Our Challenges
We´re looking for startups that have solutions to these challenges.
Inclusive Growth
Help us create economic prosperity, workplace safety, inclusion and long-term environmental health. We are looking for the following solutions:
Inclusive Value Chains
- Solutions to support our ecosystem while reducing poverty as microcredit and microfinance
- Innovations and initiatives to reduce the cost to serve our retailers: services, marketplaces, technologies to reduce the costs of our retailers by leveraging the scale and/or capabilities of the accelerator program partners, etc.
- Technologies and tools that support engagement of people in extended value chains
- Solutions to improve road safety and make our roads safe places for all
- Solutions to support our ecosystem to improve our communities through entrepreneurship, financial inclusion, etc.
- Solutions that introduce new analytics and insights to optimize the impact of the company in the communities in which they operate
- Solutions that expand the use of technology to connect stakeholders in the value chain to the corporate ecosystem
- Solutions to diversify the supplier base locally
- New startups and technologies that look to monetize core business assets/byproducts: e.g., telecom antennas on owned properties, consumer access to company parking and electric charging, selling obsolete machine parts, etc.
- Science-based methodology to measure social impact in the value chain
- Evidence-based digital innovations to promote responsible consumption
- Resilience and regenerative agriculture with farmers with a focus on farmer rights and those of their communities (solutions to support (smallholder) farmers in the reg ag transition, solutions to support (smallholder) farmers to meet regulatory expectations)
- Initiatives and solutions to improve farmer revenues and build stronger economic robustness (higher profitability, long term market visibility, diversification of revenue)
- Solutions to monitor social and environmental performance across smallholder farmers
- Solutions to factor and improve / positively impact people (including Indigenous communities) associated with the company’s water use
- Building the resilience of (smallholder) farmers to cope better with growing heat stress
- Solutions to partner with small suppliers to lower greenhouse gas emissions
- Solutions to include communities in the process of designing and implementing renewable energy projects
- Solutions to leverage recycling initiatives as a means / vehicle to improve social conditions of waste pickers in key markets
- De-risking transition: solution to remove financial barriers for regenerative agriculture adoption
- De-risking transition : financial solutions to manage risks associated with the regen transition
Operational Safety and Workforce Development
- Solutions to help evolve safety culture, build capacity to manage risk, improve psychological safety in the workplace, empower the employee as the problem solver (not problem to be solved), build forward accountability, and ensure reliability and resilience in operations (Human and Organizational Performance) - The HOP Coach (Bob Edwards)
- Solutions to reduce risk in motor vehicle operation by removing the human (error likely) element, improving fuel efficiency, etc. by moving towards autonomous driving solutions for fleet – startup / technology TBD
- Solutions to supplement or layer controls in the workplace around critical steps / tasks by leveraging AI (Artificial Intelligence) technology to notify and/or stop processes where employees are at risk in the workplace – Triomobil, Bosch, Intenseye, etc.
- Ergonomic solutions to utilize app-based and/or wearable tools to assess risk and propose solutions to reduce risk
- AGV and ASRS Technologies to reduce reliance and risk associated with Human Driven Forklifts / Pallet Jacks (PIT’s)
- Solutions related with supervision/inspection and risk identification in dangerous work activities such as work at heights, confined spaces, hot work, lifting and machine interventions.
- Solutions in electrical safety programs related to Arc Flash, Powered Tools, PPE, safety carpets, and other tools.
- General solutions to improve safety at the workplace.
- Digital AI supported predictive early warning systems for continuously looking for patterns and similarities between various cases worldwide and creating potential hazard reports, harnessing advanced predictive analytics capabilities to accurately forecast and identify potential future accidents, enabling proactive safety measures and interventions.
- Solutions that help bring/give access to a specific workforce (for example, apprenticeship)
- Solution for automation of sensory product testing
Supply Chain and Advertising Transparency
- Solutions to improve transparency in the advertising/media supply chain, which specifically promote diverse content creators and inclusive sponsored content
- Responsible advertising supply chain solutions that promote inclusivity, well-being, or belonging, at the individual consumer, community, non-profit, or corporate level
- Solutions for better traceability of our supplied materials and labor and human rights control processes for our third-party services suppliers (overall impact in our Responsible Sourcing policy – via supplier auditing, training, communication and transparency)
- Social, cultural, or community impact measurement tools for corporate event (sports, music, festival) sponsorship; i.e., non-environmental, non-economic only
Value Chain Transparency
- Solutions to track and monitor environmental and social impacts throughout the entire value chain, from raw materials to finished products.
- Solutions to identify potential risks associated with labor practices, environmental degradation, and conflict minerals.
- Solutions to improve traceability of materials and products to ensure responsible sourcing.
- Solutions to identify and source materials from suppliers who are committed to sustainability practices.
- Solutions to develop and implement sustainable procurement policies and procedures.
- Solutions to track and measure progress towards sustainability goals.
- Solutions to provide real-time data on sustainability performance across the supply chain.
- Solutions to enable us to make informed decisions about sourcing and supplier selection.
- Solutions to identify opportunities for improvement in our sustainability practices.
- Technologies and solutions for mapping multi-tier supply chains.
- Blockchain or other distributed ledger technologies for enhancing traceability.
- Solutions for identifying and mitigating risks associated with conflict minerals.
- Platforms and tools to connect with and evaluate sustainability practices of potential suppliers.
- Solutions for collaborating with suppliers on sustainability initiatives.
- Tools and frameworks for developing and implementing sustainable procurement policies.
CSRD/ESG Reporting
Solutions that are able to improve our current data collection and data management to comply with CSRD/ESG reporting and turning our way of data collection more automated in topics related to Energy, Climate Change, Own force, Human rights, Water, Waste, Resource use & Circular economy, Biodiversity, Taxonomy, among others. We are looking solutions for:
- Data collection automation of supply data (Sensor) connected to reporting tool.
- AI to help data collection and consolidation
- New tools to improve GHG inventory, Water / Energy/ Effluent / Waste reporting
- New systems / tool to eliminate manual data inputs into more automated
- Data modelling – Estimation – Proxy to facilitate reporting
- Supplier data gathering systems
