Sustainability of Cleantech:
Pakistan
Funding for this project is available until December 2017 and owing to the success of the GCIP programme, the support to the Cleantech innovators should continue post 2017 also. In order to ensure continuity of the project a sustainability strategy is being devised for Startups and SMEs working in the area of Cleantech that need further nurturing. The following are the main areas which are under discussion to ensure sustainability: IdentiďŹ cation of partner Sponsorship and prizes Post competition services Policy Review National Cleantech Platform Establishment of VC fund in Pakistan
Pakistan
Success Stories
Contact details:
Global Cleantech Innovation Programme for SMEs and Start-ups in Pakistan (GCIP) United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO) Level 7, Serena Business Complex, F-5/1, Islamabad, Pakistan Tel: +92-51-8354813 |Fax: +92-51-2600123 E-mail: gcip-pakistan@unido.org
UNIDO Global Cleantech Innovation Programme for SMEs and Startups in Pakistan (GCIP)
Pakistan
UNIDO Global Cleantech Innovation Programme for SMEs and Startups in Pakistan (GCIP) The Programme is currently running in around 10 countries, including Pakistan, and aims at developing a sustainable entrepreneurship ecosystem.
The world's largest clean technology competition is supporting Pakistani entrepreneurs (SMEs and startups) with the best ideas that deal with today's most urgent energy, environmental and economic challenges through a competition based approach. The Programme focuses on fostering emerging and commercially viable clean technology startups/innovations to fuel green industrial growth in the country, while small and medium-sized enterprises are provided with training, mentoring, and access to potential investors. Given the significance and contribution of small businesses to the creation of jobs and the overall economic development of Pakistan, UNIDO is implementing a "Global Cleantech Innovation Programme for SMEs and Start-ups" focusing on the promotion of innovations in clean technologies, funded by the Global Environment Facility and supported by its strategic partners, Pakistan Council for Science and Technology (PCST), National Productivity Organization (NPO) and Pakistan Institute of Management (PIM). The Programme is currently running in around 10 countries, including Pakistan, and aims at developing a sustainable entrepreneurship ecosystem. It supports both clean technology innovations in SMEs and startup entrepreneurs to enhance opportunities to achieve sustainable commercial success. This builds on Cleantech Open's proven model for the implementation of the innovation acceleration programmes in Pakistan. The model follows Cleantech ecosystem approach which, among others, includes close engagement with the private sector, scaling up the momentum for sustainable industrial development and strengthening the policy framework as required. It works closely with diverse stakeholders across the spectrum such as SMEs, national ministries, academia, industrial associations, provincial governments, potential investors, partner agencies, financial institutions and autonomous research centers in the country. By tapping into this broad network the programme has established an effective
awareness campaign as well as a platform to mobilize interest among targeted beneficiaries ensuring adequate buy-in of SMEs. The programme is focused on enhancing both emerging cleantech start-ups as well as the local entrepreneurial ecosystem and policy framework in Pakistan. A competition-based approach is used to identify the most promising entrepreneurs across the country, whilst a local acceleration programme supports, promotes and “de-risks” the participating companies and connects them to potential investors, customers and partners. In order to ensure gender mainstreaming and attracting more women to participate in the competition, a Women Business Growth Centre (WBGC) has been launched, in collaboration with Islamabad Chamber of Commerce and Industry (ICCI), to serving as a facilitation unit that enhances the ability, mobility, visibility and connectivity of women entrepreneurs in Pakistan. Keeping in mind the needs of women entrepreneurs, the WBGC is supposed to serve as an apex entity to mainstream women in the private sector of Pakistan. The Centre is designed to strengthen institutional support services and to deliver improved Business Development and Competitiveness Services (BDCS) for women entrepreneurs in selected industrial sectors. Through new collaborations across disciplines and sectors, this programme has been able to build the national capacity for clean technologies along with a supportive local entrepreneurial ecosystem for SMEs by developing clean and resource synergistic initiatives and entrepreneurs in Pakistan. Through the growing community of national partners, selected Pakistani cleantech entrepreneurs are connected to potential partners in other partner countries such as Malaysia, South Africa and Turkey etc. At the Cleantech Global Forum in Silicon Valley in the USA, the most innovative cleantech entrepreneurs come together to forge networks, meet potential partners and investors from around the world.
GCIP Pakistan commenced in 2014, the second cycle was launched in 2015, followed by a third cycle in 2016. In the first year 81 teams applied, 28 were declared as semi-finalists and four teams won prizes ranging from 25,000 US$ to 30,000 US$, and the national winner was sponsored to participate in the Global Forum at Silicon Valley in the USA. The second cycle saw a nearly fourfold increase in participants, doubling the number of teams meeting the standards for the semi-finalist category. The programme has completed its second cycle of call for awards in 2015 with great success. It attracted 332 innovations, out of which 55 best SMEs and start-ups were supported through extensive mentoring, training, access to investors and showcasing opportunities. The five national winners of the call were awarded with prizes ranging from US$ 20,000 (National Winner) to US$ 15,000 (3 Prizes), with an additional prize of US$ 15,000 for the most promising woman-led business in the categories of energy efficiency, renewable energy, water efficiency and waste to energy. The winners further participated in the global competition held in Silicon valley, USA and won the ‘Global Award’ in the category of Waste to Energy. UNIDO celebrated this remarkable success by organizing a media event titled ‘Celebrating Success’ with Cleantech partners and stakeholders. In 2016, 592 entrepreneurs and innovators in Pakistan applied for the Cleantech Competition, while 82 of them made it to the semi-finals, and will thus receive incubation, mentorship and training. GCIP Pakistan has attracted the highest number of applications both in the year 2015 and 2016 among all the countries where this programme is been offered, as well as the highest number of qualified semi-finalists. The national winners of this third cycle, along with the very best startups from each country will be brought together for the finals in Silicon Valley, USA, where they will compete for the Global Prize at an internationally challenging stage.
