Brownee take out the third annual Sir Rupert Myers Sustainability Pitch Competition
Brownee won the third annual Sir Rupert Myers Sustainability Pitch Competition
Friday, August 26, marked the third annual Sir Rupert Myers Sustainability Pitch Competition. The event, generously supported by the James N Kirby Foundation, provided UNSW staff, students and alumni with ideas to tackle pressing environmental challenges and the chance to pitch their ideas and go in the running for $3,000 of prize money.
Congratulations to Brownee, represented by Guido Toepfer and Jill Rathborne, who took out the 1st place award and $2,500 to dedicate towards growing their start-up. The People’s Choice Award, voted live by the audience, was awarded to Flett architecture, earning founder Scott Flett $500 in prize money.
On the judging panel were James Kirby, director of the James N Kirby Foundation, Katya Kravtsova, founder of KD Metis Consulting, and Martin Collings, Founder at Charopy and winner of the 2021 Sir Rupert Myers Sustainability Pitch Competition. We also saw a fresh face at Founders, Entrepreneurship Officer Isabella Notarpietro, making her MC debut.
This year, we had seven teams make it to the finals of the pitch competition, an amazing number of emerging sustainability start-ups from the UNSW community. The teams brought a broad array of solutions to tackle a range of sustainability challenges!
Brownee: Sustainability in the baking. Empowering SMEs to do better by doing better through providing them with an idea of what Sustainable Development Goals matter most for their sustainability journey and where their initial focus areas should be.
Flett: Flett Flashing is the world’s first 3D-printed roof flashing. This invention makes architectural cladding quicker, easier and cheaper to install and represents a step change for the roofing and cladding industry.
Be the Future: Putting hope, fun and thriving into climate action through educational materials, such as books and games, to inspire the next generation of climate leaders.
Dovetail Electrical Aviation: The vision is to lead the regional and general aviation industry into an exciting new, sustainable era by enabling aviation operators to fly commercially viable regional routes in nil emission, electric-powered aircraft.
Agri Automations: Developing agricultural robots to assist farmers with real-time crop health monitoring.
Net Nada: NetNada is an environmental technology company that uses machine learning and AI to automate environmental consulting. The focus is on helping SMEs across the globe turn sustainability into a competitive advantage through fast, easy and affordable technology.
GreenDynamics: Giving the renewable industry the ability to use AI to enable intelligent material discovery and manufacturing.
With a high quality of pitches all around, the judges certainly had their work cut out for them. While the judges were deliberating, Naomi Tarszisz, founder of Replated and winner of the inaugural 2020 Sir Rupert Myers Sustainability Pitch Competition shared insights into her journey since winning the competition in 2020. She also spoke about how Replated is playing a pivotal role in enabling businesses to shift towards circular economies, and why she’s passionate about sustainability.
Sustainability was not only the topic of the day but also embedded throughout the event design, with the trophies made from recycled timber in the MCIC Makerspace and the post-event networking accompanies by locally sourced and plant-based nibbles.
Find out more about the entrepreneurship programs and services UNSW Founders can offer you here.