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IGS Senior Team Expands Further As Technology Innovator Welcomes Head of HR
Inverness-born Donald joins IGS following more than 23 years working with Michelin in Dundee where he started out as a Trainee Industrial Engineer before moving through various people management positions
Donald Mackenzie Joins Edinburgh-Headquartered
Firm To Help Build Growing Team
Edinburgh, Scotland – 14 September 2020 – Senior HR leader, Donald Mackenzie, has joined IGS, the Scottish-based agritech and smart spaces business, as Head of HR. His appointment is the latest in a series undertaken to grow the company’s management team as it continues to expand to supply a growing customer base across the world.
Inverness-born Donald joins IGS following more than 23 years working with Michelin in Dundee where he started out as a Trainee Industrial Engineer before moving through various people management positions. He brings a wealth of Human Resources experience, as well as skills across learning and development, community engagement, and communications in a technical environment.
Most recently, Donald was responsible for the social plan that supported 850 employees impacted by the Michelin Dundee site closure, including developing programs to re-train, relocate, and find alternative employment opportunities for all those individuals. On joining IGS, Donald’s role will see him support a rapidly growing team as the company moves onto a global stage, all the while maintaining its ethos of continuous innovation and investment into research and development.
Preparing for his first day in the role, Donald Mackenzie commented: “IGS seems like a natural fit for me. The people, the organization, and the outlook all appeal to me: it feels like a positive environment with loads of exciting opportunities. The whole company is about learning and growth and expansion, ultimately driven by-products that the team is fully behind and that really works.
“Obviously in a field like HR, the people side of a business is always the most important, and for me there’s a real human opportunity which has been created at IGS by the development of products that could fundamentally change the way that society and whole populations live. The possibility of developing solutions able to tackle the whole food security issue is really enticing.”
IGS CEO David Farquhar commented: “Being able to attract an HR professional with Donald’s perspective is a major win for IGS, as we look to employ new people and offer the best possible support to the immensely skilled crew we already have. We are at a very exciting point in our company history right now, and it has never been more important that we are best placed to attract, nurture, and develop highly talented people.
“We are delighted to have the opportunity to welcome someone of Donald’s caliber to join us, and strongly believe that his wealth of experience – particularly with organizational development – is just what we need as we look to the future of the business.”
Ends
Notes to editors:
For more information: please contact Georgia Lea, IGS on georgia@intelligentgrowthsolutions.com or call +44 7897 539 954.
About IGS:
Founded in 2013, IGS brought together decades of farming and engineering experience to create an agritech business with a vision to revolutionize the indoor growing market. Its commitment to innovation has continued apace and it has evolved the applications of its technology beyond agriculture to create solutions for a wide variety of indoor environments that enhance life for plants and people alike.
IGS launched its first vertical farming demonstration facility in August 2018.
For more information visit www.intelligentgrowthsolutions.com or connect with us on Twitter and LinkedIn.
These 4 Reasons Tell Us Why It’s Time To Shift To Indoor Farming
Though growing indoors can never be a replacement for outdoor agriculture, it can certainly help in growing certain vegetables, herbs, microgreens, and more
By Ecochirp Foundation in Environment
6th August 2020
Traditionally, agriculture was done on large open farms, having a large dependence on external environmental factors. In recent times, there is a new vertical emerging in agriculture, giving promising results i.e., Indoor farming or vertical farming. Particular challenges that were faced in conventional cultivation techniques have been resolved with indoor agriculture. Though growing indoors can never be a replacement for outdoor agriculture, it can certainly help in growing certain vegetables, herbs, microgreens, and more.
Let’s have a comparative study of indoor growing vs. outdoor growing.
Weather Dependence
Traditional outdoor growing is largely dependent on weather conditions. Only seasonal crops can be grown. Weather conditions can be the biggest nightmares for farmers as things like thunderstorms, floods, droughts can damage crops overnight. By growing indoors, we eliminate our dependence on the weather. Instead, growers can control the climate inside the indoor growing system creating the ideal environment for maximum outputs. Using a wide range of sensors, indoor growers can check their plants at all times.
Pesticides And Herbicides Requirement
Do you also wear a mask while consuming those??
The crops are more prone to pests and other animal damage as they are exposed to the outer environment. We recently saw the locust attack that happened; it devastated large areas of crops. We saw how fast they traveled and farmers couldn’t take measures in time. They had to spray large amounts of pesticides to protect the remaining crops that eventually went into our systems. The pesticides and chemical fertilizers used are a root cause of major ailments like cancers, immune disorders, infertility, and cardiovascular diseases.
Indoor grown edibles need fewer chemical additives to grow well. Being indoors, they are not prone to pests. Also, the environment is controlled; therefore, there is no need for pesticides or herbicides. Therefore, the vegetables are pure.
