UOB FinLab, the UOB Bank’s innovation accelerator, has awarded more than $100,000 to selected green technology (greentech) firms to pilot 15 sustainability solutions with UOB and its corporate partners across ASEAN.
The pilot solutions and partnerships were unveiled at the GreenTech Accelerator 2024 Showcase Day as part of Singapore FinTech Festival’s Insights Forum.
The GreenTech Accelerator 2024 is the second edition of UOB FinLab’s six-month regional programme that enables ASEAN greentech firms to grow and transform, forge partnerships and create pilots to address sustainability challenges across the region. It is designed to fast-track the development of sustainable technology solutions in Singapore and across ASEAN. This year, 33 firms were shortlisted from more than 350 applicants to participate in the programme, of which 12 firms are from Singapore, nine from Malaysia and 12 from Thailand.
Shannon Lung, Head of UOB FinLab, said: “The GreenTech Accelerator 2024 demonstrates our ongoing commitment to build a sustainable future, leveraging collective actions and a collaborative professional network that can spur greater greentech breakthroughs. UOB FinLab will continue to be a catalyst for GreenTech innovation by bringing individuals, businesses, government agencies and greentechs together to tackle real-world sustainability challenges. We believe that with proper support from a strong network and appropriate resources, greentechs can make transformative progress towards ASEAN’s sustainability ambitions.”
Real challenges, impactful solutions
According to UOB’s Business Outlook Study 2024 (SMEs & Large Enterprises), 87% of businesses in ASEAN surveyed view sustainability as important for their businesses, but only 44% have adopted green practices. To implement sustainability practices, about one in three cited the need for support to connect to the right solution partners.
Addressing this need, the GreenTech Accelerator 2024 called for sustainability challenge statements from businesses across ASEAN, which highlighted real-world sustainability pain points. This year, more than 50 statements were contributed by UOB and 26 corporate partners including DKSH Healthcare, Marina Bay Sands and Ngee Ann Polytechnic from Singapore, Great Cosmo from Malaysia and IMPACT from Thailand. The challenge statements covered five key areas, namely circular economy and waste management, energy efficiency, food and agriculture, sustainable cities and urban planning, and sustainability reporting and carbon management.
During the programme, the 33 firms proposed solutions based on the challenge statements and 15 pilots were selected for funding by UOB FinLab. Six will be deployed with corporates partners in Singapore, three pilots in Malaysia and another six pilots in Thailand.
UOB will be deploying five pilots within the bank in Singapore and Thailand. One of the pilots is the development of a white-labelled data platform by GreenFi that enables the bank and its subsidiaries to manage and analyse the greenhouse gas emissions data of their properties. This allows the bank to validate emissions reporting more efficiently by eliminating manual collation of data and ensuring consistency and accuracy of the datasets.
DKSH Healthcare, part of the Swiss holding company specialising in market expansion services, will partner greentech firm Smart Tradzt to implement its solution that can quantify the carbon footprint and value chain collaboration of its cold chain reusable packaging. The platform will enable DKSH Healthcare to share its product carbon footprint data with clients and customers, facilitating accurate Scope 3 emissions calculations after conducting lifecycle analysis.
Malaysian plastic manufacturing company Great Cosmo will pilot greentech firm Co.Efficient Alpha’s voltage optimising technology in their factory. This aims to reduce energy consumption for Great Cosmo’s machinery, potentially resulting in approximately 10% cost savings. In Thailand, leading event and exhibition centre IMPACT will also partner greentech firm GEPP Sa-Ard to pilot a holistic waste reduction programme for events held at the exhibition centre. This pilot will enable the centre, organisers and visitors to reduce waste generation, increase recycling rate and reduce overall cost of waste management.
More programmes to drive sustainability in ASEAN
GreenTech Accelerator 2024 builds on the success of the inaugural run in 2022 in Singapore that received more than 150 applications and led to the establishment of eight pilot solutions and partnerships. This year’s programme expanded the programme’s reach beyond Singapore to UOB’s ASEAN markets of Malaysia and Thailand.
The programme provided greentechs with access to masterclasses, mentorships by more than 30 regional mentors and networking opportunities. The programme also enabled the greentechs to deepen business connections through UOB FinLab’s vast network of 27,000 industry leaders including government agencies, solutions providers, and private and public businesses.
The 15 pilots from the GreenTech Accelerator 2024
Circular Unite – Singapore
Circular Unite will deploy its waste audit and profiling blueprint at UOB that allows for detailed measuring of waste generated at the tenant level at UOB Plaza.
This will help create waste data visibility and potentially improve operational efficiency of waste data collection.
GreenFi – Singapore
GreenFi is developing a white-labelled ESG data platform that enables UOB and its subsidiaries to monitor and manage ESG emissions data of their property assets. It also seeks to enhance data analysis.
