PHYSEE: Give your building its own SmartSkin
It all started in the desert.
ThusPHYSEEwas born, a company focused on bringing smart sustainability solutions to the real estate industry.
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Buildings are one of the biggest pieces in the puzzle of the climate change problem.
Their unconventional approach was to start by upgrading a 5,000-year-old building material: glass.
That way the mind and the body can react.
SmartSkin, as they called it, is a noninvasive transparent layer added to a buildings windows.
Then, just like our bodies, it responds by adjusting the shading or air controls accordingly.
They found that this approach actually helps to create a more comfortable environment for people in the building.
For example, if youre working by a window you never want direct sunlight in your eyes.
They saw that project costs were getting too high for real estate developers to take on the full bill.
And they dont just focus on buildings.
And this all comes down to simply using sunlight more efficiently.
Joining the Rise Programme has given them great motivation and inspiration to keep going.
Were all swimming against the current and were all disrupting a system that seriously needs to be disrupted.
The problem is, many, especially SMEs, dont know where to start.
The problem is, all companies can see on their energy bill is the number of kilowatt-hours consumed.
Its more or less a black box for them, Broekema said.
Imagine that by 2030 they need to save 32% on their energy bill.
This is an immense task theyre facing.
And, currently, not a lot of players give them advice on how to optimize this.
To address this need, Broekema and his team developed a simple wireless system.
These sensors automatically begin processing data using Sensorfacts algorithms, all without having to stop production.
As Broekema has seen, this continuous tracking and feedback really helps clients change their behaviors.
These savings will only materialize if they really commit to this change.
Sensorfact has calculated that, on average, their clients consume 10% less energy.
For 2021 their ambitions are set on product expansion.
But Broekema believes the Dutch scale-up scene is in need of a boost.
There are also very few programs focused on this level.
We really believe that the Netherlands should continue focusing more on scale-ups and less on startups.
Were very happy with theRise Programmeand hopefully the Dutch scale-up community will be fully developed in the coming years.
It wasnt tangible, it wasnt understandable, Schwarz explained.
And how can we make it simple enough that everyone can understand it and take action themselves?
Visualization is one aspect, but now were also integrating surveys and polls and triggering benchmarking opportunities.
The goal, in the end, is to ensure people change their behaviors.
This means these actors need a way in which they can visualize and share their efforts with stakeholders.
And finally, due to Covid-19, sharing data on health and wellbeing is becoming more important than ever.
This will be key in assuring a safe transition back to the office.
Sustainability is also becoming a key concern for employees.
hello energys clients, in particular, have seen that visualizing this can actually help to attract better talent.
And just why is this so important to help prevent climate change?
This can lead to massive power outages or even forest fires.
When electric utility companies dont manage the vegetation around their power lines correctly the consequences can be deadly.
As den Bakker explained, due to changing weather conditions, Our forests are more and more under pressure.
More information is needed to improve decision making about our forests and trees.
By combining AI and satellite data we can create an up-to-date view of encroachment in and around power lines.
In addition, we extract tree-level information to help predict future risks.
Thats why joining the Rise Programme at this juncture in their development has really been helpful.
It was very helpful to openly discuss the challenges we face.
Building and scaling a startup is not easy.
We closed our $2M Seed round during the summer and have doubled our team since then.
Getting feedback from industry experts helped us to think about the next phase of Overstory.
As Schwartz explained,
Its been a very different year than planned.
Of course we dont know what the future will bring but we have a feeling that its connected.
I hope that this will be the turning point.
