Two SEED student teams have been awarded honourable mentions for their unique and entrepreneurial innovations at the Faculty of Environment’s annual pitch competition.
The Jack Rosen Pitch Competition motivates students to submit ideas that solve, mitigate, and avoid environmental problems. The competition encourages entrepreneurship and innovation while providing students the opportunity to win cash prizes to fund their ideas.
A fourth-year Environment and Business student, Alexander Racher, along with team members from engineering and science, entered as Team Prokaryo. They have developed a sustainable textile. This “leatherless leather” product aims to reduce the consumption of animal resources needed for traditional leather. Drawing on his knowledge of the fashion industry’s impact, Alex and his team pitched a solution that uses a bacteria-based textile.
Circular Harvest Farm Company founders, Chadd Bauman and Kyle Born are both in their final
semester of the undergraduate
Environment and Business program. They met at the Jack Rosen Pitch Competition last year and discovered they had similar interests in indoor agriculture. Their venture aims to grow fresh culinary mushrooms, herbs, and leafy greens by using indoor farming technology that utilizes waste to energy systems thereby reducing waste and operating costs. They aspire to be the most cost-effective and environmentally friendly indoor-agriculture company in Canada.
Following months of preparation for the pitch competition, both teams were awarded honourable mentions, each winning a cash prize of $1000 to aid in the funding of their innovations.
Learn more about SEED’s Environment and Business program.
