Wildfire Energy is pleased to announce it has been named as a winner of Hitachi’s Innovation Challenge for the Circular Economy. This is a significant recognition of the potential of Wildfire’s innovative MIHG technology for converting waste materials into higher value products at distributed scale.
Following Hitachi’s mission of social innovation, the Water & Environment Business Unit (WEBU) and Corporate Venturing Office within Hitachi launched the Innovation Challenge for Circular Economy to ensure that the planet we pass on to the next generation will be a better place than the one we found! The challenge themes included “ensuring sustainability of water resources”, “creating a zero waste society” and “reducing food waste in Southeast Asia".
Wildfire applied to the challenge in November 2020 and was selected as one of 26 semi-finalists from an initial pool of 107 companies. In early 2021, Wildfire worked with mentors and experts from Hitachi to improve our innovative solution and presentation. The key selection criteria were:
Market potential – market size and customer base
Innovativeness of the technology and business model
Impact – scale of potential social impact
Feasibility – sustainable, practical and deliver financial returns
Synergy with Hitachi
In March 2021, Hitachi selected Wildfire as one of 8 finalists and Wildfire collaborated with mentors and experts from Hitachi to further refine the pitch presentation. In the final event that was held on 23rd March 2021, each of the finalists presented to the Hitachi jury panel which consisted of eight senior leaders from Hitachi including the CEO of the water and environment business unit.
“Wildfire is thrilled to have been named a winner of the Hitachi Innovation Challenge for the Circular Economy and we look forward to developing a long term collaboration with Hitachi.” said Greg Perkins, Co-founder and CEO of Wildfire Energy.
As a winner of the challenge, Wildfire will now work with Hitachi to define the next steps with the intention of entering into a long term collaboration.
“We are excited by this recognition from global experts at Hitachi. We found the collaboration during the challenge immensely helpful and look forward to exploring further with Hitachi how our MIHG technology can be deployed to transition to a circular economy.”, said Denis Doucet, Co-founder and CTO of Wildfire Energy.
About the Hitachi Innovation Challenge for Circular Economy:
Winners of the Challenge:
Press release in pdf format: