Spotted: The International Energy Agency (IEA) calls for “an accelerated increase in modern bioenergy use [alongside] a phase-out of traditional use of biomass.” Most traditional uses of biomass involve burning organic materials over an open fire, something that the Net Zero Emissions (NZE) scenario hopes to eliminate by 2030.
One challenge in making the best use of available biomass is connecting manufacturers who want to use the material as feedstock in chemical and industrial processes with those in the agriculture and forestry industries who produce it. US-based climate-tech company Loamist has built a ‘Biomass Explorer’ platform in the hopes of making use of the eight billion tonnes of biomass that is wasted globally every year.
Using real-time mapping and data visualisation, the Biomass Explorer tool helps companies seeking more sustainable supply chains find, use, and track low-emission feedstocks from a variety of sources. For owners of biomass materials, it’s easier to earn additional income, as the Explorer tool makes them visible to more buyers.
Users generate custom reports and build directories of suppliers and supplies, and the tool also validates supply chain carbon outputs. With the data, companies can also choose manufacturing locations that are close to biomass sources. Loamist’s goal is to use more than 100 million tonnes of waste biomass by 2030, as organisations around the world swap fossil fuels for carbon-negative or carbon-neutral chemicals, fuel sources, and materials.
In early 2024, Loamist announced $1 million (around €922,000) raised in pre-seed funding. The company plans to continue developing the Biomass Explorer tool and create additional products as the industrial biomass industry matures.
From cellulose to coffee cups, innovations in Springwise’s library showcase the variety of types of waste that can be transformed into biomass.
Spotted: The European Commission’s Product Environmental Footprint (PEF) and Organisation Environmental Footprint (EF) methods are “Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) based methods to quantify the environmental impacts of products (goods or services) and organisations.” These indicators assess everything that goes into the making of a product, from material extraction, water use, and production emissions to distribution transport costs, reuse and recycling options, and more. Pulling together so much information is time-intensive and complicated by the lack of data uniformity across industries and throughout supply chains.
French company L’Empreinte recognised that challenge and designed a software-as-a-service (SaaS) platform called PEFtrust for companies to use to track the environmental footprint of their footwear and apparel products. The platform provides four different modules for companies to work through, beginning with an initial assessment of their products. The proprietary algorithm provides compliance assessments for single products or for hundreds of thousands at a time, making it possible for brands to comply with current regulations and provide the necessary data to support their emissions targets and achievements.
For companies already providing green products, the PEFtrust team can help to further improve their ecodesigns as well as connect businesses with certified suppliers. Each PEF score contains 16 measures that companies can work to improve, and the platform provides regulatory compliant product labels that can be embedded directly onto consumer-facing websites. Data management is made as simple as possible, with the SaaS platform capable of integrating with an organisation’s existing IT reporting tools.
Reports range from individual product-level detail to overall organisation-level Scope 3 emissions. The different levels of detail enable managers and teams at all points of a product’s life cycle to input information necessary for the analysis and to contribute to overall supply chain improvements, encompassing everything from raw material processing to cutting and finishing. The L’Empreinte team is continuously strengthening its platform via faster artificial intelligence (AI) recommendations for ecodesign improvements and including more materials and processes in its evaluations.
As well as reducing emissions in apparel production processes, Springwise’s library includes examples, such as circular polycotton and plant-based fur, of innovations changing the materials being used within the fashion industry.
Spotted: This year will seeseveral changes designed to bring the EU closer to its climate-neutral goal for 2050. The first report of the European Union’s Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism (CBAM) is due at the end of January 2024, and the region’s Deforestation Regulation comes into effect in December 2024. Back in December 2023, the European Council and Parliament also reached an agreement on ecodesign requirements for sustainable products.
For companies with sustainable products to sell, these changes are creating opportunities to expand into new markets or make new designs commercially available. However, inflation in the prices smaller businesses pay their increasingly globalised suppliers is making it difficult for them to build their inventory – even if they have developed a great product and built an effective production process.
Belgian company Shiperise helps with this challenge by buying companies’ inventory in large volumes at factory prices. By receiving a price for its goods from Shiperise, a business can optimise production runs and negotiate better procurement prices with its suppliers. And by investing in the company’s inventory, Shiperise is taking on some of the risk associated with new products that conventional banks are unwilling to bear.
The funds from Shiperise are transferred to a company as soon as its goods arrive from its suppliers. The company then has 18 months to resell the products at wholesale prices before ‘repurchasing’ the inventory Shiperise has acquired at its own pace. Businesses sell the Shiperise-funded portion of its inventory first and it only pays for the goods that are sold in each period. Shiperise is compensated for its service through a minimum margin on its inventory purchases and an admin fee.
