Love it or hate it, technology is impacting every element of our daily lives. You can precede the word ‘tech’ with anything these days; EdTech, FinTech, MarTech, GreenTech, to name but a few.
GreenTech serves as an umbrella term, describing the use of technology to reduce the human impact on the environment. This can be anything from the exploration of clean renewable energy sources, to developing innovative ways of reusing materials within the circular economy.
During the last Earth Day activities, some particularly startling facts were highlighted regarding the impact of human activity on the planet;
The last decade was the hottest on earth in 125,000 years.
Co2 is at its highest in 2 millions years.
We are losing 1.2 trillion tons of ice per year.
Thankfully, the GreenTech revolution is here. Solar panel installations increased by 43% in the last 2 years, and the price of solar decreased by nearly 90 percent in the past 10 years. Electric vehicle sales have steadily increased over the past several years, and with the new legislation confirmed in the UK, new petrol and diesel cars will no longer be sold from 2030. The world of clean energy is rapidly evolving, and the UK attracted one-in-six of all foregin direct investment backed GreenTech projects in Europes in 2020, with London receiving the most projects of any European city. The key challenges for the UK will be to ensure we are building and developing GreenTech, and not just using it.
Within Bruntwood SciTech’s national network, we have some businesses doing just that:
Renewable energy company Urban Chain have created a safe and transparent unique energy market specifically for renewables. Their ‘peer-to-peer’ exchange system allows customers to place an order for electricity and for generators to fulfil that order while also meeting their NetZero targets. The company recently shared news of their intention to move into Base; the newest development at Manchester Science Park.
Also based at Manchester Science Park on the Oxford Road Corridor, GreenDisti is a distributor of renewable energy products, offering exclusive, direct relationships with award-winning Renewable Energy manufacturers and innovators in the EMEAA region. They’re working to provide solutions to the global community’s transition to clean energy and have developed a number of products including air source heat pumps, hybrid inverters, charge controllers and more.
Discover the first Vertical Farm in Manchester. Designed to ‘feed the cities of the future’, the team at Red Planet Farms are committed to tackling the food supply chain challenges caused by Brexit, Covid-19 and climate change, by growing microgreens and leafy vegetables vertically. Vertical Farming comes with a number of benefits for the environment, such as using 95% less water than traditional farms, eliminating the need for harmful pesticides and chemicals and utilising hydroponics and LED lighting.
Watch this video to find out more about Red Planet Farms and what a ‘Vertical Farm’ really means.
THE FUTURE OF GREENTECH;
The future is uncertain for many reasons, not least of all the impact climate change will have on our planet. The solution lies in three areas of adoption; government, industry, and people.
One way governments support the GreenTech space is by investing in green technology by giving subsidies or tax credits to green technology companies. Industry is coming up with truly innovative solutions to some of the biggest problems climate change poses. And we, as individuals, can make a difference by utilising that technology and being mindful of our actions, and impact on the planet. Incorporating green tech in our lives will not only affect the environment, but will also have an impact on job opportunities and food supply.
GreenTech has the power to change the future, we just need to apply it.
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Author: Deb Hetherington, Head of Innovation at Bruntwood SciTech