Machines’ Energy Efficient Retrofit Future Zaheen (Intelligent) Machines Pvt. Ltd. is an Internet of Things (IoT) start-up in Pakistan that produces resource optimization devices for the national market. Its first product is ‘Jal Bujh’, a gas fired tank-water heating automation retrofit that has the potential to save Pakistan $50 million per year in natural gas. Jal Bujh has won the 1st prize in the national competition. The company is currently rolling out its second product, e-Jal Bujh, which allows users to operate any electrical load according to a time schedule. Jal Bujh is the brain child of the illustrious Zia Imran, a keen entrepreneur and educator. The Zaheen Machines adventure started in the winter of 2012 when Zia, reading the daily newspaper, came across an advertisement by the national gas distribution company, SNGPL. The advert simply read: ‘Turn on the water heater 30 minutes before use and then set it on pilot mode’. “What a ridiculous request”, Zia thought. “Who will wake 30 minutes earlier, go outside in freezing temperature, turn on the water heater, wait for hot water, shower then go outside again to turn it off? The country is facing a major natural gas crisis and this is the best we can do?” Thus, the inception of Jal Bujh came about: a retrofit device that can turn your water heater
settings to ‘very hot’ or ‘pilot’ via a time schedule given by a smartphone app. Jal Bujh simply snaps onto the existing water heater’s thermostat and via a chip and motor, turns the thermostat dial between ‘very hot’ and ‘pilot’, allowing the user to heat the water when needed and to turn off when not. SNGPL was shown the product and they were highly impressed. This enthusiasm turned into a contract of 4,395 units which has been fulfilled by Zaheen Machines for the state supplier. Zaheen Machines also wanted to create awareness through other channels, and further their range of business and activities. The GCIP 2015 competition provided a great way to increase awareness of Jal Bujh and acquaint themselves with other entrepreneurs in Pakistan and also on a global level. UNIDO Pakistan’s efforts in organizing such events are greatly appreciated. Zaheen Machines’ next product rollout is that of e-Jal Bujh, a sleek device that allows the user to control any electrical appliance or load via a time schedule given by the smartphone app. This device has an almost universal application, allowing to reduce electricity consumption (e.g., turn lights, signs, machines or pumps on/off at set times in a day) or by restricting access to certain devices (e.g. air conditioner cannot be turned on by anyone except the app user). Zaheen Machines embodies the spirit of the new generation of South Asian start-ups that embrace indigenous technology to provide sustainable solutions to local problems. Zaheen Machines aims to be a leader in this bright new world. Their product has resulted in reduction of huge amount of carbon emissions an thousands of house- holds in Pakistan are using their product and in those houses the burning of natural gas is reduced by 5 hours per days for 5 months per year.
Floating Treatment Wetlands
A semifinalist of 2014 namely Dr. Afzal and his team have worked on floating treatment wetlands (10,000 sqft) in one of the sewage stabilization ponds located in Faisalabad. This technology has been applied for the very first time in Pakistan. This technology can be applied for the remediation of both domestic and industrial effluent. The team has secured a contract with one of the biggest textile units of Pakistan for treatment of industrial waste water.
