By Luca Bertolasi English Version Lac2Lab is a start-up currently under the constitution, whose project started in 2019. The team is made up of 4 co-founders, with different backgrounds: Paride Acierno and Luca Bertolasi for the economic-business area, Lorenzo Ippolito, and Arianna Palladini for the R&D and production area. Cell cultures are a laboratory technique that aims to reproduce biological phenomena through the growth of certain cell lines within laboratory slides, in a controlled artificial environment. The growth and proliferation of cells are guaranteed through nutrition, given by the FBS (Fetal Bovine Serum), which has various problems concerning the ethical, economic, and qualitative sphere. First, FBS is produced by killing bovine fetuses, and about 2 million of them are killed each year. Furthermore, the FBS has a considerable cost, and the cheaper variants are produced in South America, where herd control isn’t comparable to Italian standards. An ethical and sustainable product The purpose of Lac2Lab is therefore to place on the market a substitute product for FBS, totally ethical towards animals, obtained by reusing a material that would otherwise be wasted: cow’s milk. Indeed, approximately 116 million tons of milk and dairy products are wasted every year around the world. An in-depth analysis of the dairy market was conducted, in particular by examining the relationships between producer, distributor, and the final consumer. This analysis highlighted how to milk waste is an intrinsic problem in the supply chain. The Lac2Lab product is born from the requalification of expired or expiring cow’s milk, no longer destined for food consumption, to be used in Life Science technologies. This guarantees production based on a circular and sustainable economy. The whey, suitably transformed through original processes and replacing the FBS within the cell cultures, also reduces the distances between the additive manufacturer and users: the...
Month: March 2021
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19 March 2021By Francesco Cagnola English Version Once you get to know the functioning of the food system, it is possible to realize that the global dimensions and the complexity of the relationships between the stakeholders involved in this field have become extremely difficult to understand and analyze. Furthermore, paying attention to the transition required for a more sustainable food system that is in harmony with nature, it is clear that this is an environmental as well as an economic-social problem. In order to succeed in this paradigm shift, it is important that this complexity is understood as much as possible by everyone. Although it is a fundamental aspect, the management of organic waste is only one of the necessary actions to be implemented: to reach lasting benefits over time it is necessary to deal with reduction and reuse, as well as focus on recycling processes. On the other hand, understanding the system at the micro level – individual consumers and/or individual companies, meso level – industrial poles, and macro level – city, region, nation, is difficult for everyone. The same is true when trying to understand the management of some thorny situations – or trade-offs – that must be faced during the transition to sustainable systems (for example, the debate regarding the production gap of biological techniques, which have a lower production at equal size cultivated with respect to industrial techniques). Three principles for a circular food system Below, in an attempt to clarify the complexities mentioned above, we refer to the 3 principles introduced by the Ellen McArthur Foundation, and we will follow the path that leads from the producer to the consumer. The latter is explicitly mentioned in the title of the new EU strategy (“From Farm to Fork”, that is “From Farm to Fork”), but few of the non-experts...
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12 March 2021By Aleksandra Kekkonen English Version Today both fields of IT development and circular economy are in the highest interest. A circular economy promises a balanced and sustainable future in a clean and flourish way with well-designed and energy-efficient assets for all stakeholders. IT field in its turn drives economic development, brings science fiction projections in life, and saves (to some extent) the world from Covid consequences making distant work and business processes reality. For sure, all the popular tech trends like AI (Artificial Intelligence), ML (Machine Learning), IoT (Internet of Things), Big Data, edge computing, robotic process automation, and others come to ease our lives. But how those two fields overlap and what influence IT has for circular economy implementation? First of all, IT field definition should be considered to be more specific in formulations: Information Technology (IT) is the use of computers to store, retrieve, transmit, and manipulate data or information. Necessary types of IT services include hardware & software, network Infrastructure (a company’s network infrastructure would typically include its internet connectivity and internal networking between computers and other devices (such as printers), mobile device management, cloud computing, and cybersecurity». Digital technologies play an important role in establishing real-time information exchanges among users, machines, and management systems. These technologies are intrinsically customer-focused and provide the information and connections needed to maintain a relationship far beyond the point of sale. Remote visibility and control of assets are especially critical for the Product as a Service, Sharing Platforms, and Product Life Extension business models. By altering the way businesses and consumers interact with physical and digital assets and enabling dematerialization, digital technologies can transform value chains, so they are decoupled from the need for additional resources for growth. Hybrid technology is partly digital and partly engineering. It can establish a unique type of control over assets and material flows. It allows a company to digitally identify...
