Accelerate Green START: Empowering Ireland’s Green Innovators to Build a Sustainable Future

Green innovation today has become more important than ever in delivering sustainable solutions for consumers, businesses and Ireland at large, and ultimately facilitating more sustainable ways of living and doing business. Investing in and supporting the success of the rising entrepreneurs bringing new, green products and services to the Irish market and beyond is a key priority for Bord na Móna, and the reason why it delivers its leading Accelerate Green Programme – supporting scaling businesses through its Grow stream as well as start-ups and early-stage innovators through its Start stream.

The Accelerate Green START programme offers intensive, practical training across four two-day sessions. These sessions cover everything from value propositions to customer discovery, prototyping, and funding strategies, helping participants refine their ideas and position themselves for growth. The programme concluded with a pitch event on November 27th, giving companies a chance to showcase their innovations to an audience of investors, industry leaders, and sustain ability experts, including Bord na Móna Chief Executive Tom Donnellan.

As the Accelerate Green START programme reaches its conclusion, the participating companies are on track to play an important role in the future success of the sustainable business community in Ireland. Three standout companies participating in this year’s START programme are Ecoroots, Bionua, and Range Therapy, each addressing a critical sustainability challenge with unique solutions.

Ecoroots

Ecoroots, founded by Lavanya Bhandari and based in Cork, is reimagining the future of materials science by utilising mycelium to create sustainable alternatives to traditional plastics, polystyrene, packaging, and insulation. Mycelium, the root structure of fungi, is a versatile, biodegradable material that offers an eco-friendlier solution to many common industrial products.

Bionua

Founded by William Butterly and based in Dublin, Bionua is addressing two major challenges posed by climate change: the loss of biodiversity and the need for carbon sequestration. By focusing on climate farming and biodiversity restoration, Bionua is helping farmers and landowners restore ecosystems and create carbon removal credits. These credits not only help businesses meet sustainability targets but also contribute to the regeneration of natural habitats.

Range Therapy

Range Therapy, founded by Eamon Stack and Barry McMahon in Kildare, is addressing two of the world’s most pressing challenges: energy storage and sustainable transportation. The company specializes in repurposing second-life electric vehicle (EV) batteries to create energy storage units for homes and small businesses. By doing this, Range Therapy reduces battery costs by up to 40% while also keeping batteries out of landfills, providing a circular economy solution for energy storage.

To date, Range Therapy has successfully deployed over 100 EV battery packs and developed an external monitoring system to optimize their performance. The company’s innovation addresses the growing need for affordable, reliable, and sustainable energy storage solutions.

“It has been fantastic, and you know, at the end of it, I feel it has helped Range Therapy be a more solid and clearer about what we’re trying to do. In our presentations, we’ve improved the language around how we communicate to focus on what the customer needs and how they might be interested in our solution”, said Eamon Stack of Range Therapy

William Butterly, Bionua, reiterated this sentiment, “I absolutely recommend the programme. The whole programme sharpens your company’s focus. You learn more about yourself, you learn more about your potential customers. We met amazing people from Bord na Móna and Resolve Partners, but also other participants in the programme. I learned so much from them, we learned from each other, it was great experience, and we very much appreciate it.”

The Impact of Accelerate Green

Launched in 2022, Accelerate Green provides hands-on, high-impact support to early-stage companies and SMEs across Ireland. These businesses are developing innovative products and services that tackle climate challenges. Through workshops, mentoring, and networking, Accelerate Green helps these companies to grow and thrive.

Since first launching, Accelerate Green has supported 51 companies in developing and scaling their green innovations, with 27 completing the Accelerate Green START programme. Business participants have come from a range of industries and sectors, such as electric mobility, renewable energy, and waste management.

Speaking to the benefits of the Accelerate Green START programme, Tom Donnellan, Chief Executive of Bord na Móna, said: “Accelerate Green START is all about equipping new green entrepreneurs with the resources they need to realise their ambitions and grow. Supporting these ventures is crucial in helping to build a strong and thriving network of green businesses who are contributing to Ireland’s progression towards a greener future.”

As Lavanya Bhandari of Ecoroots puts it, “The programme’s been great in that it’s managed to dissect a few key aspects of the business, but it’s also been particularly great in showing us and showcasing businesses similar or in similar spaces to us and how they’ve handled it. Problems that they have incurred, that collaboration element.”

There’s been a lot of really good speakers, people from the previous cohort, as well as people from established businesses, as well as just our cohort itself. We’ve learned from each other’s as peers, we’ve learned from Bord na Móna and Resolve Partners, so in general, it’s been quite a just a good overall experience.”

As Ireland continues its efforts to meet climate targets, the companies involved in Accelerate Green are contributing to the country’s green future. The programme is not just helping to build new green businesses but also shaping the technologies and ideas that will support the global green economy.

For more information about Accelerate Green and its participating companies, please visit https://accelerategreen.ie/