invest in energy and other social and sustainable projects that generate massive benefits for the environment and society as well as attractive returns. Since Abundance launched in July 2012, it has raised over Euro 100 million from individual investors who can choose from a variety of projects and therefore know exactly where their money is going and how it is working for them. In 2015, they created the first-ever direct green investment pension, allowing people to build a tax-efficient portfolio of investments that create an effective retirement income as well as a better world to retire into. 66
FUTURE OF SUSTAINABLE LIVING
Headquarters London, England, UK
Sector Financial Services
Countries of Operation Australia, Austria, Belgium, Denmark, France, Germany, Italy, Norway, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, The Netherlands, United Kingdom
Entrepreneur Louise Wilson Co-Founder and Joint Managing Director
UK & EUROPE
About
Louise Wilson Louise spent over 15 years at UBS Investment Bank and was responsible for structuring multi-million-pound flotations and share sales across several global regions. In the end, she questioned why traditional markets don’t serve the ordinary investor. At the same time, she was becoming increasingly concerned about humanity’s impact on our planet. Louise left banking in order to pursue a new career getting involved in fixing the problem. She wanted to find a way to make engaging with the issue guilt-free and therefore to help drive solutions at the scale needed to tackle the problem. Abundance is about providing the platform for that engagement, providing attractive returns to investors whether they have £5 or £50,000 to invest, and at the same time helping to build a fairer society. Louise is also on the Advisory Board for the Centre for Climate Finance & Investment at Imperial College Business School.
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Astraea astraea.earth
The amount of Earth Observing (EO) data that has been collected by government and nongovernment organisations is astounding. More than 200 petabytes of unique EO data have been gathered since 1972, when the first Landsat satellite was launched. Each day, more than 50 terabytes of new data are added. For comparison, the entire Library of Congress comprises about 20 terabytes of information. Embedded in this data are answers to some of the world’s most intractable problems as well as new insights into how the complexity and interdependency of natural and human systems work. At the nexus of machine learning, big data computing, and EO satellites, Astraea is a software company developing cuttingedge technology to solve complex planetary problems. Due to the reduced cost of satellite technology and the availability of new sensor technologies, there is an explosion of EO data waiting to be leveraged. Astraea is empowering corporations, organisations, and individuals to easily access, analyse and extract actionable insights about our planet. 68
FUTURE OF SUSTAINABLE LIVING
Headquarters Charlottesville, VA, USA
Sector Machine Learning, AI & Satellite Analytics
Countries of Operation United Kingdom, United States
Entrepreneur Brendan Richardson Co-Founder & CEO
Brendan Richardson Brendan has been involved with early-stage startups as a venture capitalist, board member, entrepreneur and limited partner for 25 years. Prior to Astraea, he was a co-founder and the founding CEO of PsiKick, a successful Ultra-Low-Power wireless semiconductor and systems startup. Prior to that, he was Co-Director of Private Equity at Investure, a $12B USD asset management consortium of university endowments and non-profit foundations. From 1993 to 2007, he was a venture capitalist based in Silicon Valley and Geneva, Switzerland, investing in early-stage tech companies in Europe and the U.S. His early career included stints in strategy consulting with Strategic Planning Associates (now Oliver Wyman), financial analysis at Wells Fargo’s Private Bank, and fundraising as Director of Sponsorship for the Whitewater Rafting World Championships. Brendan is also currently an Adjunct Professor at the University of Virginia, where he teaches VC Investing and Entrepreneurship. He co-founded and is currently Chairman of HackCville, an independent “hacker den” for UVA students who want to change the world through self-directed learning and entrepreneurship. Brendan received his B.S. in Finance from UVA
69
THE AMERICAS
About
Cleverciti Systems cleverciti.com
Cleverciti Systems is the leader in comprehensive, high-tech solutions for open air and on-street parking detection, monitoring, and guidance. Based in Germany, Cleverciti provides cities and organisations with a robust and highly reliable solution that enhances convenience, builds loyalty, and boosts engagement, allowing their customers to maximize ROI and streamline the parking experience. Its end-to-end solutions are designed to strengthen parking detection, improve guidance, and enhance communication. One smart parking sensor can cover up to 100 spaces, and they are easily mounted on facades, lampposts, or masts without requiring roadwork. The sensors analyse parking spaces along the streets, sending real-time updates every three seconds. As a leader in intelligent parking solutions, Cleverciti seeks to not only help cities and organizations reduce traffic and emissions, but also to increase revenue while allowing drivers to enjoy a smooth, stress-free parking experience. 70
FUTURE OF SUSTAINABLE LIVING
Headquarters Munich, Germany
Sector Smart Cities
Countries of Operation 20 countries
Entrepreneur Maximilian Venhofen Director of Business Development
Maximilian Venhofen Maximilian has a Master’s Degree in Management and Marketing from Hochschule Fresenius and has diverse experience as a consultant and manager in organisations such as the United Nations and Turner & Townsend. Maximilian has joined accelerator programs such as EIT Digital and the German Accelerator. He has been with Cleverciti Systems since 2015, driving their growth as Director of Business Development, responsible for go-tomarket, partnerships and part of sales. Maximilian currently lives in Munich, Germany.
