Breathe in…breathe out…Sure thing, doctor! But what if the air is polluted? Help is now at hand as Sensio AIR, Clarity, Flow and other startups are working to improve our air quality, and consequently our health, on the road to the Smart City.

Air quality is a major public health issue. According to a report published in the peer-reviewed general medical journal The Lancet on 20 October, polluted air is the cause of 6.5 million deaths worldwide annually. Meanwhile an OECD report informs us that medical costs linked to pollution amounted to $21 billion for 2015 alone and forecasts that they are likely to rise again significantly. And air quality is not only an issue that affects countries notorious for pollution, such as China. In Denmark, for instance, the number of residents of the capital, Copenhagen, dying annually from the consequences of pollution is estimated at 500. The municipal authorities are now measuring air quality in real time, in order to find a solution to the problem. Having the information, and being able to report on it is an important step but you still need to act. So how are smart cities dealing with this problem? And how might City Hall collaborate with startup companies working in this field? They can set targets and draw up strategies which will certainly improve the situation in the long term. But in the meantime, what can city residents do in their own sphere? A number of tech startupers, some of whom L’Atelier talked to at the TechCrunch Disrupt 2017 event held in San Francisco in September and also at the latest HAX (hardware) accelerator DemoDay, also in San Francisco, have been developing solutions.

Startups helping city-dwellers to protect themselves from pollution

According to the Asthma and Allergy Foundation of America, close to 25 million people in the United States are asthmatic. Moreover, a number of studies show that not only can pollution impact very negatively on the respiratory condition of an asthmatic person but it can also bring on asthma in a person who has hitherto been in good health. In order to avoid suffering the symptoms of asthma, the best thing you can do is to breathe pure, clean air.

This is the goal of London-based Sensio AIR. Co-founder and CEO Cyrille Najjar, whom L’Atelier met up with at TechCrunch Disrupt 2017, explained that his app and device are designed for “people who would like to know the level of air quality in their city and also in their home”. But what index should you refer to in order to find out exactly what you are breathing? Air quality assessments are still highly subjective. Points out Cyrille Najjar: “International organisations still haven’t agreed on a threshold for each pollutant, beyond which the air is considered bad for your health. Each country has its own air quality index, and politics plays a major role in deciding thresholds. The scientific community is also still unsure whether long-term, moderate exposure to a pollutant is more dangerous than a short but extreme exposure.”

Against this background, Sensio AIR decided to go for the index most likely to ensure protection for citizens. The London-based startup has a “huge network of sensors” deployed in houses and around the city, and which are also intended for installation in “road vehicles, trains, public buildings, aircraft hangars, and so on,” adds Najjar. This is an excellent way to find out and report accurately on pollution levels and the presence of harmful substances in the air at any given point so as to advise on action and prevention. “We’ll be able to find out the reasons and tell users to be careful to open the windows today, use a dehumidifier etc.,” he foresees. In fact, the main focus of Sensio Air is to help prevent allergies and respiratory ailments. Asthma and allergy sufferers can “register their symptoms on the app. The more often they do so, the more capable [Sensio AIR] will be of predicting in advance when the symptoms are likely to return,” explains Cyrille Najjar. 

Plume Labs is on a very similar mission. Also headquartered in London, the company has developed an app called Air Report, which is intended to help users avoid pollution peak-periods. The idea is that if we cannot improve the air we breathe, we must learn to adapt our activities to the prevailing level of air pollution. In order to work out when you should or should not go jogging or take the kids to the park, you can check on the ambient air pollution at the present moment or during the coming hours just as you would check on the weather forecast. And to enable people to have the most accurate picture possible of what is happening inside the home as well, Plume Labs has now launched a portable sensor called Flow, a sort of wearable device that attaches conveniently to a bag.

In similar vein, the young French tech company Wair, which presented its work at CES 2017, has come up with a scarf that has an integrated pollution mask to enable pedestrians or two-wheeled road users to protect themselves from harmful airborne substances. All these inventions are encouraging people to change their habits so as to breathe more healthily. Nevertheless, in reality their scope is rather limited. While it is true that sensors and devices do have the merit of raising individual awareness of the problems, they certainly cannot all be solved at individual level. Only cities that take a ‘smart’ approach to this issue will be able to have a significant impact on air quality.

