Growing a greener future

As the world's natural resources grow ever more scarce, the urgent search for greener alternatives is accelerating, encouraging increasingly imaginative solutions to the global crisis.

Ecovative Design LLC is a good case in point. A dynamic new company with a background in engineering and bio-inspired design, it is offering some truly exciting ideas. A recent winner in the Oxford University 21st Century Challenge Competition, Ecovative Design has developed technology that offers a viable alternative to petrochemical based products - using fungi and plant-based materials. We spoke to the company's founders about their innovative and prize-winning polystyrene substitute, Greensulate™, the Oxford University 21st Century Challenge, and their inspiring vision of a greener future.

Winning ways to save the planet

"Taking part in the 21st Century Challenge Competition was a great experience for us," says Eben Bayer, one of Ecovative Design's founders. "Not just because of winning, though of course that was fantastic, but realising just how much we are operating within an area of real market need in developing sustainable and eco-friendly solutions. People are really receptive to our message. And we also made some great contacts."

This international entrepreneurship competition calls for bold and innovative business ideas that address some of today's key challenges across three distinct categories – 'Tomorrow's people', 'Tomorrow's planet' and 'Tomorrow's wealth'.

NESTA's Innovation Challenges team sponsored the 'Tomorrow's planet' category of the competition, awarding a £10,000 prize to Ecovative Design in recognition and support of their unique product Greensulate™ – a biodegradable alternative to polystyrene. The money will go towards patenting the technology behind Greensulate™ and further testing of their prototype insulation boards for the construction industry.

Natural, safe, non-toxic and sustainable

Greensulate™ is unique in that it is literally 'grown' using agricultural waste and fungi. The process harnesses entirely natural processes, thus ensuring that very little energy is expended in the manufacturing.

"We use a gourmet mushroom," explained Gavin McIntyre, co-founder of Ecovative Design, "Though we actually use it in its vegetative growth state, so it's certainly not edible. And the agricultural waste is material that has no other use – it cannot even be fed to cattle. It's great to make use of existing waste streams and find new applications for them."

Although other people have experimented with using plant-based materials, no-one has come up with anything like Greensulate™ insulation. Unlike its petrochemical-based counterparts, it's completely non-toxic creating a safer living space. And of course, it's fully bio-degradable, making for straightforward waste disposal.

Construction insulation is just the start

Greensulate™ is only one of a whole host of ideas for products that Ecovative Design plan to develop. Some, like a Styrofoam packaging replacement, use the same technology underpinning Greensulate™, while others are similarly ecologically friendly, but are based on other research.

"At heart we are engineers," explains Gavin, "and we are guided by our passion for the environment in all that we do. Our ideas develop through our exploration of the problems that people face. It's all about asking the right questions," he says. "Getting to the detail of what needs to be addressed is the hard part. Once that's done, finding solutions is more straightforward."

"For example, providing clean drinking water is a huge challenge in some parts of the world. And the way to think about addressing this might run along these lines: Is it the distance to the source that's the problem? Or is it contamination? Or is it because of a lower-than-average rainfall? As you establish the individual barriers, ways to overcome them open up."

A better way of doing business

The Ecovative Design team's infectious idealism embraces all areas of working life, including the way they do business.  They are dedicated to meeting the demands of the 'triple bottom line', namely – environmental sustainability, social benefit and better performance.

"These three indicators guide the decisions that we make about how we operate as a business. We're fortunate that in focusing on what we want to achieve – in terms of promoting environmental sustainability – we are also creating a financially viable business. It's not our focus, but in order to do the work, we need to be liquid," Eben says.

"Although we were both approached by large companies with tempting employment propositions after we graduated, we were keen to go into business for ourselves. And so far that decision has paid off," Gavin concludes.