Thursday, December 31, 2015

Sign off 2015 - Paris Agreement on Climate change

Copyright © Françoise Herrmann


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UNFCCC COP21 – 2015 INPI environmental trophy nominations

Copyright © Françoise Herrmann

The following eight contenders for the French patent office INPI Innovation Trophies were nominated for a 2015 environmental innovation award in one of the four trophy categories:  patents,  trademarks, design and research. The Trophies were awarded to the winners on December 7, 2015, during the 21st session of the Conference of Parties to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change - UNFCCC COP21, held  in Paris from Nov. 30th to December 11, 2015.

Fermentalg (nominated in the patent category) – a cutting-edge clean-tech company that seeks to use the exceptional properties of microalgae in view of producing compounds such as Omega 3 fatty acids, coloring agents, antioxidants and biopolymers for use in various everyday life products. Patented technology also enables to produce hydrocarbons using microalgae for everyday life products, thus bypassing traditional fish-based and petroleum-based methods. Applications are already in production for human nutrition, animal feed, 
green chemistry, cosmetics and green energy.

NA! - Nature Addicts (nominated in the trademark category) – A company that produces 100 % natural food snacks, with no preservatives and only the sugar derived from fruit. The snacks are bite-sized and come in a re-sealable zip lock pouch.  As low-fat, low sugar treats in an attractive white packaging, Na! is very successful in France, five years after its inception. For a country that prides itself on no-snacking… the tide appears to be 
changing… as long as it’s healthy…

LSCE – Laboratoire des sciences du climat et de l’environnement (nominated in the research category) – Nine researchers and professors affiliated with the LSCE participated in the IPCC - Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, co-recipient with Al Gore of the 2007 Nobel Peace for having alerted the world to problems of climate change. This laboratory works in collaboration with major research institutions such as the French national center for scientific research (CNRS – Centre National de Recherches Scientifiques), the French alternative energies and atomic commission (CEA- Commissariat à l’Énergie Atomique) and French academic institutions. The lab’s research agenda covers climate and environmental change, both natural and human-induced, as well as the connections with carbon and carbon dioxide cycles.

LACTIPS (nominated in the patent category) – a start-up company based in Lyon with patented technology for the production of plastic granules using casein, a protein found in cow’s milk.  LACTIPS’ patented technology thus produces biodegradable, water-soluble, compostable  and sweet plastic, ultimately designed as edible packaging, such as for example tea bags.  However, one is left a bit chilled, without information on whether the process through which the casein is harvested, is cruelty-free...

Greenpriz (nominated in the design category) – a company that markets an energy management and optimization solution in both real and delayed time. The company produces connected devices designed to monitor and analyze the use of electricity in large service-oriented buildings, such as schools and other public institutions or businesses. The devices are easily installed, without wiring, and connected to free and proprietary software that analyzes current uses and offers solutions to reduce costs. Results are quantified into approximately 43% savings on average.

ESITC Caen – Ecole supérieure des ingénieurs des travaux de construction (nominated in the research category) – The materials development laboratory at l’ESITC, France’s Elite School for construction engineers, patented a concrete pavement tile using seashells. The advantages of these pavement tiles are twofold. First, they are designed to resolve the issue of recycling 250 million tons of sea shells discarded by the food industry once the pulp is removed. And secondly, the seashell pavement tiles are designed to absorb water, thus reducing the risks of flooding on low traffic surfaces such as parking lots and sidewalks.

Castalie  (nominated in the design category) – a company that markets high flow rate, tap water filtration and carbonation machines for hotels, restaurants, cafés and other business venues. The idea is to replace bottled water (both carbonated and still), which is both costly for consumers and costly for the environment. Bottled water travels on average 900 kms in France and there are 6 billion liters of bottled water consumed per year, 80% of which comes in plastic bottles, only half of which ever gets recycled. The Castelie high flow rate tap water machines are designed to filter, adjust the temperature and the size of the carbonation bubbles!

