Reflections from Startups Committed to the Future of the Planet

In a world facing increasingly urgent challenges, sustainability has become a guide for institutions and businesses toward a path of responsibility and resilience.

At Tetuan Valley, we are committed to providing solutions where we know best. In the community, we have startups that not only embrace sustainability as a principle but also push boundaries to build a greener and more inclusive future by incorporating innovation and technology.

In this article, we explore the visions and challenges of GreeMko, Humara, Clevergy, and Gloop, uncovering how these startups not only define sustainability, but also live and manage it on a daily basis.

Defining Sustainability

Sustainability goes beyond being a buzzword; it's a deep commitment to preserving the planet, a commitment to a better society, and long-term prosperity. In this context, we delve into the voices of startups in the Tetuan Valley to understand how they define sustainability and how they integrate it into their personal and professional lives.

Find out what these startups have to say about sustainability.

Ready to delve into the visions of Greemko, Humara, and Gloop, and learn how they're building a greener future. Let's get started!

Greemko: Sustainability as a Way of Life.

GreeMko is a startup specializing in environmental issues and carbon footprint calculations. Its team, digitalization, and comprehensive solution for all environmental aspects are some of GreeMko's differentiating factors.

When speaking with them, they emphasize the importance of integrating sustainability into every decision, both personal and business. They face the challenge of making sustainability compatible with today's pace of life and consumer habits.

"Sustainability is a way of thinking and acting in your daily life, taking into account both people and our planet." - GreeMko

We asked Mar Robles Gallego, co-founder of GreeMko :

How do you define sustainability in your personal and professional life?
For me, sustainability is a way of thinking and acting in your daily life. It involves considering both people and our planet when making any decision. In our daily lives, we can contribute with simple actions, such as consuming less energy, recycling, or using public transportation. And at the business level, we must make sustainability a criterion when making decisions. In a service company like GreeMko , it can be considered when choosing suppliers, selecting offices, considering teleworking, and others.
What challenges do you face in pursuing your sustainable values?
The main challenge is being able to reconcile sustainability with our current pace of life and consumer habits. I'm also referring to the convenience we've become accustomed to, which often runs counter to sustainability. For example, wanting to travel quickly, or receiving your order on the same day or as quickly as possible, throwing away all your trash without separating it into the same bin, buying new things instead of repairing the ones you have... All of this is more convenient, and in the society we live in, we've become accustomed to it being normal, but we can't continue consuming this way, as it's neither sustainable nor responsible.
Have you faced any situations where your commitment to sustainability affected profitability?
In GreeMko's case, this isn't something we routinely face. Given our business and purpose, we prioritize sustainability in our way of working, and it doesn't affect profitability. Where we can consider whether to use the most sustainable option is when commuting. As a company policy, which includes commuting for all our employees, we usually use public transportation, trains, electric cars, carpools, etc., but occasionally, due to availability or a need to get there faster, we use other alternatives. These are usually specific times, but they don't pose a problem either.

Get to know them: https://greemko.com

Humara: Optimizing Waste Management.

At Humara, they develop software tools to optimize the design and operation of waste treatment plants, enabling drastic savings in time and resources, resulting in more efficient plants.

“We want to be the standard that enables us to build and operate more and better plants to recover the greatest possible amount of resources from unsustainable waste, anywhere in the world.” - Laura, CEO of Humara.

We asked Laura Rodriguez Alvarez, CEO and co-founder of Humara :

How do you define sustainability in your personal and professional life?

In my professional life, I've been working on an impactful project that addresses one of the biggest problems we'll face this century: the responsible management of the waste we generate.

Personally, I always try to make conscious decisions. This isn't something you achieve overnight; it's a process in which we have to constantly re-educate ourselves.

What challenges do you face in pursuing your sustainable values?

Continue to constantly educate myself. The way we are educated and the consumer systems we live in promote completely unsustainable behaviors. Choosing quality over quantity is often an example, but above all, making conscious choices.

Have you faced any situations where your commitment to sustainability impacted profitability? If so, could you share what it was and how you handled it?

Not really. When we talk about sustainability, we can't be short-sighted. We understand that the future must be sustainable, or it won't exist at all. Therefore, when we make decisions based on sustainability, we must do so within that framework. Any decision made with a short-term focus and prioritizing profitability over sustainability will be meaningless in the future.

Get to know them: https://humara.tech/

Clevergy: Empowering the Energy Transition.

