6 October 2023
Achtergrondartikelen
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Rong Wang, Fonger Ypma and Milan Meyberg have advanced to the finals of the Marc Cornelissen Brightlands Award. 'What a thankless task ... six such good candidates and then only be allowed to choose three," said jury chairman Maurits Groen after the exciting event at the Brightlands Chemelot Campus in Geleen.
This article previously appeared on www.brightlands.com
.During the Award Ceremony on Oct. 25 at Brightlands Campus Greenport Venlo, it will be announced who wins the award and the €35,000 cash prize.
The award, a tribute to sustainability pioneer Marc Cornelissen, is being presented for the fifth time this year. Foundation chairman Theo Bovens was pleased and at the same time not surprised with the record number of 34 entries. 'The award is more than a sum of money and provides access to a valuable network of 17 parties including the four Brightlands innovation campuses with all the associated facilities. With the award, entrepreneurs can take their sustainable ideas to the next level.'
Spirited discussions
The high number of entries meant work for the jury with environmental activist and sustainable entrepreneur Maurits Groen presiding for the first time. While an initial sifting through to six nominees was already a tough job, choosing three finalists really caused some headaches. 'We had tough discussions,' Maurits Groen said after the jury deliberation. 'Six candidates with just as many groundbreaking ideas and plans, all fitting our criteria. Each with a great pitch. That doesn't make choosing easy. It's rewarding work when as chairman you can make three finalists happy and thankless when you have to send three others home when they also deserve a place in the finals. Unfortunately, it's no different.'
Admiration
Evenly divided joy and slight disappointment, therefore, at the end of this Wednesday afternoon in the auditorium of the former DSM lab on the Brightlands Chemelot Campus in Geleen. Among the audience, including Marc's mother and sisters, the admiration for the six elaborate plans and accompanying pitches with each time a mild 'cross-examination' by the jury prevailed. Six ideas to make the world more sustainable, to stop climate change, as was the life goal of Marc Cornelissen, who died during his research work at the North Pole.
.In the footsteps
One of the three finalists will at least literally follow in the footsteps of Kerkrade native Marc Cornelissen, who literally sank through the Arctic ice in 2015. With his company Arctic Reflections, Fonger Ypma from Delft wants to not only stop the melting of the polar ice, but make it grow. He wants to do this by spraying ice water over the frozen cap with hundreds of pumps in the winter, making the ice thicker and wider and thus making it last longer in the summer. 'More ice means more sun reflection and more cooling of the earth. Crucial, because no matter how hard we reduce CO2 emissions, warming continues. With thicker ice, we can stop that process.'
Egg shells and membranes
Rong Wang is going to the finals with a completely different plan. Born in China, Wang came to the Netherlands in 2012 and ended up in Maastricht via the University of Twente. Here she worked out a business model with her startup EGGXPERT to not throw egg shells in the garbage, but to use them as animal feed and raw material for supplements and cosmetics. 'Egg shells are at the top of industrial waste,' she says. 'Worldwide, it amounts to 8.5 million tons. Both the shell and the membrane are very suitable for processing. We are already marketing the first products, now we want to continue to grow and scale up. The award can help us do that.'
Vote for nature
The third finalist was Milan Meyberg from Amsterdam, founder of Emissary or GAIA. He made a big impression with his presentation, assisted by avatars, on using artificial intelligence to save nature. 'I want to give nature a voice. We need to listen to the ecosystems of the globe, let them have a say, give them rights. That can be done with AI. That may sound abstract, but we have already built the first models.'
Making an impact
With "regret in heart," Maurits Groen had to send Roy Erzurumluoglu, Klaske Postma from Loosdrecht and Timmy de Vos from Eindhoven home with a bunch of flowers. Their already launched innovations with, respectively, an enzyme that reduces methane emissions from cows, sustainable building panels and a sustainability awareness campaign among youth received high praise. 'They are also going to make an impact, I am convinced of that. And our network is also open to them.'