At the start of the process, Shiperise offers a free product score, working with most types of items except food. The maximum score on a product review is 50, with questions covering topics such as item sustainability and the sales history of the company. For those scoring below the maximum, Shiperise offers advice on score improvement. The product scores determine how much funding Shiperise is likely to offer for the product.
On the other side of the equation, shops and resellers can register on the platform as ‘professional buyers’ to acquire sustainable goods from the Shiperise ecosystem and benefit from discounts.
Reducing e-waste with upgradeable parts and using artificial intelligence (AI) to assess products’ sustainability credentials are two examples from Springwise’s library of innovations that are helping consumers cut through the greenwashing and find products that really make a difference.
Spotted: Researchers predict that the refurbished electronics market will reach more than $94 billion (around €88 billion) by 2030. Such growth suggests an increase in the accessibility of devices based on cost as well as more robust reuse and recycling systems.
Contributing to the big strides being taken in keeping used electronic devices out of landfill is technology recycling company GreenDice. The Estonian company partners with a range of businesses to place their used equipment with members of communities in need of connectivity.
With a starting monthly fee of €5.9 per month, individuals can choose a refurbished laptop, desktop, or both. Every plan comes with GreenDice’s guaranteed IT support and full transparency on how old the device is and who owned it. Borrowers can feel confident that they are getting quality devices as all equipment comes from globally known manufacturers and businesses upgrading their tech.
If a device is no longer needed, borrowers can return it at any time, with no costs involved in cancelling. And when a computer reaches the end of its usable life, GreenDice takes it back and oversees the responsible, sustainable recycling of its parts.
For businesses, GreenDice offers a way to reduce environmental impact without having to resort to offsetting emissions. The company’s programme also makes it possible for organisations to complete reliable full life cycle assessments of their device inventory.
Affordability is a cornerstone of the company’s programme, and the team plans to decrease monthly fees in proportion to a growth in the number of commercial partners.
A non-toxic, low-energy material recovery process, along with a used electronics marketplace are two other methods of increasing circularity that are highlighted by innovators in Springwise’s database.
Spotted: In Nigeria, it is estimated that women’s earned income is 65 per cent of men’s, due to fewer work hours and the fact that women dominate the lower-paid, informal job sector. This means they have fewer opportunities for networking and fundraising than men. Now, an app called Herconomy, is helping to bridge that gap.
Herconomy began as an Instagram page, created by entrepreneur Ife Durosinmi-Etti, who showcased local and international opportunities like grants and fellowships available to entrepreneurs in Africa. The site soon became a hub for thousands of female entrepreneurs looking for information.
The page eventually became a Telegram group, but scaling was an issue, as the team behind it found it difficult to coordinate the large number of conversations on the site. So, the team has now launched a subscription app (which also has a free tier). The app gives members access to a community and opportunity board, grants, weekly capacity-building workshops, and discounts from over 60 brands.
In June this year, Herconomy announced that it was receiving backing from Google for Startups, as one of the recipients of Google’s Black Founders Fund, which will help the femtech startup accelerate its mission.
This is not the first bank Springwise has spotted targeting an underserved market. Other financial innovations in the archive include a banking platform for workers in Africa’s informal sector and nano-credit for low-income entrepreneurs.
Spotted: Teaching in an inclusive manner that makes full use of accessibility technologies can greatly “improve the potentialfor learning in children and youth with learning disabilities.” Robots have been used in recent years to assist students with autism spectrum disorder, and now a team of researchers at the Social and Intelligent Robotics Research Laboratory (SIRRL) at the University of Waterloo in Canada has created a robot to help students with learning disabilities stay focused on the tasks at hand.
Led by Dr Kerstin Dautenhahn, a professor of electrical and computer engineering, the group tested a social assistance robot named QT in classrooms. Instructors use a tablet to communicate with the robot, including indicating when the robot is to lead a one-on-one lesson with a student.
QT uses hand and head gestures, as well as changing facial expressions and speech to communicate. In order to help students stay attuned to the lesson, the robot uses a mix of jokes, games, breathing exercises, and physical movement.
The studies found that the students who learned alongside the robot completed more of their tasks than those without QT. Now, the research team is planning further studies of the robot’s assistive capabilities, along with ways in which the technology could be made more widely accessible.
From an online assessment that identifies children struggling to read to a mobile-first education platform, Springwise is spotting innovations making education fun and easy to access for a range of abilities.
Spotted: According to one report, as much as half a pound of food is wasted for every restaurant meal, including from kitchen waste and what’s left on customers’ plates. While some of this can’t be helped (peels, rinds, food that has gone off), there is a lot of scope for improvement. That is the goal of Dutch startup Orbisk, which has developed a computer vision-based system that helps food service operators identify and cut down on waste.
