From bio-waste to sustainable urban agricultural ecosystem through circular economy


“What started as a small plan has now grown into a big project by creating an ecosystem of local food production that will soon benefit a larger area in southwestern Finland, in the town of Lohja, in collaboration with Rosk’ N Roll Oy and Gasum Oy. Currently, we are building the fundamentals of the project by assigning roles to each party and securing the financing for the whole operation”, explains Henri Laine, founder and CEO of Redono, a Finnish agtech company.

Henri was working on a large circular project that was supposed to start in the spring of 2020, but then covid hit. Once the project was put on hold for Redono, an agtech company using industrial sidestreams for indoor farm power, Henri didn’t want to lose sight of the potential work. He therefore worked between 2020 and the end of 2021 for the city of Vantaa, Finland, where he was responsible for the management of a sustainable food cluster and as a project manager for the EU-funded “CircularHoodFood” project. The cluster was made up of several large and small companies active in the food sector. As well as restaurants, logistics companies, all active in the field of food.

Henri Laine

A sustainable food cluster
“I wanted to understand how we could create a larger community for this project. Shortly after combining several efforts, the food cluster community grew from 30 to 70 businesses. Once everyone was seated, we laid out a plan to develop a more sustainable city through new food innovations, all together in an efficient way. We started thinking about how local food could be produced using local and innovative technologies. As well as how we could combine the strengths of startups and large companies to strengthen shared efforts. notes Henry.

Positive feedback and support
Not only has Henri received many positive recognitions from participating parties, but also from the local government that supports the cluster. There are several other EU-funded programs behind them that are ready to support sustainable and carbon-neutral food development plans. As well as farm-to-fork strategies.

Now Henri has reactivated the project where Redono will build a commercial scale food production ecosystem next to the existing biogas plant located in Lohja, Finland.

Hop telen naast de brouwerij met reststromen en telt op water
Redono Waste Stream Treatment Scheme

Biogas transformed into fertilizer
There is a biogas plant using collected biowaste in most of southern Finland. He notes, “With this biogas plant, our food waste will basically be turned into biogas as renewable energy and the digestive can be used as fertilizer to grow new food. We can bring technology to the site, with the help of our BioFeed solution, enabling different types of agricultural technology companies to recycle the fertilizer produced for sustainable local food production.

The fertilizer has been marketed as completely organic, but can be used for traditional farming on cultivated fields. Therefore, Henri is now ready to bring these benefits to the CEA space. Thanks to Redono, biomass and fertilizers are generated that can be used in vertical farms or greenhouses, and even for the production of microalgae and hops or hydroponic mushrooms. Depending on the crops grown and the desired results, Redono can adapt its solution to the customer’s request by filtering or adding specificities to the final product.

According to Henri, the project brings together different food and agricultural technologies, solving many problems for small producers. By sharing common services like logistics and storage to get products to consumers, resources are used efficiently and cost less.

“Now, with Redono, which has its own patented method and technology linking agtech with recycling industrial side streams, we are becoming a player in building food-related communities where gamers can join and become a thanks to the circular economy,” he added.


Using lateral waste streams to feed other crops

Collaborate for improvement
Henri has been involved in the industry for nearly a decade now. He has connected with almost all major universities in Finland to focus on indoor agricultural ecosystems. The company has an R&D farm that was originally established in 2019 for Henri’s indoor hop-growing experiment, creating a model for sustainable breweries.

After conducting many R&D trials focused on solving several problems, many new ideas were generated by participating students. He adds, “The fun part of these collaborations is that we both educate each other on new learnings and new ideas. We can now solve concrete problems that we have analyzed together.

“Now all that remains is to put the pieces together. We just need to have the right financial plans and move forward from here. Now, through collaborations with a few large organizations, we are confident that the new sustainable food production ecosystem will come to fruition. adds Henry.

Now that the pieces are coming together, our mission toward the world’s most sustainable food is coming to fruition through collaborations with larger organizations and startups.

Henri explains that this type of model can be integrated into any city. After that, the goal is to expand it to other parts of Finland and eventually go global with that.

For more information:
Henri Laine, Founder and Project Leader
Redono Oy
+358 (0)44 989 4612
[email protected]
www.redono.fi

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