Winner Clean Energy Challenge
Track: Startup
Briefing: WASTE IN MEXICO CITY
About BIOGRÜN
Biogrün is an ecosystem of products and services, including a mobile app and four waste and grow units designed to prevent and reduce food waste in an urban context. Together these modules promote domestic food cultivation and waste sorting, while the mobile app facilitates the trade of products like compost, vegetables and dehydrated fruits. Ultimately, all of them are connected to create a sustainable social network.
Read more on this project on the Clean Energy Challenge Platform
What’s your story?
‘We are industrial designers graduated from UNAM in Mexico. Our shared commitment as professionals to society and the environment was one of the reasons to join forces and create connections with different members of our student community, professors and organizations. We strongly believe that for a greater impact collaborative work is important and the more connections we can create through our practice the better the results will be. We have always been eager to innovate through design to contribute to a better life, sustainable futures, and possibilities for all.’
“We know that design doesn’t work separately from other disciplines because we live in an interconnected world.”
How did your project come about?
‘During our time as students, we entered a research program dedicated to find innovative and sustainable solutions through design, focussed on the issues of Mexico City. This resulted in our graduation project in which we tried to find solutions for sustainable living and our city’s future. One of the issues was related to “waste resources, the loss of biodiversity and the increasing of consumerism in the near future”. We used design thinking to generate new ideas from a user centered perspective and through a systemic approach. The recognition that the project has received has inspired us to think bigger, so we are looking forward to possibilities and opportunities to implement our work.’
The team of Biogrün
What was your reaction to finding out your project had been selected?
‘We were excited about it and now we are very motivated because all the hours, months and years that we have dedicated to this project can finally become a reality. When we discovered that we were selected as finalists we immediately shared it with our professors, friends and families and everyone who constantly supported us ever since the beginning of this project.’
In your opinion, why is creativity important in climate action and the transition to clean energy?
‘We are convinced that design is a powerful tool to create social impact in our world. Through our systematic approach we can visualize relations and identify the actors who are part of the system so that together they can all make a positive change. We know that design doesn’t work separately from other disciplines because we live in an interconnected world. Using the design thinking approach allows us to have an interdisciplinary perspective.’
Where do you see your project one year from now?
‘We want to be part of a generation of entrepreneurs that will face the real challenges that lie ahead of us before they become an irreparable problem. We hope to show future generations of designers and innovators that there are ways to turn ideas into reality when you work with a collaborative approach. In a year from now we visualize our project to be implemented as a product-service-system design in Mexico City, and we hope to create a startup to connect with other organizations and enterprises with the aim to achieve a greater reach and impact. We know that we aren’t here to create more of the stuff that we don’t need, we are here to cater to the real needs of people. We don’t want to design to satisfy our current lifestyle, but we look for ways to prevent our current lifestyle become a necessary problem to address.’