Greenhood SG

This interview details Greenhood, an indoor farming company based in Singapore. The interview is with Gaurav Saraf, CEO & Founder of Greenhood.

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What is the origin story of Greenhood?

I, as the founder of Greenhood, was always passionate about the environment and sustainability. Through my career in finance, I learned about green and sustainable finance. This made me realize that while agriculture is one of the most resource-intensive industries in the world, there are very few solutions globally looking to address this challenge. For instance, agriculture uses 70% of the world’s fresh water and 38% of its land and contributes 18% of greenhouse gas emissions. Furthermore, with an increasing population, degrading agricultural land, and the effects of climate change, our food supply chain over the coming years will increasingly get more challenged.

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Investigating this further, I came across the field of agritech and urban farming which was taking root in the US. Having an engineering background, I was thoroughly impressed by the technical innovations (for eg autonomous farming)  and how they could create a much more secure and sustainable food supply chain to feed the growing urban populations. Post that, we did a lot of R&D into the crops that grow well in our climate as well as developed our own patent-pending vertical farming technology.

So it was both the sustainability and the technology aspect of urban farming that got me hooked on starting my own venture and hence Greenhood was born.

Our goal is to build a net-zero land, net-zero water, and net-zero energy use agriculture system for the cities. This is what gets us excited about what we do. 

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What are some of the biggest challenges facing Greenhood in the future? 

Greenhood provides a solution to sustainably feeding a rising urban population, without causing harm to the environment & minimizing food wastage. Half of the world's population will be residing in the tropics by 2050, with the majority of this growth expected in Asia. Hence, there is an urgent need for a highly productive and resource-efficient solution catered towards sustainably feeding this population.

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Given the scale of the problem and the existing supply chains, it is initially challenging to impress our customers (both B2B and B2C) about the importance of sustainable farming and to get over the status quo. Hence, despite the quality of the produce it requires additional education to facilitate the adoption. This is an industry wide issue and something that most new technologies have to go through.

Specific to Singapore, the field is still very new, and hence the infrastructure from a farming standpoint is still in its nascency. So for example, finding trained operators to having a logistics infrastructure for perishables are all challenges we need to contend with.

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What is unique about Greenhood compared to competitors? 

We are the only farm in Singapore with a vertical farming greenhouse on a rooftop. We differentiate from our competitors on three main accounts: technology, sustainability and customer engagement.

Our unique technology has been specifically designed for the local tropical conditions. We utilize a one-of-its-kind combination of climate-controlled greenhouse, our patent pending mobile aeroponic channels (MAC) and Priva controllers to automate the climate and nutrition control inside the greenhouse. Thus we have built a highly productive setup capable of growing consistent high-quality produce year round.

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Another key pillar for us is sustainability and hence our goal of net-zero land, net-zero water, and net-zero energy farming. We use unutilized rooftop space and convert it into an urban farming haven. Our hybrid model cleverly balances energy use and parameter control to strike a balance. We also deploy aeroponic technology that saves 90% water vs traditional farming. We are in the process of collecting relevant data after which we will be installing solar PV panels as well as rainwater harvesting to drive energy and water use to a minimum. 

Finally, our rooftop farm is located among the residential areas in Singapore and hence we use it as a means of educating consumers about our concept and the benefits of urban farming. Hence we conduct tours and events to engage directly with the community.

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What are some other relevant metrics of the company (growing area size, production quantity, team size, etc.)?

We have a 5.3m tall, 540sqm large greenhouse on top of a 6 story carpark. We have enough space to double the cultivable space. We target to produce 60-80 tonnes of produce every year in this space.

What are some goals in 2024 and beyond for Greenhood?

We have in a short period worked on developing our product to very high standards of quality and test and are already on our way to scaling up production. By the end of 2024 we target to double our capacity by building our next greenhouse.

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How can people connect with you or learn more about Greenhood?

People can reach us through our website www.greenhood.sg, WhatsApp us on +65 89031316, and visit our socials, Facebook and Instagram, @greenhood.sg

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