Innovation Challenges

This initiative that we are looking at is very focused towards our banana program. In the entire value chain of the banana production, there is use of plastic (Single use and recyclable) at various stages. Some Examples maybe, use of Tree bags, SokSok, monorope in the farms while use of Vacuum packs, Labels & Consumer Packs in the market side.

We are currently targeting solutions to eradicate / reduce the use of fossil fuel based plastic packaging in our market side and the first areas of target that we want to address are the use of

• Consumer Packaging
• Vacuum Pack Polytubes
• Tapes
• Labels
• Stickers
• Strap Packs
• TQC Liner
• Foams

Together they account for about 99% of plastic consumption on the market / consumer end.

Dole is involved in the business of growing and processing fruits in Thailand and Philippines. These fruits primarily include, Pineapple, Banana, Papaya, Guava, and Mango, and a smaller quantity of Watermelon, Aloe Vera, Mandarin Orange, Rambutan.

Before our products reach the distribution stage, we lose and waste fruits or parts of fruit due to various reasons:

• Visual and Specification requirements for Quality at farm/factories
• Inedible fruit parts that are not used in current product portfolio
• By-Product from factories including the pressed pulp of skin and seeds/stones

Current streams that we want to move out to more valuable stream are:

• Biogas
• Feedstock for Animal
• Landfill

Juice Product New Zealand (JPNZ) is one of NZ’s top producing carrot and fruit juice. Huge quantity of carrot pomace is produced as the by-product. The carrot pomace is rich in nutrients and fibre. JPNZ would like to add value to them by collaborating with a partner to develop synbiotics products with it.

Dedicated to bringing health through food to as many people as possible, Danone is a leading global food & beverage company built on three businesses: Essential Dairy and Plant-Based Products, Waters, Specialized Nutrition.

Specialized Nutrition comprises Early Life Nutrition (ELN) and Advanced Medical Nutrition (AMN). These two businesses represent a portfolio of science-based nutritional solutions designed to positively impact health through food for people who need it most, and at the most critical times of their lives, from preterm infants to old age.

Early Life Nutrition (ELN) is a thriving business at Danone. The driving force behind this success is our portfolio of science-based products that, alongside parent education, including breastfeeding support, provide optimal nutritional solutions for infants and young children. Advanced Medical Nutrition (AMN) focuses on providing innovative solutions in paediatric nutrition (including food allergies and faltering growth) as well as adult nutrition (addressing age-related frailty and malnutrition due to disease).

Among its many businesses, Danone commercializes infant milk formula under different brands and price tiers, to provide nutritional solutions for infant and young children (up to 6y old). Milk powder is a popular way to provide the much-needed nutrition to infants and toddlers and are crucial especially in the early stages of a child’s life. Baby milk powder is what we like to focus on for our packaging problem statements under the sustainability challenge and for our Eastern markets (India, Indonesia, South East Asia).

The challenge faced is coming from the linear model the packaging for baby milk powder is into nowadays. Solving the problem (ie turning from linear to circular model) creates a huge opportunity with positive impact to the planet, to the society and to the economy. This step-change will come from our ability to transform up to 4,000 tons of packaging waste (total across the 3 geographies) into value creation solutions and model, embedded into local system and scalable. 

Studies have shown in Asian countries, less than 50% of the population has accessed to the waste recycling infrastructure due to poor waste collection and sorting processes. One of the critical reasons for the absence of a well-monitored waste management infrastructure in some Asian countries is the lack of funding for upgrading the waste management set-ups. Furthermore, end consumer packaging waste collection behavior in these countries are very much bounded by incentives provided by waste collectors for only selective packaging waste materials.  Actually, end consumers in these countries are very selective in repurposing or reusing the used packaging. Hence it seems critical to consider any type of stakeholders that will enable successful waste management, as well as how to trigger a change of behavior at consumer level.

Moreover, end consumers are increasingly becoming more environmentally conscious and prefer sustainability-marketed product. With added pressure from governmental regulations related to environmental sustainability, many FMCG companies have pledged their commitment at global forums1 to adopt more sustainable practices including relooking at the product packaging of their consumer products from 2020 and below. Hence any opportunities to engage with consumer, governmental and non-governmental bodies in creating new business model for value creation locally while contributing to sustainability will be a win-win situation for these companies.

Dedicated to bring health through food to as many people as possible, Danone is a leading global food & beverage company built on three businesses: Essential Dairy and Plant-Based Products, Waters, Specialized Nutrition.

Specialized Nutrition comprises Early Life Nutrition (ELN) and Advanced Medical Nutrition (AMN). These two businesses represent a portfolio of science-based nutritional solutions designed to positively impact health through food for people who need it most, and at the most critical times of their lives, from preterm infants to old age.

