CleanGreens Solutions is gearing up to bring their mobile irrigation robot to new markets

Aug 2, 2022 | Headline, Member Highlight, Member news

CleanGreens Solutions is gearing up to bring their mobile irrigation robot to new markets

Having grown up on a farm, Bernhard Baumgartner, Commercial Director at aeroponic growing system manufacturer CleanGreens Solutions, grew up surrounded by plants. Now he’s helping colleagues across the globe – from Europe to the Middle East – grow a feast of leafy greens thanks to the company’s unique Greenova system, which uses robotic aeroponic equipment to reduce water usage and bypass pesticides. 

Hello. Tell us a bit about yourself.

I’m Bernhard, Commercial Director of CleanGreens Solutions. I grew up on a farm in France so I’ve been surrounded by plants for as long as I can remember. After studying business, I worked in the renewable energy sector before moving to consulting in business development roles. I joined CleanGreens Solutions last year when the company started to scale up their development internationally.

What gets you out of bed in the morning?

The correct answer is my alarm, but I imagine you’re looking for a more interesting answer! Above all, I’m driven by working with visionary people and companies, and seeing our joint projects progress. We work with pioneering clients who are changing the way we produce food.

Tell us more about how your system is changing food production?

Our top priority is sustainability. At CleanGreens we have developed a soil-free, mobile aeroponic solution for the production of lettuce, salad crops and herbs in industrial greenhouses. At the heart of our system is a smart irrigation robot, which travels beneath the supporting structure that houses the crop modules, spraying the roots from below with a nutrient solution. 

What are the key benefits of this system?

Our system, called Greenova, allows clients to produce leafy greens while using very little resources in terms of water, fertilisers and pesticides, regardless of location. It enables everyone to buy locally produced leafy greens and greatly reduces food miles. Our technology multiplies lettuce yield by a factor of 30 while reducing water consumption by 25 compared to traditional agriculture.

Lettuces growing in a robotic irrigation facility
What does your typical work day look like?

We work on so many different projects that there’s no such thing as a typical day – which is a good thing. Still, every day often includes discussions with clients, following up on existing projects and chatting about Greenova with prospective clients. Lately we’ve been in conversation with governments from various countries about launching Greenova in their markets, which is very exciting.

What key milestones have you hit so far?

Firstly, there’s the large scale projects we’re delivering right now. We are installing our system in a 6,000m2 greenhouse in Kuwait and at a 7,000m2 one in France as well. Then there’s the fact that our clients can produce so many varieties of leafy vegetables much more cheaply by growing in their own locale, therefore avoiding import costs and transport emissions. Making that possible took a great deal of sweat and brain power from our agronomy and technical teams.

What exciting projects are you working on at the moment?

We just finished renovating our R&D centre at Agropôle in Molondin so we now have a state-of-the-art showroom to exhibit what we can do both on the technical and agronomic side. Now that is complete we can focus on other R&D topics like fully automating our system. And more good news is in the pipeline, so watch this space!

Tell us a bit about how you collaborate and support others in the ecosystem.

One of the keys for success is visibility: the more people know about new food production systems like ours, the more likely they will be widely adopted in future. So we engage a lot with schools, farmers, agricultural organisations and other political institutions to raise awareness.

What support could the SFNV community offer to further your work?.

We don’t yet have a solution for the plant roots so they end up as biodegradable waste, but we’d love to find someone willing to upcycle them to reduce our waste even further.  If anyone likes the sound of researching the beneficial properties of the roots of our leafy greens, we would be happy to assist. The cosmetics industry could be a good fit, but we’re open to ideas!

Tell us something we didn’t know about your company.

The key factor that sets our aeroponic system apart is the way it reduces the risk of plant disease. This means that we’re able to grow varieties that nobody else is able to grow – 100+ varieties of leafy greens from pak choi to kale and 100+ varieties of aromatic and medicinal herbs like stevia, coriander and lemongrass. 

Connect with Bernhard Baumgartner on LinkedIn or find out more on the CleanGreens website.  

