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Remote monitoring & management of distributed growing in automated greenhouses addresses the SDGs & offers an environmentally & economically viable alternative to vertical farms
About
Protected IP enables the istallation of low cost modular automated greenhouses to be installed on a non-loadbearing surface such as the low pitched roof of a modern retail warehouse. The fully intrgrated use of data enables a grow to order at point of need supply chain. Free sunlight (with some supplemental LEDs) enables a more flexible supply of a wider range of crops. With cameras and sensors identifying issues long before the human eye there is no need for frequent workforce access. A small lift module can deliver produce direct to the retail floor or commercial kitchen as needed. Here a farmer's market approach can hand produce to consumers within seconds of harvest.
Key Benefits
Fresh produce is a low earning must have headache for food retailers. Many recent events give upward cost pressures, uncertainty and increased waste. Rather than move the commercial glasshouse business model into expensive city buildings CFS offers a low cost grow to order at point of need business model. Most glasshouses run gas boilers all summer to create CO2 and then depend on a carbon intensive supply chain to deliver their crops to a building that already pays to dump CO2. CFS breaks the link between value and truckload volume by avoiding all costs of distribution including transit only packaging that must be disposed of responsibly. Protected IP enables modular automated greenhouses to be installed on non-loadbearing surfaces such as above car parks, on the roof of a modern retail warehouses or other large buildings. This makes the building more efficient by reducing H&V costs (as much as 35%) and gives a low cost fresh herb, salad and small fruit and veg supply chain measured in minutes and metres rather than miles and days. Claiming Net Zero at the farm gate is pointless when most carbon is created in the supply chain - it takes 127 calories to airfreight each calorie of lettuce. Investing in a cost increasing vertical farm is pointless. They still depend on a fleet of trucks to deliver to distribution depot or store where the roof offers more than enough space to carry both a greenhouse and solar PV. This enables a zero added energy supply chain that consumes carbon. With free positive publicity and future prices guaranteed to be significantly lower than alternatives your ESG program becomes a profit earning balance sheet asset.
Applications
All heavily occupied buildings need air handling units to dispose of CO2 and waste heat. They all need frequent supplies of food and are in locations where it is inreasingly hard and expensive to get to. All local authorities are pressured to reduce traffic congestion and improve air quality. CFS has an solution that is suitable for any large city. India uses greenhouses to reduce freah air costs by as uch as 35% - CFS offers the ability to make them food producers. Delicate crops are grown undercover in the warmest countries. A greenhouse on the roof in the warmest places offers a temperature buffer zone with building air exhausted at ideal temperatures.