Re Sustainability Limited, a KKR-backed company and a provider of comprehensive environment management services, has announced a mega Innovation Fund for the best waste management, recycling and circular economy ideas that have the potential to bring about transformative change.
With this, the company, on the occasion of World Environment Day, seeks to provide a platform for individuals or organizations who have innovative ideas, technologies, concepts or business models that can create sustainability impact at scale. The initiative seeks entries from around the world across 5 categories within a 30-day window.
Ideas will then be scrutinized and shortlisted by an Innovation Council made up of sustainability thought leaders and business leaders. The selected ideas will receive a financial support up to INR 5 crores and a customized incubation program including 1:1 mentoring, technology validation, go-to-market support, and where relevant, a longer-term partnership opportunity with the company.
Initial entries, in the form of a brief description of the idea, its impact potential and scalability, have to be mailed to innovation@resustainability.com on or before 05 July 2022. The relevant innovation themes include:
• Waste Segregation & Treatment Technologies.
• Recycling & Resource Recovery Technologies.
• Social Inclusion & Community Engagement towards Circular Economy.
• Fuels and Energy from Waste.
• New Circular Economy and Decarbonization Business Models.
Following the first round of screening in July, up to 25 shortlisted entries will receive guidance and support from the Company towards second-level submissions and further detailing of the ideas. Up to five finally selected ideas will be taken through a structured “Innovation Funnel” approach, from Proof of Concept/ Pilot Scale onwards, eventually towards full-scale implementation.
On the occasion of World Environment Day, the Company also announced a number of landmark partnerships, including; a partnership with Uflex, a leading global packaging company towards recycling of Multi-Layer Plastics (MLP); and a partnership with Iris-Mec, a leading European recycling technology company for its pan-India network of ELV recycling facilities.
The company also announced that it will be shortly commissioning India’s most advanced and fully-integrated refinery for E-waste & Li-Ion battery recycling. This recycling plant has been built in Hyderabad in partnership with Reldan, a global leader in e-waste and precious metals recycling.
Masood Mallick, Joint Managing Director, Re Sustainability, commented, “At Re Sustainability, we recognize that we cannot re-imagine the future just by ourselves. Fostering an innovation ecosystem, including partnering with start-ups and incubating new ideas & technologies, is a significant enabler of environmental and social transformation. Given the sheer scale of global environmental challenges and the vulnerabilities emerging economies have towards impacts from climate change, we need to significantly accelerate our journey towards innovative environmental solutions that are faster, better and more cost-effective. The launch of the Re Sustainability Innovation Fund is a significant step towards tapping into the immense human capital and innovation potential that exists, which can potentially respond to these global-scale challenges. We look forward to working with these eco-innovators and change-agents of tomorrow.”