PlataformaVerde

In Brazil, only 53% of materials have an adequate destination: in general, all waste produced ends up in irregular landfills. We developed softwares for the private and the public sector to help with that problem. For the private sector, we offer a software in Blockchain that manages extraction of raw material, product production and disposal of the process loss and also environmental indicators for the entire supply and destination chain. Through it, companies control the loss of material in production and generation of waste in their processes, applied laws, technical standards and financial flow. We also developed CTR-E for the public sector, a software focused on waste traceability and control. Nowadays, we impact more than 11 million people that live in São Paulo with CTR-E. If we scale globally, we could impact much more, by donating CTR-E to other cities and selling our private solution to companies around the world.

The use of raw materials and waste generation are a problem not only in Brazil, but in other countries. A lot of that ends up in landfills, although they could be recycled and return as materials for production. In Brazil, around 53% of all waste produced ends up being incorrectly disposed. That happens for a some reasons:

Little transparency of materials disposal, since they pass by many companies;

Companies control their data on extraction, production and management of solid waste through individual worksheets and internal documents, a bureaucratic work that takes a long time and that is not very precise, without sharing data with partners. This leads to lack of data and a long time to identify problems and make decisions;

Lack of consciousness about the waste problem and how materials can be recycled;

Lack of consciousness and control about raw materials extraction from international brands suppliers

Lack of knowledge about legislation – In Brazil, we have federal laws that make big generators of waste responsible for that destination. But a lot of companies don’t know about that;

A public power that can’t control or fiscalize in an efficient way to prevent incorrect disposal

All agents involved in generation and destination of waste: industry, commerce, hospitals; waste carriers and receivers; recycling companies or cooperatives; and governments, through environmental agencies. We keep a close relationship with all our clients, helping them in sustainable processes; in the public sector, we’re constantly exchanging experiences so we can understand better how our solution can be used by other cities and states.

We also have an indirect impact in millions of people, specially those that live in the city, as we provided a cleaner environment for them. Our software has a positive impact in environment, since we can use our software to stop incorrect waste and sludge disposal, protecting water and soil. It is known that water contamination affects health, especially in developing countries, where virus and warms that cause Illnesses. Toxic and dangerous waste is also a risk when disposed in soil and water with no treatment. On the other hand, we have a projection now that if we continue to produce and dispose plastic in this rhythm, there’s going to be more plastic than fish in oceans by 2050. With transparency, technology and data, we can address that problem and move towards a circular economy.

PlataformaVerde allows companies that generate waste to control from the generation of waste from their internal process (generation points for productive losses, waste characterization); applied legislation (deadlines, licenses, certificates); financial flow (management maps, expenses, results); and tracking of all the process of disposal and destination (transportation, destinations and treatments). Our BaaS (Blockchain as a Service) solution enables you to track the entire disposal chain, hazardous waste and effluent, ensuring compliance and preventing waste and packaging from falling into the parallel market. When we connect all these with blockchain, we offer the complete track with transparency, data security and integrated process between all of them. This helps waste generators to understand what and how much waste they generate, how it’s being destined, if they can improve process and recycle more, for instance. For carriers and destinations, they have more control over how much waste they’re dealing with and generate documents online, faster and with less bureaucracy.   We have a specific module that addresses reverse logistics for businesses, by simplifying data exchange between those that generate waste, carriers and recycling companies. With that, people usually gain time (process that took days or weeks are now done in a few seconds); also, we impact reducing operational costs and increasing revenue, by providing data that help companies and cities to make better investments in waste management. As a result, we reduce the number of landfills and incorrect disposal and provide tools that help with creating more circular processes.

With CTR-E, we could register 24.000 waste generators – before that, only one thousand companies declared themselves as big waste generators to the authorities. Our expectation is to reach 347 thousand companies registered only in the city of São Paulo, impacting all citizens as we reduce degradation of solid waste. Having a municipal tool that concentrates this data and that brings transparency to the garbage path helps in this process and empowers the public power to inspect and punish those that disrespect environmental law.

All our software was assembled in a network format, where the inputs are shared between the entities of the chain and not repeated. In this way, companies end up putting new companies in our network and, when they are linked, they hardly leave the ecosystem. There are numerous environmental platforms, but none that have developed this ecosystem locked and encrypted in blockchain between the relation of the beings. The use of Blockchain technology for encryption, traceability and compliance of information is our main innovation.