Canibal (nominated in the trademark category) –The term “canibal” corresponds to the contraction of two French words “canette” (meaning soda can) and “mise en balle” (the bailing compacting process used in recycling).  Accordingly, Canibal is a start-up company that offers a connected trash collecting and recycling solution at the intersection of bin, trash compactor and gaming machine. The Canibal machine sorts, identifies, compacts and quantifies three sorts of recyclable trash (soda cans, plastic bottles and both plastic and paper cups). And, because the machines work interactively like a game, they are also designed to educate users. Each ton of recycled trash means 3 tons less of carbon dioxide released in the atmosphere.

References
COP21 - Paris, France
Al Gore and IPCC – 2007 Noble Peace Prize
CEA – Commissariat à l’énergie atomique
CNRS – Centre National de Recherche Scientifiques
IPCC (Intergovernmental Panel on Cimate Change) Statement on the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize
Fermentalg
Nature Addicts
LSCE – Laboratoire des sciences du climat et de l’environnement
LACTIPS
Greenpriz
ESITC – Ecole supérieure d’ingégnieurs des Travaux de la Construction Caen
Castalie 
Canibal
Winners of the 2015 INPI Innovation Trophies awarded on Dec. 7, 2015

Wednesday, December 30, 2015

UNFCCC COP21 – INPI 2015 environmental trophy winners

Copyright © Françoise Herrmann

During the 21st session of the Conference of the Parties (COP21) to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), held in Paris from November 30th to Dec.11th 2015, the French Patent Office (INPI - Institut National de la Propriété Industrielle) awarded its 2015 Innovation Trophies in a partnership with the civil society hosting the COP21 conference. 

Accordingly, this year’s INPI Innovation Trophies, in the four categories of patents, design, trademark and research, were awarded on December 7, 2015 to small French businesses and research centers, each active in bringing innovative answers and breakthrough solutions to environmental issues. 

The 2015 INPI Innovation Trophies were awarded to the following 4 contenders:

Blablacar (Trademark Trophy) – an online leader in ridesharing (for a fee) with 20 million subscribers in 19 countries. The company initially called Comuto, founded in 2006, chose the tradename Blablacar based on the user profile question “Are you bla, blabla or blablaba?” designed to prompt subscribers at evaluating how talkative they are when commuting! The rest is French history…!

Le Prieuré (Design Trophy) – a company that designs green or living roofs, both for aesthetic and environmental purposes. The company, founded in 1992, now produces about 1 million square meters of living roofs per year, manufacturing and installing patented all-in-one HYDROPACK, and more recent connected HYDROVENTIV, packs. 

DEEP - Déchets, Eaux, Environnement, Pollutions (Research Trophy) - a research laboratory affiliated with the National Institute of Applied Sciences in Lyon, France (INSA – Institut National des Sciences Appliquées). DEEP’s research agenda has focused on the design of patented solutions addressing various environmental issues such as the detection of silicon in biofuel, quantification and qualification rain water diverted to watersheds, and production of biofuel using biomass. 

PAT - Plant Advanced Technologies (Patent Trophy) - a start-up company connected to the French National Polytechnic Institute of Lorraine and the French National Institute of Agricultural Research (INRA – Institut National de la Recherche Agronomique). PAT has responded to the issue of sourcing chemical compounds from plants which usually destroys plants and biodiversity, resulting in extremely expensive extracts at equally high costs for the environment. The company thus developed two patented technologies: “PAT Plant milking®” and “PAT Friday®”, respectively enabling to extract and produce plant-based active ingredients for therapeutic or cosmetic purposes without destroying plants and biodiversity. 

References
Blablacar
https://www.blablacar.fr/
Le Prieuré
http://www.vegetalid.fr/
Laboratoire DEEP
http://deep.insa-lyon.fr/
PAT – Plant Advanced Technologies
http://www.plantadvanced.com/
INPI
www.inpi.fr 

Trophées INPI 2015
http://innovation.inpi.fr/trophees/
INSA – Institut national des sciences appliquées
https://www.insa-lyon.fr/en
INRA – Institut national de la recherche agronomique
http://institut.inra.fr/