Early Life Nutrition (ELN) is a thriving business at Danone. The driving force behind this success is our portfolio of science-based products that, alongside parent education, including breastfeeding support, provide optimal nutritional solutions for infants and young children. Advanced Medical Nutrition (AMN) focuses on providing innovative solutions in paediatric nutrition (including food allergies and faltering growth) as well as adult nutrition (addressing age-related frailty and malnutrition due to disease).

Among its many businesses, Danone commercializes infant milk formula under different brands and price tiers, to provide nutritional solutions for infant and young children (up to 6y old). Milk powder is a popular way to provide the much-needed nutrition to infants and toddlers, and are crucial especially in the early stages of a child’s life. Baby milk powder is what we like to focus on for our packaging problem statements under the sustainability challenge and for our Eastern markets (India, Indonesia, South East Asia).

The challenge faced is coming from the linear model the packaging for baby milk powder is into nowadays. Solving the problem (ie turning from linear to circular model) creates a huge opportunity with positive impact to the planet, to the society and to the economy. This step-change will come from our ability to transform up to 4,000 tons of packaging waste (total across the 3 geographies) into value creation solutions and model, embedded into local system and scalable. 

Studies have shown in Asian countries, less than 50% of the population has accessed to the waste recycling infrastructure due to poor waste collection and sorting processes. One of the critical reasons for the absence of a well-monitored waste management infrastructure in some Asian countries is the lack of funding for upgrading the waste management set-ups. Furthermore, end consumer packaging waste collection behavior in these countries are very much bounded by incentives provided by waste collectors for only selective packaging waste materials.  Actually end consumers in these countries are very selective in repurposing or reusing the used packaging. Hence it seems critical to consider any type of stakeholders that will enable successful waste management, as well as how to trigger a change of behavior at consumer level.

Moreover end consumers are increasingly becoming more environmentally conscious and prefer sustainability-marketed product. With added pressure from governmental regulations related to environmental sustainability, many FMCG companies have pledged their commitment at global forums1 to adopt more sustainable practices including relooking at the product packaging of their consumer products from 2020 and below. Hence any opportunities to engage with consumer, governmental and non-governmental bodies in creating new business model for value creation locally while contributing to sustainability will be a win-win situation for these companies.

Dedicated to bring health through food to as many people as possible, Danone is a leading global food & beverage company built on three businesses: Essential Dairy and Plant-Based Products, Waters, Specialized Nutrition.

Specialized Nutrition comprises Early Life Nutrition (ELN) and Advanced Medical Nutrition (AMN). These two businesses represent a portfolio of science-based nutritional solutions designed to positively impact health through food for people who need it most, and at the most critical times of their lives, from preterm infants to old age.

Early Life Nutrition (ELN) is a thriving business at Danone. The driving force behind this success is our portfolio of science-based products that, alongside parent education, including breastfeeding support, provide optimal nutritional solutions for infants and young children. Advanced Medical Nutrition (AMN) focuses on providing innovative solutions in paediatric nutrition (including food allergies and faltering growth) as well as adult nutrition (addressing age-related frailty and malnutrition due to disease).

Among its many businesses, Danone commercializes infant milk formula under different brands and price tiers, to provide nutritional solutions for infant and young children (up to 6y old). Milk powder is a popular way to provide the much-needed nutrition to infants and toddlers, and are crucial especially in the early stages of a child’s life. Baby milk powder is what we like to focus on for our packaging problem statements under the sustainability challenge and for our Eastern markets (India, Indonesia, South East Asia).

The challenge faced is coming from the linear model the packaging for baby milk powder is into nowadays. Solving the problem (i.e. identifying how to transform this ‘wasted’ packaging material into a new valuable component of a business model) certainly creates a huge opportunity to positively impact the planet, the society and the economy. This step-change will come from our ability to transform up to 4,000 tons of packaging waste (total across the 3 geographies) into value creation solutions, embedded into local system and scalable. 

Moreover, the cost of packaging makes up 7 to 11% of the total cost of a product for most FMCG companies. Any opportunities to reduce packaging cost while contributing to sustainability will be a win-win situation for these companies.

Haier Open Partnership Ecosystem (HOPE), is seeking for sustainable cushioning materials to substitute EPS in home appliances packaging. Home appliances like refrigerators, washing machines, air-con systems, and built-in ovens are often large, heavy and cosmetic, with an expectation to be delivered to our customers in perfect condition. Expanded Polystyrene (EPS) is a very effective protection packaging material that we use in our current packaging solutions. It has superior cost and cushioning performance attributes but does not meet our sustainability brand values.

HDB is rolling out solar photovoltaic (PV) panels on HDB rooftops on a large scale, with the aim of achieving 540MWp capacity by 2030. With the solar PV panels expected to cover about 70% of HDB blocks island-wide, we are looking for solutions to mitigate the following issues:

Glare

The solar panels that are currently deployed already fall within acceptable reflectance levels under BCA regulations (which specifies the acceptable daylight reflectance of materials used on building exteriors). However, HDB is looking to further minimise glare to neighbouring buildings.