In the long run, human health is linked to the health of the Smart City 

Smart cities are applying a range of different strategies to improve their air quality. In Copenhagen, connected sensors deployed by CPH Sense provide real-time information on pollution levels. An equivalent system exists in many other cities, including San Francisco, where the state-wide AirNow website is up and running. Clarity, a startup that graduated from the HAX accelerator, points out that the number of cities taking active steps to measure air quality has nearly tripled in six years, from 1,100 to 3,000. Does this mean people are now waking up to the problem?

In the city of Oakland, to the north of the San Francisco Bay Area, a number of public and private players have been working together in an effort to better understand the problems of air pollution. In June researchers at the University of Texas in Austin, Google Earth Outreach teams and experts from the Environmental Defense Fund published the results of their collaboration with Aclima, a San Francisco-based startup that delivers environmental intelligence through sensor networks. Embedded into Google Street View cars for a period of one year, the Aclima sensor systems showed how far air quality could vary from one city block to another. This type of study demonstrates the need to measure air quality as locally as possible. And this is where fledgling companies such as Clarity Movement Co can help. Its dense sensor network enables it to capture real-time air quality data, which is then directly uploaded into the Cloud. “A second layer of machine learning algorithms is then applied to further refine the data quality through cross-analysis with government reference stations and other local environmental parameters,” explains Meiling Gao, a PhD in Environmental Health Sciences who works as Chief Operating Officer at Clarity.

"Cities often have stations which monitor air quality; the advantage here is that they use standard, highly accurate methods. However, they’re very burdensome, including as regards maintenance, so there aren’t many of them,” reveals Cyrille Najjar, pointing out that the UK only has 150 for the entire country. Moreover, “they’re frequently installed on top of buildings or away from densely populated areas,” underlines Meiling Gao. However, many startup companies have developed a wide range of sensors, often low cost and easy to maintain, which can therefore be used to supplement those installed by city authorities, enabling “an overall view of a city’s air quality,” argues the Sensio AIR CEO.

His company is in fact well-placed to send an alert to the authorities at a particular locality when an unusual situation or a major air problem arises, and make recommendations. “Some cities, for instance, having understood the situation, have then adjusted their urban planning in order to reduce sources of ad hoc pollution,” says Najjar, pointing out: “Traffic lights are a huge source of pollution because this is the point where people re-start their engines. So some have been moved and the road configuration changed so as to protect people most sensitive to air pollution – young children, the ill, the elderly and so on. Setting up a good public transport service along polluted roads has also resulted in a drastic reduction in pollution levels.” Such recommendations might seem to be nothing more than common sense. Nevertheless, city authorities do not always find it easy to put them into practice and frequently run into obstacles when trying to do so.

City dwellers, public and private players: air quality must be everyone’s business

One of the difficulties here is “the inherently multi-sector nature” of monitoring air quality, explains Meiling Gao, pointing out: “The Environmental Protection Agencies that have the regulatory authority to monitor air quality don’t always have the authority to implement policies that can reduce emissions such as vehicle control restrictions in certain city zones or converting municipal fleets to electric vehicles. Therefore, all these stakeholders – environment, energy, planning and transportation – must sit at the table together to solve the problem.”  Moreover, these agencies need to have better quality data available to them if they are going to take the right decisions. “Air pollution problems are complex and driven by different emission sources, the physical environment, climates, and human behaviours. Decision-makers must therefore have localised data to determine the particular variables influencing the air quality, and monitor the effectiveness of their policies in real-time to see what works and what doesn’t,” explains the Clarity COO.

Another fundamental Smart City mission is to raise awareness of key issues among the population, engage with citizens and make them realise that their behaviour can help to bring about real change. Meiling Gao argues that “air quality information should be as common as time, temperature, or traffic warnings displayed to the public.” Moreover, cities need to have dense sensor networks in place that will enable the local authorities “to make available to the public air quality information about the spaces that people commonly inhabit –  schools, parks, public squares, commercial areas –  that is localised and relevant,” she underlines.

On the other hand, ordinary citizens also have a role to play in pushing Smart City authorities to live up to their responsibilities. “Citizens can get involved by first educating themselves on the health risks associated with air pollution and supporting policies that will improve air quality. Initiatives like investments into public transit, green spaces and bike lanes represent the direction we want cities to move towards in terms of creating sustainable and healthy cities. Moreover, increased measurement and more data are critical to quantifying the impacts of a specific policy on air quality,” stresses Meiling Gao.

Air purification a feasible solution?