Smart Tradzt – Singapore
Smart Tradzt will provide training, consultation and develop an RFP evaluation model for procurement within the UOB CRES team. This model aims to help assess and integrate the ESG and emissions performance of vendors into selection criteria in the long run. This pilot aims to help create cost savings through better decisions in supplier selection.
Smart Tradzt – Singapore
Smart Tradzt will provide training, consultation, and implementation of its digital product carbon footprint (PCF) solution to help quantify the carbon footprint of DKSH Healthcare’s reusable packaging that will replace its styrofoam packaging.
Smart Tradzt’s PCF platform allows DKSH Healthcare to share PCF data with its packaging customers and facilitate accurate Scope 3 emission calculations. DKSH Healthcare also plans to publish these findings in its sustainability report to further enhance transparency and accountability. Smart Tradzt conforms to WBCSD’s PACT (Partnership for Carbon Transparency) framework.
Circular Unite – Singapore
Circular Unite will deploy a waste-tracking IoT system to enable precise waste and recycling data collection at a tenant level, for one canteen and one office block, training of operational teams and tenant engagement.
This will result in an increase in waste data visibility, 30% increase in recycling efficiency, 20% increase in waste disposal efficiency and 90% increase in manpower efficiency from data collection.
Co.Efficient – Malaysia
Co.Efficient Alpha aims to deploy its voltage optimiser across Great Cosmo’s factory to reduce energy. This will result in greater equipment efficiency, equipment lifespan, power factor improvement and reduction of harmonics. By installing the voltage optimiser, Great Cosmo will see approximately 10% savings and 13 tons of carbon dioxide emissions reduced a month.
Intlife – Malaysia
Intlife will deploy its energy efficiency AI system, hardware and IoT devices to enable real-time energy consumption prediction and control for operational efficiency. The pilot will also serve as a live demonstration for potential customers visiting the showroom to promote the adoption of green technologies across their own properties.
IVIS Tech – Malaysia
IVIS Tech will deploy a combination of hardware which includes IoT sensors, power meters and digital gateways on site at the production line for Great Cosmos at their manufacturing facility in Rawang City.
IVIS Tech will log data for the operations in the facility over a period of six (6) months to provide real-time visualisation of energy usage to understand better on the current processes that can be optimised.
GB Industries – Malaysia
GB Industries wants to monitor energy consumption in different areas such as water heater area, dipping area, packaging area and water treatment area. Wimera is proposing their cloud-based energy monitoring solution for one water heater with a power meter for the pilot. This will result in reduction in the energy consumption from GB Industries’ water heater area which currently contains 15 water heaters and consumes approximately 80k kWh of energy per month.
AltoTech Global – Thailand
AltoTech Global will provide technology to help analyse energy consumption patterns at UOB Plaza Bangkok, find gaps for energy efficiency improvement, and propose automation recommendations to help reduce energy use and cut carbon emissions.
Nano Coating Tech – Thailand
UOB CRES will apply Nano Coating Tech’s solution to 116 solar panels and 1,745 square metres of building glass at UOB Plaza Bangkok, including the first floor of the tower and link bridge, to enhance energy efficiency and reduce maintenance cost.
Cero – Thailand
IMPACT will leverage on Cero’s Carbon Event Smart Dashboard to track carbon-related data and view sustainability metrics in real-time, for selected events held at IMPACT Arena. The Cero platform will encourage sustainable behaviours among attendees and aligns with IMPACT’s ongoing sustainability efforts.
Cero – Thailand
PIM wants to allow students to track and reduce their carbon footprint through various activities designed to influence daily behaviours that contribute to carbon reduction. The pilot will target 200 PIM students who will engage in a variety of sustainability activities over the course of 3 months via the Cero platform. Activities include recycling, reducing waste, opting for low-carbon food options, and energy conservation.
GEPP Sa-Ard – Thailand
GEPP Sa-Ard will implement a one-stop data-driven waste management system and service to enable efficient waste data collection by location at events held at the IMPACT exhibition centre.
Wongphai – Thailand
Wongphai will provide four tonnes of biochar for Kingdom Organic to use in their organic farms, in order to improve farm productivity and align with IFOAM standards (especially in their production of kaffir lime, lemongrass, and lime).
Estimated crop yield improvement and increase in farm productivity due to biochar application: 1) Kaffir Lime: estimated 10-20% increase; 2) Lemongrass: potential 15-25% increase 3) Lime: estimated 10-20% increase.
Jim Cornall is editor of Future Food Today and publisher at Ayr Coastal Media. He is an award-winning writer, editor, photographer, broadcaster, designer and author. Contact Jim here.
