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We know that saving our planet is the need of the hour and every small contribution in this direction counts. While there are monolith conglomerates that are doing what they can to ensure a sustainable future, small startups with amazing ideas are also not far behind. In fact, some such sustainable startups are making big waves with their head-turning innovations. The Postcode Lotteries Green Challenge has announced 25 such startups that have passed through the first round of the international competition supporting green entrepreneurs.
As per The Green Challenge, these 25 startups were selected from a pool of 1,167 applications that came in from around the world. Out of the current selection of 25 companies, five will move onto the finals in early September and the winner will receive a grand prize of €500,000. In addition, the runner up will receive €200,000, and every finalist will get €100,000. All the finalists will be coached over six months on how to optimise their business opportunities. After the finalists are selected, the third stage where the winner will be decided will happen October 3. Here are the six green Dutch-startups from the list that you should watch out for in 2019.
Field Factors (Delft, Netherlands)
Founders: Karina Peña
Water is a scarce resource that needs to be handled and saved on high priority. Keeping this in mind, the green startup Field Factors has come up with a compact solution for rainwater treatment, storage and reuse called Bluebloqs. The system uses rainwater to tackle pluvial flooding, which happens due to intense rainfall, and issues like heat stress, water shortage and reduction in groundwater tables due to droughts.
Basilisk (Delft, Netherlands)
Founders: Henk Jonkers, Bart van der Woerd
Concrete is one of the most widely used materials and it uses a lot of resources to make it. Damaged structures made of concrete need high maintenance as well. Now, the startup Basilisk has come up with an autonomous self-healing technology for concrete structures, which uses harmless micro-organisms to fill the cracks that develop in such structures over time. These micro-organisms are blended with the concrete and when introduced to water, via cracks, they produce limestone and to fill the cracks. This results in lowered maintenance costs and lower CO2 footprint.
Krusli (Wageningen, Netherlands)
Founders: Heidi Alemans
According to the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the United Nations, about one-third of the global food produce for human consumption is lost or wasted every year. Therefore, food wastage is a real pressing problem to which the startup Krusli has a solution. The company makes breakfast products from waste streams like brewers grain, wheat bran, chips, which would otherwise be wasted. Their products also use broken nuts that are still perfect for breakfast pots and currently there are four different flavours of their and all of them are said to have less than 10 gram of sugar.
Odd.bot (Delft, Netherlands)
Founders: Martijn Lukaart
Removing weeds from a field takes effort but the traditional methods used to do so pollute the land and the growing food by a worrisome extent. This is where the startup Odd.bot steps in. The startup has a disruptive robotic solution that when employed, is touted to stop 170,000 litres of chemical herbicides being used in the next 7 years. The robot built by the company aims at enabling a more sustainable farming culture by removing weeds manually and keeping the labour costs low.
Solho (Delft, Netherlands)
Founders: Adriano Desideri, Emiliano Casati
Greenhouse-based horticulture is a great way to increase food production and easily grow crops that require specialised conditions. However, this method of food production is resource intensive and currently, fossil fuels are used to meet the energy requirements of such an establishment. The startup Solho has come up with an innovative new solution called SPRHOUT (Solar PoweRed Horticultural Off-grid UniT).
SPRHOUT uses solar power to meet all requirements of a greenhouse farm like heat, electricity and cooling. The new system proposed by the startup is said to be an economically viable off-grid energy systems that is coupled to greenhouses, and capable of running 24/7, thanks to its unique energy storage capabilities.
Sponsh (Leeuwarden, Netherlands)
Founders: Lourens Boot, Catarina Esteves, Kurt Hamming
There are very few sources of water that enable us to use the precious resource without too much hassles. Now, the startup Sponsh has discovered a way to collect water from the air around us. Yes, you read that right. The company has developed a temperature-sensitive smart textile that doesn’t require any energy source and is capable of collecting water from the air. It does so at night when there’s more moisture in the air and its fibers swell up. When the temperature rises during the day, it contracts and releases the harvested water.
Stock Photos from Who is Danny/Shutterstock
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