Our technology brings some unique things like:

·         Blockchain use for waste traceability

Blockchain for raw materials extraction traceability 

·         Sensors and hardware applied in the process

·         Integration with mandatory systems

·         Integration with government systems

·         Mobile applications for citizens

·         Network between waste generators, transport contractors and final destination companies integrate with the municipality

·         Several platform's in one network

·         Blockchain as a Service monthly fee model

·         Public freemium software for municipalities

·         Clean production accelerate software

We use blockchain technology in our software and also it’s designed with different modules, so that business can use our platform in a more “personalized” way. For example, we have a module for generators of waste; other for carriers and final destinations; one for companies that have branches. Each one has special functionalities to attend it’s needs, and they connect with each other, so we can achieve full connection between business partners. Also, we’re constantly programing and designing new functionalities to the software, so we can improve our service even more.

Since our company is in the market, we have helped companies to dispose their waste correctly. In numbers, when we apply technology in cooperatives, the social and environmental results were considerable: the destination of waste to licensed recipients increased from 28% to 97%. In industries, generation of waste reduced 22% to 24%. Up until now, more than 726 thousand tons of waste were managed through our software – that means that all of that was disposed correctly, not polluting the environment. To population, that means a cleaner environment: it reduces the risk of contamination. Also, by our software, companies recycle more and better: that helps generate more jobs and income for those who work with that market. Some of our clients, in 12 months, could stop sending material to landfills.

We believe that technology is one of the answers to the great challenges we’re facing in sustainability. With data and more transparency – things that our blockchain BaaS offer -, we could digitalize and map all the use of raw materials and the waste produced in cities. We have a big dream that our solution will be used in all cities, providing these benefits for all citizens, regardless of the country they’re in.

Since our company is in the market, we have helped companies to dispose their waste correctly. Up until now, more than 726 thousand tons of waste were managed through our software. With CTR-E, the public software, we impact 11 million people that live in São Paulo, where we donated the system. In the next year, we plan to address our solution to other markets in Chile, US and UK, impacting millions of citizens of these countries. In the next five years, we want to see our company providing services in at least 15 countries and much more cities.

We have a big dream that our solution will be used in all cities, providing these benefits for all citizens, regardless of the country they’re in. By that, we could have a huge impact on preventing pollution of water resources and even ending incorrect disposal all around the world. It’s a big and ambitious dream, but we know that it takes that to address these challenges in the fastest way we can.

Municipalities regulations and actors in waste management chain that won a lot of money when you have process with lack of control. We give trust in a lack of trust ecosystem and because of that we know that this kind of players built barriers in our process.

We are giving the CTRE software for free for fragile municipalities, creating strong ness and also enforcing compliance in this areas.

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40 people on full-time.

We started in Brasil because we got several environmental laws, and this giant and confusing  Brazilian regulations ecosystem don’t help to apply the right companies directions and we have seen that the company's didn't gave the right importance to them. We start to make them to see the “invisible" showing that if they are able to manage their chain of production also they are able to accelerate the sustainable process decreasing costs.

We are partnering with Amlurb (Autoridade Municipal de Limpeza Urbana or Municipal Authority of Urban Cleaning) from São Paulo municipality’s and with the group AsAP, which studies the indicators to be achieved in 2030 for Accelerating Cleaner Production in Industry 4.0 from the World Economic Forum. We are also a part of a group in UN Brazil that studies water. 

We work with commercialization by charging a monthly fee to our customers and by donating our public solution to other cities than São Paulo. The price varies from R$ 299 to R$ 999 (in dollars, from U$ 77,66 to U$ 258). It depends on what the company is (industry, commercial, transport company or recycler) and its size. Right now, we want to expand: build the same network outside of Brasil, scale and expand our business in different markets. We’re studying how to start our business in Florianópolis (Santa Catarina State) but also Santiago (Chile), and other countries in Latin America and Europe. The environmental issues are the same around the world, regulations and technical standards are very similar with some variants, but we can make small changes to help companies, cities and citizens to get a better accelerate of clean production and traceability of the disposal. 

We are increasing our sales every month, also we are recently funding money from VCs companies, and make the negotiation for more VCs rounds. We have sure that our growth from the next 3 years is going to be based in investors and by internationalizing our software. Also, we combine that with our increasing sales.

We believe that Solve can provide us an important support so we can scale better and faster abroad Brazil. The technology MIT labs and team also can  provide for us new knowledge to improve our technology. By connecting with relevant stakeholders, we can present our solution and be validated by an international group focused in technology.

We want to partner with corporate unions from different segments of industry and commerce that need consolidated solutions for management of the productive chain.

Yes. With prize, we could use the experience and mentoring to expand our operations for abroad Brazil.