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Switzerland’s got talent: Meet Prof. Josie Hughes from CREATE Lab at EPFL

Jul 25, 2022 | Headline, Talent

Switzerland’s got talent: Meet Prof. Josie Hughes from CREATE Lab at EPFL

Robotics and AI offer huge potential to drive innovation, from agriculture to sustainable consumption. EPFL’s CREATE Lab is eager to  collaborate with industry partners to change how we design and use robots. We caught up with Prof. Josie Hughes to find out more about the expertise that her team can offer.

How can your work at CREATE LAB support food system innovation?

Making food production more efficient, nutritious and environmentally conscious is a global problem. But robotics and AI can help us to innovate and think outside the box. In the CREATE lab, we don’t just want to scratch the surface. We want to deep dive into how the tools available to us can help us to fundamentally rethink the way food systems work.

This is not only about designing and creating more capable robots but also enabling robots to perform large-scale physical experiments to design or optimize processes such as food development or agricultural practices. The applications are limitless. Robots can automatically optimize or discover new recipes by helping us better understand human taste, optimize the growing conditions for certain plants or harvest plants in challenging terrain.

One of our PhD students is currently working on training harvesting robots to feel and see raspberries to reduce the amount of soft fruit loss during harvesting. You can see the machine in action in the video below.  

On a personal level, which issues would you be particularly interested in tackling?

The amount of waste that our food systems currently create really frustrates me. But this also seems to be an issue that both consumers and industry can tackle in the short term and could have a really significant impact if we get it right. As consumers we need to change our habits and accept blemished or non-perfect fresh food. Reusable packaging is also a hugely promising area. I believe that greater collaboration is important here. Over the last few months, we’ve been working on a really exciting project in this space. More news will follow soon!

How could SFNV members and the wider Swiss food ecosystem engage with the CREATE Lab? 

Reach out to my colleagues at the EPFL Integrative Food and Nutrition Center. The IFNC’s team acts as an interface between EPFL researchers and the outside world, mostly food industry players. Collaborations always start with a scientific question. Contact Christian Schwab, the Center’s Executive Director, to find out more. 

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Why SFNV’s President Martin Vetterli is quietly confident about the future of food

Jul 13, 2022 | Ecosystem news, Headline, SFNV updates

Why SFNV’s President Martin Vetterli is quietly confident about the future of food

Martin Vetterli was unanimously voted in for another term as SFNV President at SFNV’s General Assembly in May. We sat down with Martin to talk science, vegetables and why he is quietly confident about the future of food.

What does sustainable food mean to you personally?

Health and pleasure. I’ve eaten a largely vegetarian diet for many years now. I also like to grow my own vegetables, which I enjoy immensely and this gives me the chance to eat local and seasonal products.

What are your predictions for how we will produce, buy and eat food in 2050?

Science will become increasingly important in understanding the processes involved in food assimilation and food processing in particular. Take sugar – materials science has shown that by changing its molecular structure, it can satisfy our sweet tooth in much smaller quantities.

Thanks to science, my hope is that we produce and eat in a much more sustainable way, without losing the mealtime fun.

What has Switzerland got to offer as a food innovation nation? 

Switzerland is the ideal laboratory for healthy and sustainable food. We already have a rich ecosystem of startups, SMEs and multinationals in the fields of biotech and foodtech. SFNV has a good foundation and the ambition to become a globally recognized competence center.

Where do you see the biggest opportunities for impact? 

Precision nutrition or personalized nutrition is certainly a key opportunity. Everyone’s reaction to a specific food is different and unique. Evaluating an individual’s DNA, microbiome and metabolic response to specific foods helps to determine the most effective dietary plan to prevent or even treat disease. In order to help tackle the climate crisis, we should also focus on the production of new sources of protein with reduced environmental impact. Digitalization will also play an important role in driving more sustainable food systems.

In your opinion, what are the most significant challenges that need to be overcome?

Changing habits. These changes must be of interest to the market economy, which is why the presence of strong partners like Nestlé is so important in associations like SFNV. I also see the role of science as fundamental in this regard. Take food packaging, a topic that EPFL is currently exploring. We have to find solutions that are sustainable, economically feasible, and accepted by consumers.