71
UK & EUROPE
About
Econic Technologies econic-technologies.com
Econic Technologies offers ground-breaking technology to plastics manufacturers in key markets, liberating them from their reliance on expensive petrochemicals and enabling them to create added value through use of waste carbon dioxide. Using an Econic catalyst system means up to 50 percent of the necessary fossil fuel-based raw materials can be substituted with carbon dioxide. This creates three compelling pillars of benefit for their initial target market. The technology delivers raw material cost savings of over $10 million for a typical 50 kte/yr production unit, with retrofit investment on existing assets paid back within two years. Polyol performance benefits create further value to deliver overall dramatic margin increase for the polyol producer. For every ton of carbon dioxide used, a further two tons of emissions are avoided by reducing the use of fossil-based feedstock. By creating new value from waste carbon dioxide for the plastics industry, Econic is building a future where a damaging greenhouse gas can be transformed for commercial and environmental gain. 72
FUTURE OF SUSTAINABLE LIVING
Headquarters Alderley Edge, England, UK
Sector Carbon Recycling
Countries of Operation Norway
Entrepreneur Rowena Sellens CEO
UK & EUROPE
About
Rowena Sellens A PhD chemist by background, Rowena has 28 years of senior management experience in the chemical industry, having held responsibility for R&D, manufacturing, sales and marketing, and general management in ICI and Lucite International. This culminated in responsibility for Lucite’s €120M turnover EMEA Materials businesses with leading brands Perspex®, Lucite® and Diakon®. She led technical and IP functions through transition from ICI to private ownership and then played a key role in commercial integration of global materials businesses following acquisition by a Japanese multinational. As the first CEO of Econic, her role is to lead the delivery of the complete suite of critical success factors required to achieve Econic’s strategic business objectives and secure the anticipated value returns. Since her arrival in 2014, the IP portfolio of the company and the team have trebled in size. In 2017 Rowena relocated the business from Imperial College’s London incubator to Alderley Park in Cheshire. A £2M Horizon 2020 SME award helped build the pilot scale Customer Demonstration Facility that opened in 2018.
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Ecoware ecoware.in
Ecoware is India’s first and largest sustainable food packaging company. The Ecoware range of 26 compostable products includes tableware, cutlery and takeaway packaging. All products are 100 percent natural and biodegrade within 90 days. They use only local, raw materials, thereby keeping their costs and carbon footprint low. Ecoware takes immense pride in being over-certified. The company is the only USDA Bio-based certified manufacturer in India, is PFAS free, and has been audited on Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) parameters and achieved $2.41 USD of impact for every $1 USD invested. Ecoware has 12 sales partners globally, 23 distributors in India and more than 150 point-of-sales shops across India. They export to Sri Lanka, Kuwait, Peru, France, Ecuador, Kenya, South Africa, and the Caribbean. Ecoware actively works with farmers to turn their biomass — which is usually burned — into a source of positive outcomes. From rice and sugarcane to wheat or palm, Ecoware takes what was once waste and turns it into a 100 percent eco-friendly product curbing the production of plastics and their dispersion into the natural environment. 74
FUTURE OF SUSTAINABLE LIVING
Headquarters Delhi, India
Sector Circular Economy
Country of Operation Australia, Chile, Ecuador, France, Kenya, Kuwait, Paraguay, Seychelles, Sri Lanka, United Arab Emirates, United States
Entrepreneur Rhea Mazumdar Singhal Founder & CEO
ASIA PACIFIC
About
Rhea Mazumdar Singhal Rhea Mazumdar Singhal is the Founder and CEO of Ecoware, India’s first and largest sustainable packaging company. Rhea was awarded the Nari Shakti Puraskar, the highest civilian honor for women by the President of India. Rhea is a World Economic Forum Young Global Leader and a member of the CII National Committee on Women Empowerment & Clean Air. Rhea has attended the University of Bristol, Oxford and Harvard University. Prior to founding Ecoware, Rhea was a senior sales executive at Pfizer Inc., U.K. Rhea founded Ecoware with the sole aim of solving India’s plastic menace. Ecoware disrupted the food packaging industry by introducing a fully compostable alternative to plastic. One of Rhea’s greatest successes has been persuading the Indian Railways, the largest food service operator in India, to switch to Ecoware biodegradable trays. Rhea has been featured in major national and international publications and has appeared as a speaker at events such as Salesforce and the National Commission for Women in India.