Orbisk’s system includes a smart camera connected to a scale, which is installed near a facility’s waste bin. Staff hold food destined for the bin under the camera before throwing it away. The system identifies the exact foods and how much is being thrown away. The artificial intelligence (AI) algorithm then delivers data that helps the restaurant monitor exactly what and how much is being thrown away, and why.
The system works for both pre- and post-preparation foods and the results help operators manage their kitchens and supply chains to minimise waste. For example, if a lot of a particular raw ingredient is going off before it can be cooked, the kitchen knows it needs to order less of that ingredient. Or, if leftovers of a particular dish are being thrown away frequently, this may mean the portion sizes of that dish are too large.
The company describes its goal as “a mission to make the world’s food system more sustainable. We do this by using progressive and innovative technology to tackle one of today’s biggest challenges: food waste. Our solution provides hospitality organizations with a complete insight into their food waste and helps them cut their waste in half.”
Orbisk is not the only company developing solutions to reduce food waste. Winnow, in the UK, makes a similar AI-powered system aimed at driving operational improvements and cutting waste. Other innovative ways of tackling food waste highlighted here at Springwise include making fabric out of food waste and a countertop system for turning home food waste into compost.
In the popular imagination, innovation can sometimes be conflated with the world of Silicon Valley, while charity is associated with second-hand clothes shops and bake sales. But this is far from the reality. Charities and non-profit organisations have a huge incentive to innovate to make the best use of their donors’ funds. And many startups work closely with the charitable sector, either as partners or suppliers.
Ahead of the International Day of Charity on the 5th of September, we take a look at how innovation is disrupting the world of giving. From methods of fundraising that tap into web 3.0 to new ways of measuring the services charities provide, here are five of the most innovative solutions helping charities and non-profits thrive in the modern world.
KIOSKS ENCOURAGE VULNERABLE PEOPLE TO PROVIDE FEEDBACK ON SERVICES
It is a sad reality that the most vulnerable in society are also the least likely to provide feedback on the services they receive. Those needing support from mental and behavioural health facilities, refugee resettlement agencies, affordable housing units, and homelessness charities are particularly unlikely to express their views. Pulse for Good is a US-based company on a mission to overcome this challenge – ensuring everyone gets a say on the services they use. Its solution is to install physical kiosks within facilities that provide a discrete, simple, and consistent way for clients to express their views. Read more
The technologies underpinning Web 3.0—the much talked about concept of a decentralised third iteration of the internet—are seen, and talked about, everywhere today. And with them come many opportunities to do good. One organisation that is determined to demonstrate the positive benefits of Web 3.0 is charity NFT marketplace Maxity. In essence, the Maxity platform is an intuitive interface for charities to generate and sell NFTs to support their activities. For example, one NFT launched on Maxity represents ownership of a black walnut tree planted by Queen Elizabeth II on Magna Carta Island, London. The NFT sale will raise money for The Magna Carta World Peace and Sustainability Foundation – an organisation that promotes national and international conflict resolution. Read more
NONPROFIT SEARCH ENGINE DONATES 80 PER CENT OF PROFITS TO OTHER NONPROFITS
European non-profit search engine, Ask.Moe, donates 80 per cent of its profits to other non-profit organisations with a proven track record. The company currently uses Google’s Programmable Search Engine, and is working on functionality to give users a vote on where the donations are directed. Ultimately, Ask.Moe claims that by using its platform, users can turn their 20 daily Google searches into €7.50 monthly donations to charities. Read more
APP CONNECTS DONORS TO THE HOMELESS THROUGH DIGITAL DONATIONS
London-based social startup Unify Giving is developing an app that will allow people to make digital contactless donations to the homeless community. For those wishing to make a donation, it will be as simple as tapping the homeless person’s RFID wristband on the street or by using the ‘Unify Sofa-Giving’ function in the app. People in emergency refuge situations or substandard housing can also receive donations through Unify, which will be stored safely on an individual profile linked to that recipient. Read more
A DIGITAL ADVERTISING PLATFORM THAT PAYS PEOPLE TO WATCH ADS
Advertising agency WeAre8 has come up with a plan to disrupt the digital ad industry through a platform that donates to charity and pays people to watch ads. The platform works via an app. People who want to participate download the app and can sign up to be notified when there is an ad they might be interested in. Users watch the ad, answer questions, and within 30 days anywhere from 5p-20p is deposited into their WeAre8 wallet. The money can then be used to pay a mobile phone bill, sent to a PayPal account, or donated to any of the more than 50 charities set up on the app. The agency uses a ‘sustainable ad buying engine’ and promises that 55 per cent of every pound advertisers spend will be shared with users and charities. Read more
Curated by: Matthew Hempstead
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