I’m also a big believer in making small lifestyle changes, like traveling with public transport. Again, this often comes down to our daily habits. We need to shift the default.

What’s the role of academic and research institutions specifically in shaping the future of food?

The role of academic research – with all the academic freedom that this implies – is to provide answers to scientific and societal questions that may arise. And the most burning issue today is very clear: we need a more sustainable food system.

How can we help young people develop the mindset and skills needed to take action on complex issues, like the climate crisis, which impact on individual and planetary health?  

We can see that millennials are changing their eating behaviours for a variety of reasons, including health, ecological and economic factors. I am therefore confident. On the EPFL campus, we do whatever it takes to support everyone willing to contribute to a better future: from meatless meals and washable lunch boxes to participatory gardens. I wish that there were initiatives like this when I was a student!

What role does collaboration play in driving change? 

We need people from different backgrounds and professions to spread the message and to design solutions that meet diverse needs. In the end, food products have to taste good. Taste is central, otherwise eating habits will not change. The École hôtelière de Lausanne and similar institutions have a major role to play here. And I’m particularly pleased that Chef Franck Giovannini of the Hôtel de Ville de Crissier is one of our ambassadors. Farmers are also central actors in the production chain and must be included in the change process. Science works better when it doesn’t operate in a silo!

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How two lifelong friends are redesigning the beekeeper economy

Jun 30, 2022 | Ecosystem news, Headline, Member Highlight

How two lifelong friends are redesigning the beekeeper economy

Beehives

When Alex and Giangio started making honey in their spare time, they had no idea it would eventually lead to them founding a bee-focused startup. Inspired by nature, PrimalBee® is disrupting a product that has barely seen innovation in 170 years: the beehive. Now they’re looking for investment to scale.

Spotting an opportunity

Alessandro (‘Alex’) Gamberoni and Gianmario (‘Giangio’) Riganti first met in high school and have been friends ever since. Brought together by a mutual love of outdoor sports, they often went on climbing or skiing trips together and frequently spent these outings advising each other on their respective business ventures.  

After several years working hard as entrepreneurs, Alex decided to close his workshop and started making his own honey as a hobby. He invited Giangio along – making honey became an opportunity for the two men to spend time together. The pair gradually became more and more involved in beekeeping; they took a course and became members of a local beekeeping association. But something wasn’t right – they kept losing their colonies. 

The breakthrough came when a beekeeping contact called and invited the pair to see a huge colony he’d discovered. Inside a huge hollow cedar tree, they were surprised to discover an entire hidden world of honeybees – living entirely differently to the way they did in human-raised hives. This planted the seed of an idea that would later become the PrimalBee® Hive.

Taking inspiration from nature

The classic beehive design was created around 170 years ago. It is essentially a wooden box, and limited innovation has been applied since its inception. Anyone with a basic knowledge of carpentry can build one and the market is huge, but it’s far from the best solution for bees. Even high-tech solutions don’t offer much of a benefit – it’s like adding sensors to track your bank account when the balance is always at zero. 

PrimalBee®’s founders realized that allowing the bees to utilize their own resources was crucial and the key to ending hive losses. ‘In a standard hive, honeybees are forced to throw 90 per cent of their resources out the window, so to speak,’ says Gianmario. 

Honey bees, they proved thanks to 12 years’ of R&D, are thermally sensitive. Tiny variations can have an outsized impact on the colony as a superorganism. Bee colonies need to remain at a certain temperature to survive: the role of the worker bees is to keep the queen warm so she can produce a new brood as soon as possible. Once the temperature inside the hive hits 36 degrees Celsius, the queen will begin to lay eggs. These eggs quickly become more important than the queen itself – as the next generation of bees. Over winter, when the colony is broodless, the queen needs to be kept at 28 degrees Celsius to survive and be able to lay eggs the following spring. The hive is the hardware connecting two environments at very different temperatures: the inside and the outside.