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Globechain globechain.com
Globechain is a multi-award-winning British reuse marketplace that connects corporates to charities and people to redistribute unwanted items in the B2B sector. It is like eBay, but items are given for free, and the company generates social impact (ESG) data for members. Globechain focuses within retail, such as fixtures, fittings, and obsolete stock; commercial, including office and IT; and construction, including materials, refurbishments, and demolition. With over 10,000 members, Globechain works with some of the largest companies in retail, medical, and construction. To date, Globechain has diverted over 5.1 million kilos from landfill, helping to create savings of Euro 2 million to charities and reaching over 14,000 communities within the U.K., Ghana, Libya, Ukraine and more. Ultimately, Globechain wants to lead a new generation of businesses being ‘commercial with a conscience’, where they help enable corporates to achieve their sustainability goals at the same time as creating social value. 76
FUTURE OF SUSTAINABLE LIVING
Headquarters London, England, UK
Sector Recycling
Countries of Operation Germany, Ghana, Guinea, Kenya, Libya, Sierra Leone, Spain, Ukraine, United Arab Emirates, United Kingdom, United States
Entrepreneur May Al-Karooni Founder & CEO
UK & EUROPE
About
May Al-Karooni May Al-Karooni is the founder of Globechain – an award-winning British reuse marketplace that connects corporates to charities and SMEs to redistribute free unwanted items, creating social impact data to its members. May previously worked within the investment banking and asset management industry, fundraising monies for venture capital, property and hedge funds for the last 10 years totalling over £120 million in funds raised. In 2013 May set up Globechain after seeing a demand for a new online circular economy within the waste management industry after her own employer expressed a need to reuse items in a more collaborative way. Globechain has gained momentum growing to 10,000 members with eBay as its mentors and securing contracts with some of the world’s largest brands as well as growing a large network of charities nationally and internationally. Globechain works within the retail, commercial and construction industry and last year diverted 5,100,000 kilos from landfill with items being redistributed within the UK as well as abroad as far as Sierra Leone, Guinea, Kenya, Libya and the Ukraine, providing savings of over £2,000,000 to charitable causes.
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IGL Coatings iglcoatings.com
IGL Coatings is a technology firm based in Malaysia with the core focus of developing innovative and disruptive nanotechnology products that are set to redefine the industry. They are the world pioneers of low- and zero-VOC high-solids coatings. Their product range includes coatings, cleaning, and maintenance for various surfaces including paint, plastic, metal, fabric, wood, glass, and cement for automotive, marine, aviation and industrial applications. They are the first in the industry to have their nanotechnology audited and verified by Nanoverify. With a relentless focus on R&D, IGL works not only to replace toxic and dangerous chemicals and coatings, but also to eliminate the toxic and dangerous processes that are often used to make the industry’s “standard eco-friendly� products. But the bottom line of IGL is their customers; they strive to build products that allow the entrepreneurs who use them to build successful and sustainable businesses. 78
FUTURE OF SUSTAINABLE LIVING
Headquarters Shah Alam, Malaysia
Sector Nanotechnology
Countries of Operation 50 countries
Entrepreneur Keong Chun Chieh Founder & Managing Partner
Keong Chun Chieh Keong is the Founder and CEO of IGL Coatings, which incorporated in 2015. Together with other industry experts, Keong formulated the first ceramic coatings which spearheaded IGL’s green movement. From there, his R&D team researched and developed eco-friendly coatings that reduce the need for water and harsh chemicals for maintenance. IGL is his first startup, and he looks forward to the entrepreneurial challenges ahead.
