Orange Fiber: the more sustainable startup according to the UNECE Ideas4Change Award.
Orange Fiber, an innovative Italian startup producing sustainable textiles from citrus by – products, won the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE) Ideas4Change Award, winning both the popular vote and that of the Jury.
The competition featured the participation of 150 ideas from 25 countries of the UNECE region. Among these, six were selected as finalists. They were invited to Geneva to pitch their projects in front of a Jury of international experts representing the world of business, policy making and academia.
At the award ceremony, UNECE Executive Secretary Christian Friis Bach stressed that : “Entrepreneurial talents and visionary ideas from enthusiastic teams can make a difference. Today at the UNECE Commission Session we had six excellent examples to showcase how this is happening”.
The second price of Ideas4change went to the Jellyfish Barge: a modular floating greenhouse for intensive cultivation, able to purify sea water by using solar energy, it consists of a wooden base floating on recycled plastic drums, supporting a glass greenhouse with solar panels, which provide the low energy required to power the fans and pumps. This system represents a solution for producing food next to the final consumer without consuming land, energy and fresh water.
Two world leading Startups incubators, I3P of Politecnico di Torino and SET Squared Partnership offered a coaching trajectory to two of the six finalists: Pnat Jellyfish Barge and AEInnova, respectively.
From UNECE Press Releases 15 April 2015
