Five innovative and completely different ideas were crowned the winners of this year’s Swisscom StartUp Challenge. They show the wide range of opportunities in which technology can contribute to reducing energy consumption and strengthening sustainability.
There are two ways to reduce CO2 emissions: with new, low-carbon methods or with lower energy consumption. At the Swisscom StartUp Challenge 2022, which focused on the topic of sustainability, more than 200 start-ups demonstrated approaches for both. The solutions presented by the five winners help private individuals and companies to save energy – with very different approaches.
Make service more sustainable
Employees put on augmented reality glasses at work. And an expert sitting somewhere else in the world can use the glasses to help diagnose a problem with a machine or support the employee with service. No travel routes or travel time required. With this hardware and software-based solution for remote support, start-up Almer is helping to reduce the number of business trips and the CO2 emissions they generate.
SmartHelio is also eliminating unnecessary travel. Its solution for predictive maintenance of photovoltaic systems makes it possible to detect faults and defects at an early stage and on the computer. This reduces downtime and thus increases production output. If there is a risk of a defect, the maintenance specialists will be on site in good time to intervene.
Reducing energy consumption
Energy consumption can be reduced with heating control that takes into account factors such as the weather and indoor climate. And by a good 15 percent thanks to the solution from ECCO2, which is based on IoT sensors and artificial intelligence. The sophisticated system is already in use in more than 700 buildings.
Swiss Vault is committed to reinventing data storage. The company is developing a storage solution that is much more compact and uses less power than conventional systems. This allows companies to reduce the energy consumption of their IT.
In contrast, mobileup wants to increase the service life of smartphones and tablets. The start-up buys and sells used devices, which are inspected before they are sold. This is not only better for the environment, but also for your wallet, as used smartphones are cheaper than new devices. And probably nowhere else is the positive side effect of saving energy as evident as in the mobileup shop: those who use less energy also save money. So if sustainability wins, people win too.