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ASIA PACIFIC
About
OriCiro oriciro.com
OriCiro is a pioneer of cell-free genome technology, providing a powerful tool for research and development aimed at unlocking the possibility of synthetic biology. The company focuses on the development and commercialisation of cell-free synthesis and amplification technologies of large DNA molecules. One of the company’s proprietary technologies enables cell-free amplification of large DNA molecules, an efficient and easyto-operate approach that aims to replace the conventional cell-based methodology. It can not only streamline current research processes but also widen the scope of genomics research significantly. In addition to the amplification technology, the company owns a suite of genome technologies, including the assembly of DNA fragments and genome editing. Synthetic biology — an emerging field in life sciences in which new medicines and useful proteins can be produced more efficiently by modified and/or synthesised genomes — is developing rapidly worldwide with ever-increasing industrial applications. OriCiro’s technologies have potential markets in a variety of industries including the pharmaceutical, diagnostic, industrial biotech, food, and agricultural sectors. 80
FUTURE OF SUSTAINABLE LIVING
Headquarters Tokyo, Japan
Sector Biotechnology
Countries of Operation Japan
Entrepreneur Seiji Hirasaki Co-Founder & CEO
Seiji Hirasaki Seiji co-founded OriCiro Genomics in December 2018 and has served as the CEO ever since. Prior to founding OriCiro, he was the COO and Head of Corporate Strategy at AnGes, a gene therapy company based in Tokyo. During his 16-year tenure at the company, he played a leading role in obtaining regulatory approval for the company’s lead product, which was the first approval of a gene therapy product in Japan. He also successfully concluded many licensing, co-development and investment agreements with biotech and pharma companies in the business and corporate development functions. He started his professional career as a journalist at NIKKEI, a leading economic newspaper in Japan. He provided science, technology, and business news and reported on biotechnology, medicine, energy, environment, innovation, and science policy. He received his MSc in Physics from Tohoku University, Japan, and a MSc in Science and Technology Policy from the University of Sussex, U.K.
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ASIA PACIFIC
About
Plastic Bank plasticbank.com
Plastic Bank is an economic development firm that empowers disenfranchised communities to exchange any type of plastic for currency. By revealing the true economic value of plastic, the company enables recycling ecosystems to emerge around the world and stops the flow of plastic into our oceans, all while lifting communities out of poverty. Plastic Bank provides a consistent, above-market rate for plastic waste, thus incentivising its collection. Its IBMpowered mobile app uses world-class banking and transaction technology to empower its Collectors to open a functioning digital bank account — sometimes, the first they’ve ever had. Plastic Bank also provides the ability for local entrepreneurs to set up and operate a convenience store for the disadvantaged, in which plastic waste is the sole currency. Plastic collected through Plastic Bank is recycled and sold at a premium as Social Plastic®. The value of Social Plastic® transcends any commodity price: oceans are kept clean, impoverished communities gain access to stable income, local economies are boosted, and life necessities like food, water, and electricity become more accessible. 82
FUTURE OF SUSTAINABLE LIVING
Headquarters Vancouver, Canada
Sector Circular Economy
Countries of Operation Brazil, Canada, Haiti, Indonesia, Philippines, United States of America
Entrepreneur David Katz Founder & CEO
ASIA PACIFIC
About
David Katz David is the founder and CEO of Plastic Bank, an internationally recognised solution to ocean plastic. The Plastic Bank is a global network of micro-recycling markets that empower the poor to transcend poverty by cleaning the environment. The Plastic Bank is an ecosystem that provides an opportunity for the world to collect and trade plastic waste as a currency. European partners include IBM, Shell Energy, Henkel, Marks & Spencer’s, Eat Natural, Aldi, Drogerie Mart, Grenier Packaging and others. David’s humanitarian work has earned him international recognition. David has been named one of the world’s most compassionate entrepreneurs by Salt Magazine. He is the recipient of the United Nations Lighthouse award for Planetary Health, recipient of the Paris Climate Conference Sustainia community award, is the Past President of the Vancouver Chapter of the Entrepreneurs’ Organization (EO), and named the Entrepreneur Organization’s Global Citizen.