Redesigning the beekeeper economy

Alex and Giangio’s patented solution – the PrimalBee® Hive – redesigns the beekeeper economy, protects honeybee populations and fosters a solution that works with the bees rather than against them. It is the first hive designed with bees at the very core of it, thanks to an altered nest shape and material aiming for better thermal efficiency of the box itself.

‘We wanted to create a solution that works from the point of the view of the bee,’ Alex explains. The company’s aim is to let the bees do what they are programmed to do. That is: collect pollen and nectar,  increase the brood population, and produce more honey. Ultimately, that also means better pollination and a more secure food system for humans, too.

From Alaska to Israel

After coming up with their prototype, the team reached out to beta testers. The hive management system was tested first in Alaska, where it showed great promise – the bees survived the winter for the first time. In the Negev desert in Israel, where extremely hot temperatures usually ‘cook’ the bees, the PrimalBee® Hive performed well too, even surviving five years in a row without any chemical treatments. 

Since Alex and Giangio started testing the first iteration of the PrimalBee® Hive almost a decade ago, their hives have not experienced any brood diseases: something unheard of elsewhere, anywhere else in the world. The product also saves beekeepers time and money. Today orchards pay a significant amount of money to professional beekeepers to rent their hives for pollination services, as a means of increasing food production.

Looking ahead

The PrimalBee® team is now looking to scale their solution, setting up a dedicated supply chain in their target markets: USA, Australia and New Zealand, Europe. Aiming for a competitive retail price, the team has redesigned the whole hive system, opting for different production technology and alternative materials. Many of their customers’ suggestions have also been implemented, improving design and operational efficiency. The latest version of the PrimalBee® Hive will be available five to six months after the seed funding round concludes.

Any additional funding will go towards expanding the team, developing their marketing capacities and creating a more affordable version of the system. Their innovation has already won positive reviews from beekeepers and interest from international investors in the US, Singapore, China as well as in Switzerland. 

Connect with Alessandro or Gianmario on LinkedIn, or visit the PrimalBee website to find out more.

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Potiio Launches Crowdselling Campaign for Revolutionary Soft Drink Experience

Jun 27, 2022 | Ecosystem news, Headline, Member news, Press-releases

Potiio Launches Crowdselling Campaign for Revolutionary Soft Drink Experience

Potiio’s unique water bottle technology and flavor capsules use brain science to revolutionize soft drink consumption. They’re now welcoming investors in their mission to create a circular beverage economy focused on wellness, convenience, and plastic reduction.

The “magic potion” that tricks your tastebuds

Potiio founder, Cédric Sax, constantly sipped his favorite soft drink as a doctorate student at ETH Zurich. The drink helped him stay focused, motivated, and hydrated – but it was also packed with sugar and generated waste with each bottle he enjoyed.  

Cédric wanted to find a way to keep his soft drink habit while reducing all of the sugar and plastic. He realized the brain could be tricked into thinking it was consuming something sweet with a pulsating flow of flavor concentrate on the top of the tongue. This led to the design of potiio (based on the Latin term “potio” for “magic potion”) with the help of co-founder, Alessandro Hofmann. Now Cédric and Alessandro have big plans to shake up the beverage industry.

How the potiio water bottle works

Potiio’s unique reusable water bottle and recyclable flavor capsules use patent-pending pulse technology to create a new kind of soft drink experience. Simply fill the water bottle with tap or sparkling water, insert the flavor capsule, close the lid, and start sipping. Each sip begins by releasing a pulse of flavor from the capsules to give your taste buds a sweet sensation. A flow of water follows shortly after, but by then the brain has been tricked to believe you are still consuming a sweet soft drink even though it’s now mostly water. 

This flavor capsule technology allows potiio to reduce a drink’s sugar content by more than 30% without sacrificing any flavor. A variety of sweet liquids can also be packed into 50 ml containers instead of half-liter plastic bottles, creating eco-friendly flavor options for on-demand refreshment. This closed-loop system of reusable bottles and recyclable capsules can reduce a drink’s carbon footprint by 65% while still keeping hydration exciting and delicious.