Clevergy is a software program for optimizing energy consumption in homes. Its technology allows users to provide personalized recommendations for each home without installing additional hardware, from day one, and free of charge to the user.

They emphasize the importance of integrating sustainability into daily decisions, both personally and professionally. Overcoming the challenge of overexertion, they strive to build technological solutions that not only reduce environmental impact but are also economically viable.

"In our daily lives, sustainability is the habit of making all routine decisions in such a way that, if we make them repeatedly, we will ensure the minimum possible impact on the environment." - Alvaro de Clevergy

We asked Álvaro Pérez, Cofounder of Clevergy :

What challenges do you face in pursuing your sustainable values?

Contrary to what many people think, the biggest challenge facing sustainability isn't the extra cost, but the extra effort. Investigating the origin of the products we buy, even if it's as simple as turning them over to look for sustainability certifications, requires a habit that requires a sacrifice of time.

As consumers, we can reward these responsible companies by buying their products. The impact of our individual decisions is minimal, but more and more citizens are replicating these habits. We must understand that these small actions don't necessarily imply a change; rather, they are gestures that educate our habits to better prepare us for more significant future decisions (at least from an economic perspective), such as investing in home insulation, an electric bicycle, or a self-consumption system.

As a startup, Clevergy's vision is to build a sustainable future for everyone, both citizens and businesses. To achieve this, our mission is to empower companies with technology that allows them to decarbonize and reduce energy costs for themselves and their customers.

However, to achieve this goal, we face numerous technological challenges. To successfully sell a sustainable product, it's not enough to simply emphasize this; we must achieve everything other companies achieve and, in addition, stand out for their sustainability.

Have you faced any situations where your commitment to sustainability affected profitability?

We need to constantly make decisions that allow us to move forward steadily but quickly. We generate a large number of ideas related to sustainability, but we find ourselves having to do preliminary work to get to this point.

For example, we would love to have a "sustainable rate recommender" already developed, but to do so, we need to sell the product to businesses, adapt it to meet their primary needs (e.g., including their customers' solar inverters), and generate value for their users (e.g., optimizing their consumption by recommending that they move to areas with surplus photovoltaic energy). Once this is done, we can move on to the next step of calculating the carbon footprint associated with the user's consumption in order to recommend decarbonized rates.

Ultimately, we haven't been able to meet Clevergy's sustainability goals yet because we have some preliminary work to do to get there, but we're eager to reach the point where we can measure the opportunity cost each user is willing to accept in exchange for decarbonizing their consumption.

Get to know them: https://www.clever.gy/

Gloop: Transforming Habits with Edible Cutlery and Sustainable Challenges.

They manufacture 100% sustainable edible cutlery, the alternative to single-use plastic.

Gloop is made up of a team convinced of the power of innovation and the need for sustainability to revolutionize current plastic consumption.

"We say, 'We're all very sustainable, but no one wants to pay for it,' and this is one of the main challenges we face." - Gloop

Gloop, born out of concern for the environment, shares the challenge of developing sustainable products at affordable costs. Its commitment to local manufacturing, although more expensive, reflects its consistency with its sustainable values.

Questions for Marta Maneja, Co-Founder of Gloop :

How do you define sustainability in your personal and professional life?

For me, sustainability means carrying out all of my daily activities with the least possible environmental impact.

At a professional level, we have developed a product that contributes to sustainable development by avoiding the generation of plastics and other waste.

What challenges do you face in pursuing your sustainable values?

At Gloop, the challenge we face is developing a sustainable product at a very affordable cost. Doing things right comes at a cost, and customers are often unwilling to accept it. We say, "We're all very sustainable, but no one wants to pay for it," and this is one of the main challenges we face.

Have you faced any situations where your commitment to sustainability affected profitability?

One of our commitments is the location of our manufacturing. We manufacture in Spain to promote local manufacturing and avoid pollution from transportation. We could possibly find more affordable manufacturers, but we believe the environmental impact would be negative and therefore not aligned with our values.

Get to know them: https://www.gloop.site/

These teams don't just talk about sustainability; they live it from the ground up.

Despite the challenges, from the extra effort to dealing with the contradiction between the demand for sustainability and the reluctance to pay for it, these startups prove that sustainability is more than a fad: it's an essential path to a better future.

Their courage in addressing the trade-offs between sustainability and profitability is inspiring. We hope they continue to grow; we share their philosophy and our mission will be to work with more startups in this field!

Want to learn more and learn how you can help? Write to us at comunicacion@tetuanvalley.com.

Sustainable Innovation