Technology implementation at interloop- one of the biggest textile units of Pakistan
The Story of Tawanai Solutions: Dreaming of a better earth Tawanai Solutions on the surface, is a technology startup trying to bridge the gap between demand and supply of energy in an environmental friendly manner but actually it is a group of dreamers trying to contribute towards a better earth. According to Faisal Bashir, the aspiring Cleantech entrepreneur, “It all started when I was still in university for my degree in Mechanical Engineering. I realized then that the energy is the most expensive commodity. Human energy spent is increasing exponentially while the supply has linear increase. The major source of energy was still fossil fuels. The hunger for more energy led to a dangerous trade off - the environment. During next decade while working in operations and production of multinationals and managing a family business, working on renewable energy was always an unquenched thirst and experimentation on renewable energy continued. During this journey I met some fine individuals with a similar feeling and the same history. Each of them had been experimenting in renewables. In 2013 we decided to formally work together for a better Earth. Tawanai Solutions was initially launched as a subsidiary of ISM Incito-Scientia-Meditatus (Inspire-Knowledge-Practice) but soon the energy group formed an independent startup. That was the start of an exciting journey with new challenges every day, sleepless nights but with a deep sense of satisfaction. The team achieved a lot more than the individuals could in their personal capacity. It started with two members me and Numan Sheikh. We worked on Solar Thermal solutions and biomass gasification.” Their first product was a crop waste gasifier that
was mounted on a tractor, reducing the tractor operating cost by an average of 50% with much less emissions than the conventional diesel set up. It was envisioned in 2012 when the innovators were working in textile processing. Due to acute shortage of Natural Gas in Pakistan, they were told that they would not be getting any gas in winters. Gas being the lifeline of textile processing, led to the shut down of machinery. The workers would come but sit idle. “One day I drew a basic gasifier schematic on the floor using a chalk and asked idle workers to make it using old drums. The experiment turned out to be successful and next few months we were running the factory on producer gas.” The fuel they used was wheat straw. However, it was not really economically feasible as wheat straw has a low bulk density and the transportation cost were thrice the cost of the fuel itself. Thus, when Tawanai was formed, they decided to take the gasifier to the source of fuel. This does not only eliminate the transportation cost but also a big pain point of the farmer namely, how to get rid of the biomass economically. In 2015 UNIDO provided them the opportunity to participate in GCIP (Global Cleantech Innovation Program). They participated and won in their category of “waste to energy” not just nationally, but also on a global level. The team enthusiastically agrees that this has been a great learning and enlightening experience for them, which has helped them not only to improve their product but also their business model and simultaneously allowed them to fill their skill gaps. It exposed them to the ‘Gurus of Cleantech startups’ - Paul deGive, Rex Northern and Kevin Braithwaite. The training was insightful and directional. Their Mentor, Paul deGive especially with his experience and knowledge, changed the way they were looking at their business. And so the journey continues. With their technical team led by Numan Sheikh and Laeeq Aslam driving further technical improvements in their product, they are almost on the verge of launch, looking for the right investor to grow with them.
Low Cost Solar Reverse Osmosis
Team ROTEC of 2016 provided clean water by cleaning polluted water using cheaper alternatives i.e. low-cost solar reverse osmosis. The cost of the process was brought down by using solar energy. Their clearly demonstrated technical expertise led them to mobilise a reasonable amount of funding to develop a prototype.
Rotec Technology Installation at NUST
Symphoneering Green Imagination Bitsym Watersense has created a system for real-time detection and reporting of drinking water pollutants. Team Watersense competed in UNIDO Cleantech competition from the platform of Bitsym Private Limited, an Internet of Things solutions company. Watersense aims to ensure water is safe for human consumption. It sits on water tanks and periodically releases disinfectants so that water is free of any impurity hazardous for human health. It is simple to use and intelligently eliminates diarrhea causing bacteria keeping water safe to drink. The team was led by Dr. Saad Bin Qaisar, who is Senior Member, Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) holding specializations in Entrepreneurship, Business Development, Data Aggregation and Analytics. Leading a very successful tenure with National University of Sciences and Technology (NUST) Islamabad where he has been twice named as best researcher, he launched an Internet of Things venture Bitsym in 2015 focusing on Ag-tech, Health and Wellness, Supply Chain and Industry verticals. Joined by fellow colleagues Dr. Hammad Cheema and Dr. Shahzad Younis, Bitsym made its mark on the entrepreneurship scene by being named national runner up in the UNIDO Cleantech competition in the water efficiency category with the product "Watersense".
UNIDO Cleantech is an excellent program to identify clean technologies and groom talent towards inclusive and sustainable industrial development. Right from the initial stages of developing the application for the competition, selection in the program, and mentoring sessions to finally end up among the top four national winners, team Bitsym considers the entire competition process excellent means of exposure enabling them to gain the skillset to successfully take ideas to the market .
“Our journey with team UNIDO had been fabulous. We, as a team have learnt a lot to identify our target markets, define the right mix of product feature set in close coordination with the customer and launch of the product in the target market. The connections we made during the program and the quality of trainings had been matchless.” Bitsym looks forward to build on its relationship with UNIDO and make a difference in the lives of communities with clean water solutions in particular and developing world specific technology solutions, in general. As an early stage company, Bitsym is currently seeking projects and assignments in its domain of specialization to scale up their operations.
Micro Wind Turbine
One of the semifinalists of the GCIP 2014 innovated the idea of 'Generating electricity from the thrust of moving vehicles along highways', successfully got their prototype installed in the UK, and has signed a contract with the UK Government.
The GCIP Pakistan 2014 semifinalist’s technology featured in UK’s Newspaper
Energy Efficient Water Geysers
A Runner up team of the GCIP 2014 launched Energy Efficient Water Geysers with both instant and conventional functions. Based on the high market demand immediately after launching the product, the team has now started production at a commercial level.
Launch of Energy Efficient Geysers at Lahore, Pakistan
Hemcrete Construction
Project RASAAI, the brainchild of a group of highly motivated young engineers, introduced a novel idea to use hemcrete, an extensively available plant in Pakistan, as an insulation material for building construction. The use of hemcrete not only brings down the costs significantly but also provides up to 10 times better insulation as compared to the conventionally used bricks. The team has already acquired contracts to build model houses in Rawalpindi.
Rasai construction material