Ekonoke
Organization Details
Ekonoke combines scientific knowledge & technology to sustainably grow climate-resilient hops indoors. Grown-indoors in a controlled environment using exclusively renewable energy, Ekonoke brings reliability to hops production (quantity & quality), using 90% less water, 99% less GHG emissions & using no pesticides.
Ekonoke has perfected growth recipes for multiple hops varieties & is improving selection bioprocesses to ensure maximum yield, top quality and safeguard biodiversity. Scalability is guaranteed by its customized platform to ensure absolute control over growing parameters, automatize most agricultural tasks and forecast regular harvests of fresh hops.
Our value proposition is to build indoor fully automized farms next to brewers, growing premium hops with expected yield/ha 40x higher and water & CO2 footprint up to 20x lower than traditional agriculture, using only renewable energy. Production is 100% climate resilient, pesticide free and guaranteeing supply year-round.
Impact Story
Hops is under severe climate change risk. There are certain noble (original) cultivars that will soon no longer be feasible to grow outdoors as their susceptibility to climate change have reduced yields per hectare. Without our solution, biodiversity in hops will be greatly reduced to the few patent-protected cultivars that can withstand climate variations and increased disease and pest. Once we have solved this for hops, we can use our knowledge and technology to apply our methods to other crops with significant climate risk.
Additionally, hops' essential oils have great potential for other applications. Once we unleash the supply constraints that applied traditionally to this “green gold”, we believe there will be other potential applications for hops’ essential oils that have not been fully exploited yet. The first brewers that started making beer with hops knew of its anti-bacterial properties, but modern science has proven that it has many more medical applications due to its antitumoral and antioxidant properties – with hops being used already in clinical trials for treatment of Crohn disease and Alzheimer. Its anti-stress properties can also be of interest in functional drinks and snacks, and its hydrolates and essential oils can have a huge potential in anti-aging creams and other beauty products.
In effect, with our unique growing method and technology we can have a significant impact not only on a world with more cheers, but also in a world with better health.
