The AmCham Sustainability Competition, a program that brings together members of the American Chamber of Commerce in Romania and startups, with the aim of finding solutions to concrete circularity and sustainability challenges, has designated its participants: 14 green startups will enter a solution development program.

In the next phase, they will benefit from business workshops, as well as consultation and feedback from participating companies, to develop a Proof of Concept and adapt their proposed solutions to the reality of industry challenges. The most relevant solution for each challenge will be awarded at the AmCham ThanksGiving Day Event. The AmCham Sustainability Competition is a program organized by the American Chamber of Commerce in Romania and Impact Hub Bucharest.

During the period of June-July 2023, 63 green startups submitted solutions in the AmCham Sustainability Competition, in response to the three pressing challenges affecting water, air, and soil, proposed by AmCham member companies: Coca-Cola HBC Romania, Cargill Agriculture, Kimball Electronics, Microsoft Romania, Raiffeisen Bank Romania, and Stericycle Romania.

The startups that have proposed the most innovative solutions will continue in the program, aiming to develop a Proof of Concept and adapt their solution to the industry and market realities. At the end of the three-month acceleration period, the companies that proposed challenges can choose to continue working alongside the award-winning startups in the AmCham Sustainability Competition for the development and implementation of their solutions.

"The concern for a sustainable future is one of the common values of AmCham members, and we are pleased that through the AmCham Sustainability Competition, we can encourage and help startups turn innovative ideas into practical solutions. We appreciate the involvement of AmCham members in this project, in addition to the sustainability agenda that each implements at the company level. The response from the startup community is encouraging, and our hope is that for each of the 14 designated startups, participation in this project will be a real gain and a milestone in their overall development," pointed out Alina Orban, a member of the AmCham Romania Board of Directors.

Participating startups in the AmCham Sustainability Competition 2023

Challenge #1: The Impact of Adopting Regenerative Agricultural Practices - How do we measure the impact on biodiversity following the adoption of regenerative agricultural practices?

• Acumen Manifesto proposes periodic soil testing and issuance of recommendations for sustainable soil management practices, based on applied research and careful documentation of these practices.
• CarbonCel is a solution that implements carbon farming practices (capturing and measuring sequestered carbon, as well as certifying carbon emissions). CarbonCel brings technology that helps farmers optimize costs, products, and resources and start carbon projects that bring additional income.
• Carbon Smart proposes a program that provides financial and technical support to farmers who adopt regenerative agricultural practices. The solution will help reduce greenhouse gas emissions, improve soil and water quality, and increase biodiversity.
• DigIT innovates traditional business models in agriculture using AI technology, automating processes for agricultural businesses, functioning as a digital assistant to streamline CO2 footprint and build sustainable businesses.
• Rodagria Produce Coop. Agricola aims to apply all the principles of regenerative agriculture by restoring and protecting soil and ecosystems.

Challenge #2: Reducing Carbon Footprint - How can SMEs measure and report their carbon footprint (scopes 1, 2, and 3)?

• Adaptola develops an innovative solution, a virtual CSO, to help SMEs measure and report their carbon footprint (scopes 1, 2, and 3). Adaptola uses a combination of data and artificial intelligence to help SMEs collect data on energy consumption, greenhouse gas emissions, and other factors contributing to the carbon footprint, especially in Scope 3 emissions.
• Carbon Entropy offers companies of all sizes a tool for real-time measurement, analysis, and management to reduce carbon footprint using artificial intelligence algorithms.
• ECONOS offers carbon footprint assessment services, allowing companies to measure the amount of greenhouse gases released by their professional activities. Based on the results of carbon footprint assessment, personalized solutions are proposed to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
• 3E Enterprise proposes a digital platform for assessing greenhouse gas emissions from each economic process of SMEs. Through the platform, sustainable products and services of SMEs will be promoted to the corporate climate, for a truly sustainable economic ecosystem.
• 0C is a digital solution for inputting (manual and automatic) sources that generate a carbon footprint, as well as those that mitigate this effect.
• SIGAD proposes companies a solution for centralizing data, calculations, and reporting to national or international environmental agencies.

