sustainable artificial greenhouses

1. The agricultural damage created by humans and the threat for maritime biodiversity due to fishing. 

2. Develop self-sustaining artificial greenhouses that operate on the basis of hydro energy from water where various plant species can be grown with less damage to the environment and soil. The creation of specialized micro-environments within each greenhouse will allow developing a sustainable farm model in which data collection will be permitted for further processing in order to develop a business model that generates jobs for the area.

3. We have been thinking in create a ecological park opened to public with a paid entrance to generate funds. This collective money will be use to construct similar systems in other vulnerable environments around the world. This part of the income is going to be destined for communities to support their daily needs. 

The problem that we saw was the agricultural damage created by humans and the threat for maritime biodiversity due to fishing. 

Another problem was the impact of industrial agriculture on the environment, due to the intensive use of agrochemicals, water contamination and the appearance of dead zones, soil degradation, waste production, excessive use of resources and genetic contamination. 

The proposed solution is to create greenhouses with developed technologies that control and monitor the crops and plantations, all by means of solar and hydro energy, and in this way recover the land and forests that have been damaged by pesticides and agricultural exploitation. We will use a water filtration system to clean the polluted water and generate hydropower, which will be used by the surrounding communities and the greenhouses. 

In addition, the filtration system will also be used for the fish lakes to protect the marine fauna. 

The main beneficiaries of this solution are farmers and communities living in rural areas, as the new technology will reduce land contamination and waste production, as well as reduce the use of pesticides on crops, which will reduce health risks for farmers. They will also have access to clean water for consumption and hydro energy for their activities. 

Moreover, these new technologies implemented will help them to have a more efficient production process and also be part of sustainable development which is a great change. 

The problem we are addressing is the environmental damage in lands, water and biodiversity. Because of unconsious human activities like agriculture or fishing, these environments have been threatened. Our solution is focused on the creation of greenhouses and fish lakes were this activities will be specificaly done with the main purpose to recover and enhance wellness on the natural ecosystems. With this project we will be helping vulnerable communities to protect their habitats and fullfill their daily needs. For last, this project will be a natural park oppened to eco-lovers where the entires price, will be profit for this communities.

We selected concept because we are still creating and forming the project. We are a class group from Universidad el Rosario and we are in this challenge because we want to apply our knowledge to a real scenario. We have created this solution based on our innovative and business approach, not only creating an environmental solution but also creating a profitable system.

Innovative: water filtration and becoming self-sustaining. filters with double purpose, purifying water and generating energy.

Catalytic: It would hopefully change the market, since we would be providing sustainable, chemical free products. We might cause a strong market change due to the fact that also we are causing positive change in the environmental fight in order to preserve our home and our lands. It would also benefit communities, and everyone in general since earth will be healthier.

Right now we are a team of 11 people.

Quality controls will be carried out on the filters every certain time, in addition, quality controls will be increased regarding the sustainable process, thus ensuring that waste is eliminated and environmental contamination is controlled and self-sustainable development that is carried out.

Also we’re measuring all of our progress due to the automation and sensors in the dome. As well as keeping track of how many domes we are installing as time passes

We are a team made up of eleven business administration and international business administration students from Universidad del Rosario. We are currently part of the innovation class, which was the motivation to belong to this project.

We consider that we are all a group capable of analyzing the aspects related to our solution and carrying out this project, thanks to the abilities and capacities that we individually possess; leaders, entrepreneurs and with strategic thinking. In addition to the knowledge acquired by the university; as is the process of company formation, market management and positioning, improvement planning. Finally, we have a wide range of possibilities that the university offers us to strengthen these skills, which are extremely important and relevant to put into practice from the first moment for the optimal implementation of the project and to be able to provide the desired solution.

In our leadership team that proposes this sustainable solution we are 4 men and 7 women, in which throughout these weeks we have worked equally, giving joint proposals and making strategic decisions to solve this problem. In our group, gender does not matter, but rather the quality and importance of ideas, mutual respect for thoughts and differences, the value of participating and differing, which is what makes us a true team. In our virtual meetings the diversity of people that we are is clearly seen because we all want to collaborate to contribute, of course there are different ideas and points of view of a problem, but being an inclusive and equitable team we always promote the debate and the clarity of ideas . From home we have been educated with these values and we demonstrate it day by day to be better people and professionals in a country like Colombia.

Because we consider that it is important to take leadership in the face of the problems that surround us, with this idea we would cover 2 main problems which is the lack of efficiency in the agricultural sector due to lack of innovation and limited access to new technologies and the second is the impact that is generated from that industry to the environment and that can be improved through practices and technology as well.

We will need human capital trained in the creation of this type of greenhouses and additionally be people oriented to the solution of problems, in turn we will need legal support that allows the wide use of these techniques and that the taxes that are charged do not affect the farmer margins. Also we need the technology to continue updated of what can be an improvement on the build or in the business and finally the service distribution to help as many farmers we can and continue expanding the clients base 

We would like to cooperate with organizations that help the environment specifically of greenhouses, the name of the organization is Growing Prospects Inc, located in Canada, who has first hydroponic urban greenhouse considered as a non-profit corporation that it has set out to provide individuals on income assistance with the job and life skills necessary to help them find full-time employment in the horticulture and greenhouse industries, helping us with sustainable agriculture and developing self-sustaining artificial greenhouses. Also, we found IUCN (International Union for Conservation of Nature) which is a membership Union composed of both government and civil society organizations. It harnesses the experience, resources and reach of its more than 1,400 Member organisations and the input of more than 18,000 experts, uses resilience of social-ecological systems as a foundational concept to design and implement conservation efforts that are effective and durable in the face of complex and uncertain interactions between people and nature, they would help us creating solutions with our ecological park for their knowledges and having new adaptive social ecological system.

By developing an appropriate legal framework we will be able to provide work for refugees within our facilities. In many cases these people usually come from third world countries where agriculture is a very important factor for them which will provide us with empirical knowledge obtained by these refugees; Added to this is the fact that treaties and strategic alliances can be made with various countries so that there is international cooperation for the reception of refugees and the development of our idea on a larger scale by developing a networking strategy. 

Our idea is based on the use of new technologies for the development of self-sustaining micro environment that go hand in hand with scientific research to develop strategies that can address it and present a solution for some of the problems caused by human beings in the environment. We seek to focus the use of technology and scientific advances on the development of small micro-environments that can be developed in many more places by scaling the scope of the idea but mitigating the possible effects that can become of these greenhouses.

All this will also strengthen the science sector and open the doors to new scientific projects and research and development spaces that will contribute in a rewarding way to our idea and its development.

Our idea begins acquiring machines that work with green technologies so we can make our greenhouses self-sufficient, in this first investment we are principally going to be focused on the fish farms to control fishing on oceans and enhance biodiversity development, so we can concentrate in the agricultural damage created by humans and the threat for maritime biodiversity due to fishing. 

One of the fundamental pillars of our idea is to minimize the carbon footprint of many of the agricultural processes and fishing activities that today generate very high carbon waste and that greatly affect the environment. All our processes and activities are focused on the development of specific strategies that allow for a minimal carbon footprint; It is for this reason that the design of our greenhouses and fish farms goes hand in hand with scientific development and research so that the most viable ways to develop these activities can be analysed.