One of the difficulties here is “the inherently multi-sector nature” of monitoring air quality, explains Meiling Gao, pointing out: “The Environmental Protection Agencies that have the regulatory authority to monitor air quality don’t always have the authority to implement policies that can reduce emissions such as vehicle control restrictions in certain city zones or converting municipal fleets to electric vehicles. Therefore, all these stakeholders – environment, energy, planning and transportation – must sit at the table together to solve the problem.”  Moreover, these agencies need to have better quality data available to them if they are going to take the right decisions. “Air pollution problems are complex and driven by different emission sources, the physical environment, climates, and human behaviours. Decision-makers must therefore have localised data to determine the particular variables influencing the air quality, and monitor the effectiveness of their policies in real-time to see what works and what doesn’t,” explains the Clarity COO.

Another fundamental Smart City mission is to raise awareness of key issues among the population, engage with citizens and make them realise that their behaviour can help to bring about real change. Meiling Gao argues that “air quality information should be as common as time, temperature, or traffic warnings displayed to the public.” Moreover, cities need to have dense sensor networks in place that will enable the local authorities “to make available to the public air quality information about the spaces that people commonly inhabit –  schools, parks, public squares, commercial areas –  that is localised and relevant,” she underlines.

On the other hand, ordinary citizens also have a role to play in pushing Smart City authorities to live up to their responsibilities. “Citizens can get involved by first educating themselves on the health risks associated with air pollution and supporting policies that will improve air quality. Initiatives like investments into public transit, green spaces and bike lanes represent the direction we want cities to move towards in terms of creating sustainable and healthy cities. Moreover, increased measurement and more data are critical to quantifying the impacts of a specific policy on air quality,” stresses Meiling Gao.

Air purification a feasible solution?

Source : L’Atelier

A subscription to build customer loyalty, reinvent yourself in times of crisis and buy better: Emna Everard saw that as exactly the right way to launch and maintain her Brussels-based start-up.

Born into a family of dietitians, Emna Everard knows what it means to eat healthily. "At the age of 12, I was already deciphering packaging labels. My dream was to open a supermarket one day where you could shop with your eyes closed", she recalls.

And because Everard has entrepreneurship in her bones, that’s exactly what she did. In 2016, just before the end of her university studies, she launched the “healthiest online supermarket on the market”: Kazidomi. Her standards are high, both in terms of composition and taste. Kazidomi selects products carefully, enabling its customers to buy healthy, mainly organic, plant-based products with complete confidence.

The loyalty programme

Six months after its launch, Kazidomi’s growth is accelerating thanks to the launch of its loyalty programme. A 59 euro subscription offering 20–50% discounts on all food, cosmetics or care products available online. Profitability and savings guaranteed.

This was followed by a first fundraising of €50,000 in 2017. Kazidomi is growing, expanding the size of its stock and developing its marketing. Everard hired her first two employees. Sales grew rapidly and literally exploded during the COVID-19 pandemic. "Consumers suddenly had time to think about their health and well-being and were doing most of their shopping online," she adds.

How did you reinvent yourself?

The post-crisis period was a turning point. "Kazidomi had to reinvent itself. We wanted to have financial stability and avoid any dependence on external resources," continues Everard. Together with her teams, she looked at their cost structure, operational efficiency and marketing. After these reflections, the aim was no longer growth at any price, but the company's long-term viability and financial health, thanks to an intelligent reorganisation.

Two acquisitions would subsequently enable Kazidomi to boost its growth, creating significant synergies: "Smart Fooding" in August 2022 and "Bébé au Naturel" a few months later, a business specialising in healthy products for babies and their parents. "With Bébé au Naturel, we doubled the volume of orders sent out," adds Everard. "This has allowed us to get a better rate from our carriers and reduce costs."

A responsive and attentive bank

As the Brussels start-up’s bank, BNP Paribas Fortis granted it three loans for its launch, between 2016 and 2019. This support came naturally, with Kazidomi’s commitments in terms of Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) objectives perfectly aligned with the bank’s strategy. "We joined the BNP Paribas Fortis Innovation Hub programme and our relationship manager – who knew the start-up environment extremely well – was immediately enthusiastic and very attentive. He believed in our project, followed it closely, advised us to participate in a series of events to meet other players whose background and profile would be of interest for us," explains the Entrepreneur of the Year 2019.

But the support didn't stop there. "In December 2022, it was thanks to BNP Paribas Fortis, among other things, that we were able to acquire “Bébé au Naturel”. Start-ups like Kazidomi need a high level of responsiveness from their bank. When there is a company to buy, or another opportunity, things have to move fast. Analysis of the file, provision of funds: BNP Paribas Fortis has always been responsive and enthusiastic and has supported us in 99% of our requests," says the CEO enthusiastically.