About 70% of the world’s freshwater goes to agriculture. And with increasing populations, this water requirement is expected to go up by 15% by 2050. This is a thing we should be afraid of, as the freshwater resources are declining. If things keep going in the same way, there is a possibility that we might not be able to keep up with the requirements. Taking the case of indoor growing, techniques such as hydroponics take up to 90-95% less water. They use a closed-loop system, where there is no wastage, and resources are optimally utilized.
The Nutritional Content Of Edibles
The current agriculture system is centralized. Therefore, fruits and vegetables have to travel thousands of miles before they reach us. In the meanwhile, they lose a considerable amount of nutritional content. For example, spinach loses about 50-90% of its vitamin C within 24 hours of being harvested, which means the vegetables and fruits we eat at our homes in cities is not as nutritional as it should be.
In the case of indoor growing, which is generally done in cities near our homes, transportation time is less than 5-6 hours. Therefore, they are fresh and highly nutritious.
Pre And Post-Harvest Losses
About 40% of the world’s food is wasted due to the pre and post-harvest losses. Pre-harvest losses occur before harvesting begins, and may be due to insects, weeds, and rusts. Post-harvest losses occur between harvest and the moment of human consumption. Fruits and vegetables are perishable products and tend to get spoiled or degraded with time and unfavorable factors. Indoor growing has very low wastage as they rarely get diseases; they are near to cities and therefore, have lower transportation times. The edibles are consumed soon after they are harvested.
This comparison is just a brief glimpse of how growing indoors is more beneficial as compared to conventional growing. However, this article does not mean that indoor growing can replace proper farming. Outdoor farming can not be eliminated but can be decentralized, and with the help of indoor growing techniques, we can revolutionize the current agriculture system for the better.
About the author: Palak Kumar is an insatiably curious Mechanical Engineering student, passionate about flying, clouds, literature, and plants, working towards revolutionizing Indoor Vertical Growing.
Farms of The Future: The Paris Rooftops At The Heart of an Urban Revolution
A bumblebee zig-zags through rows of lettuce, over a healthy patch of red peppers and lingers next to a juicy strawberry, before buzzing away and off the rooftop of a six-story building in central Paris. Based on the top floor of a municipal swimming pool in the busy Marais district, this thriving city farm is at the heart of an urban food revolution in the French capital
Words by Peter Yeung
June 3, 2020
The world's largest urban farm is opening in the French capital and will soon produce around 1,000kg of organic produce every day
A bumblebee zig-zags through rows of lettuce, over a healthy patch of red peppers and lingers next to a juicy strawberry, before buzzing away and off the rooftop of a six-story building in central Paris.
Based on the top floor of a municipal swimming pool in the busy Marais district, this thriving city farm is at the heart of an urban food revolution in the French capital.
Opened in 2017 by Agripolis, it is part of a series of City Hall-led projects, called Parisculteurs, which will see 100 hectares of vegetation planted across Paris by the end of the year. Agripolis alone has 10 farms running or in planning around the city.
The farm’s vertical system is closed-loop, doesn’t waste any water, and doesn’t use pesticides. In season, it produces some 20-30,000 portions of fruit, salad, and vegetables. It has come to be a blueprint for changing how the city eats.
“We don’t throw anything away,” says Pascal Hardy, an agronomist and the founder of Agripolis, who only entered the world of urban farming in 2015 by growing vegetables on the roof of his Parisian apartment.
“My principal motivation has always been environmental. Our farms are great for biodiversity and efficiency, and they have a very low carbon footprint.”
Agripolis is also set to unveil a 14,000sq m farm atop the Paris Expo Porte de Versailles, an exhibition center in the south-west of the city. The project was due to open in April but this had to be delayed because of the lockdown in France in response to the pandemic. When it opens at the end of June, it will be the largest urban rooftop farm in the world – and the largest urban farm of any kind in Europe. With more than 30 different plant species, the Porte de Versailles site will produce around 1,000kg of goods every day in high season. The first harvest of greens is expected after a month.
Visitors will be able to eat at a 300-cover on-site restaurant, attend educational tours and even lease small vegetable plots of their own. The all-organic produce, cultivated by around 20 gardeners, will be grown using aeroponic vertical farming methods.
We don’t throw anything away
“Our produce will be available across the whole of the city in a variety of shops, restaurants, and schemes,” adds Hardy.
There’s evidence that Hardy’s urban farms will be a success. “We’ve had a huge demand for their products, with customers asking specifically for Agripolis produce,” says Jeremy, an assistant at a nearby shop that has been stocking food from the Marais farm for six months. “We just need to cross the road to get the products.”
For now, Hardy’s main challenge is reducing the relatively premium cost of city-grown food, although advances in technology mean it continues to become cheaper. Coupled with low emissions and almost no “food miles”, the few extra cents could be a small price to pay.
Main image: Agripolis