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11 March 2021Comunicato stampa Versione Italiana Studenti universitari, neo-laureati e dottorandi avranno l’opportunità di prendere parte alla progettazione della città circolare del futuro durante il primo hackathon italiano sull’Economia Circolare. L’evento si terrà il 23 aprile dalle 9.30 alle 19.00 e il 24 aprile dalle 10.00 alle 13.00 e successivamente dalle 16.30 alle 17.30. Tondo – organizzazione no-profit internazionale operante nel settore dell’economia circolare – è lieta di annunciare il suo primo hackathon, realizzato in collaborazione con il Circular Economy Lab di Intesa Sanpaolo Innovation Center e Cariplo Factory e con il patrocinio di Fondazione Cariplo. L’hackathon, rivolto a studenti universitari, neolaureati e dottorandi di tutta Italia, vedrà come protagonista la città circolare del futuro. Con il 70% della popolazione che diventerà urbana entro il 2050, le città sono il punto di partenza per trasformare l’attuale sistema economico e sociale verso un modello circolare per un futuro più sostenibile, green ed inclusivo. L’evento, che sarà realizzato interamente online, è stato infatti pensato per ideare e sostenere progettualità innovative e circolari, coinvolgendo i principali atenei italiani ed alcune delle maggiori aziende operanti in Italia su quest’ambito. “La recente crisi pandemica ha messo in evidenza la crisi di alcuni modelli tradizionali per la creazione del valore a favore di alcuni nuovi paradigmi, fra cui sicuramente l’economia circolare” – commenta Carlo Mango, Direttore Area Ricerca Scientifica e Tecnologica di Fondazione Cariplo. – “Come Fondazione Cariplo siamo impegnati da tempo nello sviluppo di conoscenze e competenze in questo campo e, proprio per questa ragione, siamo felici di sostenere Hacking the City, iniziativa che punta a generare idee innovative in ottica circolare all’interno del sistema urbano, contesto destinato a essere sempre più centrale nell’ambito di una crescita sostenibile”. Otto sono le macro-aree individuate, all’interno delle quali sono state definite delle challenge grazie al coinvolgimento di partner industriali. Si tratta di Salvatore Ferragamo per l’area Consumer Goods, Esselunga per l’area Food, Arup per l’area Design, Cisco per l’area...
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5 March 2021By Elia Bidut English Version Ccrave, a Portuguese circular content and commerce platform Ccrave is a circular content and commerce platform, born thanks to the efforts of Vincent Van Dessel and Liina Edun. Ccrave is a start-up based in Lisbon that has recently participated in Rise for Impact, a 3 months acceleration program and one of the best impact accelerators in Portugal. Ccrave secured its seed funding and is taking off in 2021. We had the chance to speak to Vincent about the experience of starting a new circular venture and the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on CCrave. Vincent, what has been the main difficulty in setting up a new company in the circular economy field? Circular economy is still a pioneering concept and relatively unknown for end consumers but also for businesses. We will only succeed at this systemic change by connecting all the dots in the circular ecosystem. Identifying all relevant stakeholders and building a circular ecosystem with brands, material producers, circular experts, and European circular organizations has been my main task for the last one and a half year. It’s a never-ending journey. Finding the right co-founders was another big challenge as we always aim to have circular advocates as team members. We managed to attract people with a previous successful career path in linear business ventures to shift to a promising circular one, like our new Head of Digital, Beatriz. As a circular business venture that aims to accelerate the transition to a circular economy, you need to walk your talk and lead by example. Therefore to be credible we have to apply circular principles in the core of our company as much as possible. Hosting our website on a green platform, carbon-neutral logistics where possible, sourcing the right products – our vision is there...