Eight years since launching, Kazidomi today has 4,000 products that it delivers across Europe. The Belgian start-up makes 90% of its sales on its website and 10% via external resellers, such as Delhaize. Kazidomi has also launched its own brand “Kazidomi”, which has 200 products on offer. By working directly with producers, we can offer the best possible quality products at the best price. https://www.kazidomi.com/en

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Cosucra is investing in the decarbonisation of its production processes. Their focus is on using fibre and plant-based protein from chicory and peas for a healthy and less polluting diet.

Belgium’s Hainaut-based Cosucra has been operating since 1852. The company is quite small with 365 employees, but its activities have evolved over time. From the 1980s onwards, sugar beet processing gave way to chicory and yellow peas. Also, sugar was replaced by inulin and pea protein.

"Many families lack the time to put a fresh meal on the table every day. With our products, the industry can offer them easy, quick and nutritious meals," says Eric Bosly, CEO of Cosucra. "Nutritionists stress the importance of fibre and plant proteins for health, and such a diet has a positive impact on our carbon footprint."

New investors

To take their decarbonisation a step further, in 2023, the company launched a seven-year investment plan worth EUR 150 million. “We are keenly aware of the climate crisis, so we wanted to make this transition fast,” says Bosly. “That's why we brought three investors on board who share our values and are willing to commit in the longer term.”

Long-term relationship

Cosucra and BNP Paribas Fortis have a long-standing partnership. "The bank has supported us in expanding to Denmark and the United States. It's of great value to have the same contact person for setting up the financial structure of subsidiaries, opening accounts abroad, etc. We also meet regularly, which means we can count on the expertise of teams specialised in the food industry. Their macro vision complements that of our local account managers who know our business well."

Same market conditions

Cosucra’s efforts will result in a 55% reduction in CO2 emissions within three years. Yet, decarbonisation is just one of Bosly’s bold ambitions. "We are pushing for the same market conditions as animal proteins. Why, for example, is 20 per cent VAT levied on pea-based milk while for cow’s milk, this figure is under 6 per cent? Plant-based products are also more expensive because you can't achieve economies of scale due to the lower quantities required. If you consider all the “negative external effects” of animal products on human health and the environment, our sector deserves support until we reach a certain scale."

Change of mindset

The entrepreneur also laments how the retail sector uses meat as a decoy product, lowering its margins to offer consumers an attractive price. "In times of inflation, that price difference is all the more detrimental to us. This is why a change of mindset is essential. Nutritionists say that a weekly serving of just 200 to 250 grammes of meat is enough to get the nutritional benefits with no negative impact. But at the moment, most Belgians consume 200 grammes of meat per day."

Bosly also cites competition from imported agricultural products as an obstacle.

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"The European Green Deal aims to reduce inputs by half, leading to the ban of many herbicides, among other things. Farmers should be supported in this transition. And a company like Cosucra, which buys chicory and peas within a 200-kilometre radius, is not on an equal footing with strong Chinese competition."

Since 1796, Brepols has been producing diaries that allow you to better plan your time. The team is fully committed to people, the planet and prosperity.

"From Turnhout to a branch in Paris, our 110 employees create tools that help our customers manage their time better. And that benefits their work-life balance," says Finance Director Philippe Pissens. "Quality, craftsmanship and creativity are at the heart of our products. Brepols’ diaries, calendars and notebooks are not disposable products - they easily last a year. We also make business leather goods under the Maverick brand and and we have launched a brand-new collection of high-quality notebooks under the brand name "de KEMPEN". In addition, we distribute the famous Moleskine notebooks. Finally, there are our bookbinding activities," he says. Brepols’ main markets are the Benelux and France.

Financially on track

Since starting out in 1796, Brepols has seen many trends and developments come and go. The last few years have been marked by growth. This is thanks to the Financial Director, who came on board in 2000. With turnover of EUR 17.4 million in 2021, EUR 19.6 million in 2022 and EUR 20.8 million last year, the company is clearly on the right financial track. "These figures are not just a result of price increases. We are a strong company with a solvency of 70 per cent, which means that we only finance 30 per cent with external funds," he explains.

More than planting trees

"Since 2009, we have only used Forest Stewardship Council (FSC)-labelled paper. For every tree cut down, a new one replaces it. But there's always room for improvement. In 2022, we launched a project group comprising staff across the company. We call it P3, because we focus on people, the planet and prosperity."

