The time for sustainable startups is now
UTS is equipping startups to build tomorrow’s green solutions, today.
After two weeks of finessing her business pitch, Julie Leung presents her solar building panel technology at the Green Sprint Pitch Night. Image: YeahRad
Meeting the sustainability challenges of the 21st century requires rapid, disruptive innovation at a speed and scale never seen before – the world needs entrepreneurs, and entrepreneurs need support to build their solutions in a sprint.
UTS is unique in its capacity to inspire and support technology-enabled entrepreneurs with game-changing ideas and has the largest community of student-launched startups in Australia.
The recent Green Sprint mini-accelerator initiative supported a diverse cohort of eight UTS student-launched startups in developing sustainability-focused solutions, including AI-driven household aquaponics systems, solar micro-grids, compact waste-to-energy pods, waste stream sensor technology and subscription services for nutritious school lunches. A collaboration between UTS Startups and the Deep Green Biotech Hub, the Green Sprint didn't just show support for sustainable innovation, it brought solutions to life.
"If we don’t do something now, sustainability is going to run away from us in the next five years. So this is the time to do a startup."
Nick Hazell, founder and CEO of v2food
Thanks to a shared passion for sustainability, the teams boosted their startup through a generous AU$500 microgrant in seed funding and expert business mentorship from the Macquarie Group (through a Macquarie employee fundraising initiative, matched by the Macquarie Group Foundation).
Another supporter of the inaugural Green Sprint was the Hon Gabrielle Upton MP, Parliamentary Secretary to the NSW Premier, who is leading the mission to accelerate R&D in NSW through the ‘Turning Ideas into Jobs’ Action Plan.
Ms Upton addressed the cohort and the gathering of supporters at the final pitch night event.
“You’re doing an incredibly important thing by bringing your ideas forward and contributing to the innovation ecosystem”, she said.
In recognition of the need for rapid innovation, the NSW State Government will soon launch a new opportunity for startups, through the Small Business Innovation and Research Program, to rapidly commercialise solutions for NSW State government agencies.
One of the team mentors in the Pitch Night audience was Macquarie Group Executive Director, Peter van der Westhuyzen, who said the ‘wonderful sustainability work happening at UTS’ led his team to become involved in the Green Sprint.
“Macquarie’s purpose is to empower our people to innovate and invest for a better future. We focus very much on our communities and there’s such a mutual benefit here when we talk about sustainable innovation,” he said.
Throughout the Sprint, the teams also heard from business and finance leaders disrupting their industries for sustainability, including Richard Adamson of Young Henrys, UTS alumna Lucinda Hankin of Grok Ventures and former Bachelor of Creative Intelligence and Innovation lecturer, Nick Hazell of v2food.
“What you’re doing is so important and now is the time to be doing it,” said Lucinda Hankin, citing the ‘huge megatrend’ in investor appetite for purpose-driven climate and sustainability companies.
A startup founder himself, Nick Hazell reiterated the importance of rapid sustainable innovation, “If we don’t do something now, sustainability is going to run away from us in the next five years. So this is the time to do a startup,” he said.
UTS students and alumni are building green business ideas to disrupt business as usual for sustainability. Images: Lourdes Millare
After hearing the teams pitch their green innovations, a panel of expert judges awarded the most compelling pitch to waste-to-energy smart bin, Eywa. The Green Sprint was a chance to “rehash every part of the startup journey,” said founder and UTS Business student Bodhi Kuwalia. “Each time you go through each process, you learn something new and get better”.
The award for most sustainable startup was awarded to Julie Leung of MakeShuffleShift for her solar panel building technology.
“This has been such a challenging journey in terms of really immersing myself beyond my comfort zone,” said Leung, who is a UTS Masters of Planning alumni. “I’m really excited and passionate, and the Green Sprint has given me the right push in the right direction to proceed with more conviction”.
“I’m really excited and passionate and the Green Sprint has given me the right push in the right direction to proceed with more conviction.”
Julie Leung, founder of MakeShuffleShift
The teams’ drive to develop innovations for solving food miles, food waste, energy supply and lunch box nutrition comes at a crucial time of cultural and economic transition toward a post-COVID green recovery. The success of the Green Sprint shows there is demand from students to learn how to build sustainable businesses, and UTS is in a unique position to leverage the mentorship strengths of its innovation networks to support startups in fast-tracking the growth of green business.
Want to build your own sustainable startup or mentor existing founders? Visit startups.uts.edu.au to find out more.
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Gemma Gillette: Collaboration across the board between scientists and people of business, as well as from different faculties is super important. We're facing some big challenges at the moment and I think we need all different minds from all different backgrounds to be looking at these problems from different angles to come up with solutions that will work.
Shreeya Haridas: I definitely think that entrepreneurship and innovation are vital to disrupt the space that we're working in, in sustainability. You need to disrupt what's currently happening to be able to innovate within that and create change
Gemma: So the pitches today have been super inspiring. I think the problems that are being tackled are quite diverse and that's exciting that there's a lot of different people working on a lot of different areas of need right now.
Shreeya: So my startup is Conscious Skincare and I'm looking to disrupt the skin care market that's currently on our shelves I'm looking into a gap where organic and natural skin care isn't actually advertised enough or when it is it's usually fake products that are kind of claiming this natural and organic label. I would love to tap into the green recovery space to start promoting a better lifestyle for all and incorporating products and services that are more sustainable and natural. I think my background in science and innovation helps me become a great disrupter in this area. I think that if we can think both scientifically and innovatively, we can definitely create change within sustainability.