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Stony Creek Colors stonycreekcolors.com
Stony Creek Colors exists to catalyse the transition from unsustainable synthetic dyes to renewable plant-based dyes in textiles and other industries. They develop and manage seedto-harvest agricultural supply chains to integrate with innovative industrial processes and deliver safe and reliable bio-based dyes to textile mills and dye house customers. By taking what’s good about synthetic dyes — consistency, vibrancy, and scalability — and leaving out what’s harmful — toxins, industrial pollutants, and nonrenewable carbon sources — Stony Creek is innovating natural dyes that clean up the fashion industry and sequester carbon through sustainable agriculture. Their dyes improve profitability and ecosystem health for farmers, while empowering designers, brands, and mills with greater transparency and traceability. The company has launched their first product, natural indigo for the denim industry, with a goal of producing 15,000 acres of indigo in the U.S. in the next four years. This means they will replace 2.8 percent of synthetic indigo dye globally. But this is only the beginning: R&D and partnerships are already underway into their next colors and sources. 84
FUTURE OF SUSTAINABLE LIVING
Headquarters Springfield, TN, USA
Sector Sustainable Textiles
Countries of Operation Mexico, United States
Entrepreneur Sarah Bellos Co-Founder & CEO
Sarah Bellos Sarah Bellos, CEO and Founder of Stony Creek Colors, previously owned and operated a textile dye house offering garment and piece dyeing for independent fashion designers. A graduate of the Cornell University Agriculture School in 2004, she has 10+ years of leadership experience in the textile, agriculture, and sustainability industries. Sarah developed Stony Creek Colors to help lead the sustainable transformation of the textile dye industry and build the most transparent and profitable textiles chemical company on earth. She has been a recognised leader in research efforts to bring bio-based colorant production to farmers in the Southeastern U.S. In 2015, Bellos was awarded the Young Entrepreneur Award by the AATCC, American Association of Textile Chemists and Colorists, the world’s leading association serving textile professionals. In 2016 she was a Martha Stewart American Made Honoree, and she and the company were featured as the Tennessee choice in Fast Company Magazine’s annual “United States of Innovation” feature article in May 2017.
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THE AMERICAS
About
Vital Vio vitalvio.com
Hospital-acquired infections are the number one patient killer in the U.S. According to the CDC, 1 in 25 patients contract infections from hospital stays. This burden is expensive, costing the U.S. healthcare system an estimated $30 billion USD a year. Vital Vio, founded in 2013, is a technology company that has embraced and patented new methods to apply the germ-killing power of 405nm (non-UV) light. The company’s groundbreaking technology can be applied to achieve a new kind of surface decontamination with the flip of a light switch. The company has surrounded this technology with the expertise required to ensure the efficacy of this new class of continuous light disinfection. Used in combination with traditional intermittent cleaning in hospitals, homes, public spaces, and workplaces, Vital Vio’s technology multi-tasks to safely, effectively, and continuously kill bacteria and other harmful organisms, while also illuminating the room. Experience has shown that it is simply not enough to shine 405nm light to kill germs. Literally every application requires a level of scientific understanding to ensure the effectiveness of the light’s killing power. Vital Vio has created a full complement of technology, products and engineering and scientific expertise to deliver a fully holistic approach to designing a cleaner and safer world for us all. 86
FUTURE OF SUSTAINABLE LIVING
Headquarters Troy, NY, USA
Sector Biotechnology
Countries of Operation Entrepreneur Canada, Spain, United Kingdom, Colleen Costello United States Co-Founder & CEO
Colleen Costello Colleen’s career spans clinical research, engineering, biochemistry, product development, and technical entrepreneurship. She has been named in Forbes Magazine 30 Under 30, Inc. Magazine 30 Under 30 Most Brilliant Young Founders, Inc. Magazine’s 50 Emerging Global Entrepreneurs to Watch and is a select member of the Kairos Society. She has held positions as a researcher on master thesis projects at Mount Sinai School of Medicine and Weill Cornell Medical College, New York, in surgical device design and pre-clinical studies at Covidien Surgical Devices, and in tissue engineering research at RPI and holds several patents. Colleen has been featured on CNBC, Bloomberg, ABC and holds a degree in Biomedical Engineering with a minor in Technological Entrepreneurship from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, New York.
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THE AMERICAS
About