Urban Heat Island Effect

There are also concerns that the solar panels could emit heat, thus contributing to the urban heat island effect.

Japan's population is shrinking and this impacts transport networks which were built to service more users than exit today. Some transportation systems in towns does not work as before. To solve these issues in Japan, ENEOS is looking for a practical and intelligent solution to deliver sustainable access to transportation, especially for the electric vehicle (EV) buses, for both urban and rural citizens.

Currently the citizens or public commuters travel from one point to another using the regular community buses. However the community bus servcies are limited due to decreasing demand from the citizens. There are currently ride-sharing and on-demand buses solution on-trial but will take time to determine the results.   

Plastic is showing some real advantages in application, which we enjoy every day. However, we are constantly facing the consequences of improperly handled plastic waste, which is polluting our environment across the globe. It is therefore necessary to act now to dramatically reduce plastic waste and to start seeing it as a raw material source for new products. Recycling has challenges in terms of creating high quality recyclate. One challenge is to remove labels from the bottles, to be able to recycle bottles independently from the labels.

We are looking for technologies supporting very good adhesion and easy removal and separation of labels. Technologies (products), which allow high quality plastic label adhesion on plastic packaging, to be removed in conventional classical mechanical recycling processes will be considered. Labels should be removed for HDPE, LDPE or PET plastic packaging. Labels should ideally be suitable for bottles between 100 – 1000 ml and independent of bottle shape (round, flat, flexible or stiff). For the start a proof point on 2-3 bottle types would be sufficient

Sustainability is always one of the core values of Wildlife Reserves Singapore (WRS) and they are looking at how to encourage visitors to the park gear towards sustainable purchasing and behaviour. WRS has decided to seek solution on how to create a water/ flavoured drink dispenser that enables reusable cup dispensing which is safe (hygienic and sterile) for visitor to use and have reusable cup return functions.   

Visitors to WRS parks who did not bring along a water container is not able to get a drink from the water dispensers. As such, the visitors would have to purchase either a new reusable water bottle or a disposable carton water.

With the above solution, WRS would be able to reduce environmental footprint and resources needed to manufacture a new reusable bottle or a disposable carton. The solution could be deployed at existing controlled entry and exit points at the parks to allow visitors to borrow and return cups conveniently through the vending/reverse-vending machines.

No reusable solutions have been trialled at this point. Generally, the concerns are that the reusable cup returned by guests would have scratches and/or physical defects, that may prove difficult for some guests to accept. There are also hygiene concerns on whether the returned cups can be adequately cleaned for safe reuse.

SDC is seeking off-grid, innovative and creative solutions to improve the infrastructure in less developed areas so as to facilitate visitorship, while leveraging and maintaining the rustic settings of these areas.

In order to enable the activation of these less developed areas, basic infrastructure to support visitor activities needs to be addressed first. As such, SDC would like to seek for solutions in the following areas: power supply, potable water, sewage/waste management, transportation and mobile communication.

SDC is looking for next gen solutions that can be put up with minimal investment so that they can be testbed quickly. The solutions should have minimal impact to the environment or require very minimal preparation to be implemented. The solutions should have a low impact to the environment e.g. does not require heavy preparation work to the current site.

ENEOS Corporation, one of the largest Japanese oil and metals conglomerates, is seeking for low carbon technologies in its effort to advance the energy transition movement towards sustainable and green power generation. As a mean to expand its business offerings, ENEOS is seeking for technology partners with enabling technologies to enhance and increase adoption of solar photovoltaic technologies to support agricultural activities in Japan.

Standard roof-top solar photovoltaic systems are not ideal for implementation on farmlands as they affect the amount of sunlight that plants. This would impact crop yield and hence, farmers’ livelihood. ENEOS is interested in solar power generation system which can be implemented on farmlands to provide power for farming activities (e.g. power automatic water irrigation system) while allowing farmers to sell excess solar power generated back to the grid. This will enable farmers generate additional revenue from selling solar power aside from selling their harvest. Ultimately, the proposed solution should make a strong business case to encourage farmers to adopt the technology for powering their farming operations while generating additional revenue stream.

Pyrolysis (sometimes called chemical recycling) is a thermochemical process that converts carbon-based feedstocks to a mixed hydrocarbon called “pyrolysis oil.” Pyrolysis oil can be further distilled into products like naphtha, diesel, and waxes depending on feedstock composition and process conditions. The Pyrolysis oil should be used as cracker feedstock or other feedstock in a refinery process, in order to close the loop of circularity and to produce new chemical building blocks from the pyrolysis oil.

This chemical recycling process is well-established in industry, but the quality pyrolysis oil and useful hydrocarbon products often depends on the purification system. 

Clariant has developed a range of high-performance purification system for pyrolysis oil and is seeking chemical recycling partners to explore joint development to refine the pyrolysis process for plastic recycling.