Next steps

Potiio is currently seeking investors to support the production of its revolutionary water bottles and flavor capsules. Their crowdselling campaign kicks off on June 27 on Crowdify.net with the goal of selling 500 bottles.

In the future, potiio plans to expand the flavor and function of its own capsules and aims to work with established soft drink producers to bring their drinks to market using potiio technology.

About potiio

Potiio is the first water bottle technology that doesn’t sacrifice real taste and flavor for wellness. Unique bottle and flavor capsule technology helps potiio revolutionize soft drink consumption habits with a circular economy approach, allowing consumers to enjoy low-sugar soft drinks while also reducing plastic waste. 

Follow potiio on Linkedin or view their crowdselling page to learn more.

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Nexenic raises 1.8 million for series production and market entry of portable mini-steamer Steasy®

Jun 22, 2022 | Ecosystem news, Headline, Member news, Press-releases

Nexenic raises 1.8 million for series production and market entry of portable mini-steamer Steasy®

The Swiss company Nexenic has developed a portable mini-steamer the size of a standard lunch box, and they’ve called it Steasy®. The product is soon to start serial production and enter the market. With a successful funding round to the tune of 1.8 million Swiss francs, its founders are gearing up for their invention’s entrance onto a wider stage.

Meet Steasy®

The company’s trio of founders and inventors met while studying at the Zurich University of Applied Sciences (ZHAW), and bonded in the queue to heat up their lunches in the microwave. But now, thanks to their easy yet revolutionary steaming device, those long waits may well be a thing of the past for future students. It turns out queueing has its benefits: the three – Claudio Ruiz, Reto Muhl and Johannes Hofer – used that time (and more) to dream up a solution to their predicament.

Enter Steasy®, their ingenious portable mini-steamer. No bigger than your average lunchbox, the device allows hungry users to heat up their meals gently and efficiently  – no microwave, oven or power socket needed. And now, thanks to a successful funding round, its inventors are one step closer to making their vision a reality.

A prototype of the Steasy® portable mini steamer.

Merging convenience, health and tech

To bring their innovation to the masses, the young entrepreneurs are making the final preparations for serial production and market entry – the portable mini-steamers are already being produced in Europe in partnership with a Swiss manufacturer. 

And the invention will do far more than just save its users the time and boredom of waiting in the microwave line. The steaming technology ensures vegetables retain their vitamins and nutrients, while meat stays moist and succulent. Not only that: the accompanying app means you can heat up your lunch from afar, and time it to coincide with the moment the clock hits noon. 

The founders see their creation adding particular value to students, who find themselves in the same predicament as they once did, as well as office workers – particularly those with health at the forefront of their minds – and those who work outdoors or on construction sites, away from any catering facilities. 

Milestone after milestone

The inventors have already celebrated several significant milestones, with the final prototype developed, tested and convincing enough to win over investors. “The functioning prototype and the successful customer testing phase were decisive in persuading investors to fund our next stage,” says Johannes Hofer, co-founder and CMO. “This meant we could sell not just a vision, but had a finished product including user data that proved the idea really worked.”

The founders closed the latest, oversubscribed funding round with an additional 1.8 million Swiss francs in the bank. With this new injection of cash, Steasy® will be able to enter serial production, paving the way to mass market entry. An initial launch is planned in Switzerland, with preorders for private individuals starting as soon as autumn this year.

A strategic partnership

The Swiss catering group, ZFV-Unternehmungen cooperative (ZFV), will not only invest financially but will also enter into a strategic partnership with the startup. This will include exploring how their solution could support ZFV in providing access to fresh, balanced food throughout the day. Dario Notaro, Chief Business Development Officer at ZFV sees clear synergies between their work: “At ZFV, we’re always eager to collaborate and work with creative partners to spot and develop innovative solutions.”

Find out more on the Steasy® website.

About Nexenic

Nexenic AG is a Swiss startup that aims to make everyday life easier. Nexenic AG works across various engineering fields to achieve this goal. Steasy®, the product developed by the startup, is a smart, lightweight and portable mini-steamer the size of a standard lunch box.

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