The project group analysed the company’s strengths and weaknesses, with the employers’ organisation Voka acting as a sounding board. “We certainly didn't want to make the mistake of greenwashing,” says Pissens. Specifically, Brepols developed 18 action points, which means it already covers nine of the 17 Sustainable Development Goals. In addition to a charter, there is a code of conduct that suppliers must sign and respect. Other initiatives include focusing on local production, limiting residual waste, reducing energy consumption and developing a HR policy that takes diversity and inclusion into account. “The aim of this project group is to create internal and external support and communicate clearly with all our stakeholders.”

Fluid organisation

"Honesty and transparency towards our employees are top priority," Pissens continues. "We have intensive consultations with them, both formal and informal. We deliberately opt for a fluid organisational model, between the hierarchy and the self-managing teams, and there has been a high level of participation. This is crucial as a quarter of our employees will be retiring in the next three years. In this context, we also purchased cobots, which makes the work less physically demanding for our staff."

Clear communication

Pissens emphasises the importance of clear communication to all stakeholders, including its financial partners, such as BNP Paribas Fortis. "The bank has become key to our business operations. We provide our relationship manager with detailed figures and keep her up to date with our sustainable ambitions. Our contacts at BNP Paribas Fortis not only provide us with information about financial products; they also give us tips, such as measuring our energy consumption and the possibilities for subsidies to install solar panels, for example. We have an effective two-way communication. Our collaboration has grown into a real partnership. In our business, paying attention to Environmental, Social, Governance (ESG) aspects is the benchmark in every consultation," Pissens concludes.

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"The bank has become a key figure in our business operations”
Philippe Pissens, Finance Director Brepols

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Triple Helix calls itself the world’s first vertically integrated processing company, offering the industry a completely reversed value chain. Starting with the chemical industry.

Triple Helix aims to create change in the traditional and capital-intensive chemical industry by investing in alternative commodities and recycling. "In a nutshell, we want to prevent products from being incinerated or landfilled at the end of their life by recovering the material streams and turning waste into new commodities," says CEO Steven Peleman. "And I really do mean any waste stream. Our first project is a factory to break down polyurethane foam and reuse it as a liquid raw material for industry."

Venture studio

Peleman and his three partners know the chemical industry inside out and are aware that it is very difficult to broker change. "Some of these plants have been around for decades. Simply saying that we intend to do things radically differently and disrupt the market? That is not how it works, which is why you need smaller companies that serve as a catalyst for change."

The core of Triple Helix is formed by an independent venture studio that sets up and develops circular projects, creating the right ecosystems around them. "We started with the industry we know best and are gradually expanding our business. We now have a dozen legal entities and are working on a new cluster, focusing on CO2 and sulphuric acid recovery."

Friends, family and fools

As a start-up, Triple Helix is still in the investment phase. “This is a huge challenge,” Peleman says. "These days, the only way to finance a venture like ours is to find investors who can afford to take risks, especially in an industry like ours, with expensive installations, test equipment and laboratories. But the profiles you need are also very expensive. Because you need the experience and knowledge. During the start-up phase, you basically have no choice but to rely on friends, family and other contacts. Our credibility is increasing in leaps and bounds, giving us more clout," says Peleman.

Scalable and cost-effective

The polyurethane recycling plant will be their first lighthouse project. "We want to show that our business model works and that it is scalable and profitable to get traditional equity players to invest."

They expect to finalise the financing in the first quarter, so they can start building the factory at the end of March. "We’re ready. The lab results are good. We have a commitment from market players to supply and purchase material. And we are in discussions with three countries to roll out the plant internationally."

Over the next two years, Peleman wants to make the infrastructure profitable and further expand the other ventures. "It’s not our intention to create one hundred companies. But we do want to set up a few that provide actual solutions to problems and then internationalise them. Between five and ten years, we want to be able to say that the entire set-up has been financed, is running smoothly, and delivering great results so that we can hand it down to the next generation."

Ready to push boundaries together

BNP Paribas Fortis has been following and advising Triple Helix for three years, from when they first presented the idea to the concrete development of the financing options. “We went through a learning process with the bank,” Peleman says. “You need to build a relationship and get to know each other, so both parties can assess the risk.”

Today, BNP Paribas Fortis is one of two banks in a consortium that will help finance a large part of the factory. "I see that the bank has the in-house knowledge to understand what we are doing. But understanding what we do is more important than knowledge. And that is something the bank definitely provides."

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"We went through a learning process with the bank. You need to build a relationship and get to know each other so both parties can assess the risk," says Steven Peleman, CEO of Triple Helix.