Challenge #3: Waste Recycling - What innovative solutions exist for waste recycling?

• Archnite Technologies aims to create and develop a process for recovering raw materials from discarded electronic equipment, creating jobs and reducing material shortages, both for Romania and the EU.
• Kolecto is an accessible digital solution that simplifies the process of selecting, registering, and reporting recyclables, connecting key actors in the collection-recycling chain. Initially, Kolecto aims to facilitate the manual collection of recyclable packaging by economic operators as part of the Return Guarantee System, to be launched nationwide in November 2023.
• PolyMore supports recycling activities by applying machine learning models to identify inefficient operational processes, errors in waste sorting, to improve recycling results.

"We were pleased to see among the applicants entrepreneurs with whom we have worked in other programs of ours, dedicated to green startups, and we hope to be able to offer them such opportunities, which continue the path of validation and development of their solution, more often. We noticed increased interest in two of the challenges addressed by the AmCham Sustainability Competition, which converge in a topic that is on everyone's lips: measuring impact. Whether we are talking about measuring the impact on biodiversity in regenerative agriculture (and here we think of agri-food, a sector that has taken off in recent times in Romania and which is one of the verticals on which we have focused our activity in recent years at Impact Hub Bucharest) or measuring the environmental impact for SMEs, an extremely important subject, given the European regulations that will come into effect from 2024 and which attracts many green innovators," declared Vlad Craioveanu, CEO and Co-founder of Impact Hub Bucharest.

Program Schedule and Benefits for Startups

For the startups participating in the AmCham Sustainability Competition, an intense period of developing the proposed solution alongside program trainers and professionals is ahead. In the next three months, they will participate in workshops on topics such as product development, marketing strategy, negotiation, pitching, and sales, which will offer them the opportunity to develop the proposed solutions, which they will be able to validate alongside the organizations that proposed the challenges, and, most importantly, contribute to the development of sustainable solutions for the environment.

The 14 participating startups will have the opportunity to present their solution at the AmCham ThanksGiving Day Event, which concludes the series of events dedicated to the 30th anniversary of the American Chamber of Commerce in Romania. At the event that marks the end of the AmCham Sustainability Competition program, a single winning solution will be designated for each of the three challenges in the program.

More details about the evolution of the AmCham Sustainability Competition and the proposed solutions are available on the official program page: https://www.impacthub.ro/amcham-sustainability-competition/ . 

About the Organizers

AmCham Romania

The American Chamber of Commerce in Romania (AmCham Romania) is among the most representative associations of the business community in Romania, recognized as a promoter of public-private dialogue on topics related to the business environment, public policies with an impact on the economy, Romania's competitiveness, or the dynamics of economic relations between the US and Romania.

Founded in 1993, AmCham Romania today represents over 530 American, international, and Romanian companies active in 32 economic sectors, which together have created over 250,000 jobs in Romania, have accumulated investments of over 20 billion EUR, and have a direct contribution to Romania's GDP of over 12.1%. AmCham Romania promotes the economic vision and priorities of the business community through specialized working groups that focus on the main areas of interest: Capital Markets and Financial Services, Corporate Governance, Competition and State Aid, Energy, Education, Digital Economy, Taxation, Environment, Labor Market, Health, European Funds, Public Procurement and Public-Private Partnership, Real Estate, and Tourism. AmCham Romania is an organization accredited by the US Chamber of Commerce and a member of the European network of American Chambers of Commerce. For more details, please visit us at www.amcham.ro.

Impact Hub Bucharest

Impact Hub Bucharest is the dynamic space where professionals and entrepreneurs work to develop business projects and initiatives. Launched in 2012, Impact Hub Bucharest is Romania's first coworking space, with a community of over 3,000 members in Bucharest, and globally, the organization is present in over 100 locations in over 50 countries. The mission of Impact Hub Bucharest is to support the entrepreneurial ecosystem by offering startup acceleration programs and direct funding, as well as the largest online entrepreneurial education platform - Startarium.