Our project and its caracteristics
Ecoshelves is a project that aims to feed people in Brussels in the coming years in a healthy and sustainable way. This project focuses on the concept of vertical farming which is based on the idea of ​​growing significant amounts of food in greenhouses to produce more on a small footprint in towns to meet local needs.
Indeed, to start this business, Ecoshelves plans to install a five floors greenhouse in the municipality of Watermael-Boitsfort with the backing of their environmentalist authorities.
Vertical farming focuses mainly on hydroponics. This is the culture of plants produced on a neutral and inert substrate such as a sponge. This substrate is regularly irrigated with a current solution that provides minerals and essential nutrients to the plant. CO2 required by plants is transmitted through pipes and supplied oxygen is pumped back.
Our products are fresh and only travelled one floor to get to you!
This system allows to pick different kinds of ripe fruits and vegetables which can be eaten the same day. Our products distinguish themselves from the others in the market by the fact that Ecoshelves provides food that have not traveled thousands of kilometers before ending up in the consumer's plate.
Grown indoors, our products are free from pesticides!
We grow our products indoors and our technique allows us to be pesticide-free and soil free. So no need to wash your fruits and vegetables before eating them anymore!
Our productivity can reach as much as 5 times the one of traditional agriculture!
With hydroponics, we consume 80% less water than traditional agriculture!
There are many advantages of this technique compared to traditional agriculture: our technique allows our production to be multiplied by 4 or 5 compared to traditional agriculture and with the use of 80% less water.
But our process consumes a lot of energy...
Our technique aims to use natural sunlight which can be augmented by artificial lighting delivered from LEDs. This implies that the negative point of our project is that it consumes a lot of energy.
Our products and services
In this section we will avoid the technical side of our production and we will try to keep it simple. Even if our communication campaign aims to inform people how we really use these new technology to produce organic food, we are aware that most of them would not be seduced by the technical explanations.
So, in order to conduct this project, a greenhouse will be establish in the municipality of Watermael-Boitsfort. That means that the neighborhood in which our store would be established offers a friendly, safe and pleasant environment. Once people arrive in front of our greenhouse, they will find a modern 5 floors building which will look like the one illustrated below.
This building differentiate itself from the others of the city thanks to its distinctive architecture and its green color, which will directly give an ecological image.
Inside the store, customers will be immersed in a completely fresh atmosphere. Moreover, our friendly staff will be at their disposal if they need some help or information about our products.
Otherwise, they will find a wide variety of organic food such as lettuce, strawberries, peppers to give some examples of fruit or vegetables that could be produced thanks to hydroponics. Basicly, it may look like any organic store, at least, in the first floor but the main difference is that a corner will be used to expose hydroponics culture and client will be allowed to taste it.
Vertical farms in general
To understand the benefits and problems related to vertical farming, you can also watch this short video!
Or to find out more.