Innovation

In order to drive the expansion of Vigeo Gardens, the company needed to innovate. This started by the founders asking themselves “how do we reduce costs?” Vincent, Jacob, and Mark utilized their background experience and ended up settling on creating a closed loop system that makes it efficient to grow plants anywhere there is access to water and electricity. Vigeo Garden’s closed loop system incorporates the following parts to be successful:

Vertical Farm- Typically a warehouse outfitted to create a growing system for plants. In order to do so, water and light are necessary. Depending on the farm, water may be infused with nutrients to help grow the plants. To maximize efficiency, companies utilize sensors to monitor plants and make sure they grow optimally. As such the costs for vertical farm are largely electrical based (lighting, data monitoring)

Electricity- Vigeo Gardens created an integrated fuel cell system that takes the water that would go down the drain after plant use and recycles it to generate electricity. This helps to power the farm and reduce electricity.

Lighting- Vigeo Gardens then created a custom chip that would help maximize light wavelengths while reducing light usage. This helps to maximize light consumption to help the plants grow optimally.

Sensors- 24/7 monitoring system that Allows Vigeo Gardens to monitor the plants in real time and use the data to optimize growing procedures through 2 parameters.

Shoot- plant focused sensors. Monitors light levels (spectrum), temperature, humidity, gaseous consumption

Root- focused on below the plant sensors. Monitors water temperature, electrical conductivity, pH levels, and dissolved oxygen

Water- because of the above system, allows more efficient use of water. With this system Vigeo Gardens on average uses 1/300th of the water used by a typical farm.

All of these pieces come together to allow Vigeo Gardens to reduce their costs, while able at the same time to optimally grow their produce. It is a goal of the founders to establish the company as a 100% carbon neutral company in the future, and with this work, this is not an impossible achievement to aspire to.

Inspiration

Vigeo Gardens was founded by Vincent Petterson, Jacob Graine, and Mark Preston in 2014. Vincent and Jacob had been gaining experience in the restaurant business, while attending University of Akron pursuing education in Biomedical Engineering and Biology respectively. They were eventually introduced to the idea of selling microgreens. Mark has a degree in Astronautical engineering, but returned after a couple of years in that industry to follow his curiosity in vertical farming and was introduced to Jacob and Vincent where they immediately hit it off.

Vigeo Gardens started by growing plants in the basement of Vincent’s house and then grew through Akron’s small business accelerator. As they gained funding and were able to expand, they were able to further flesh out their ideas. Out of necessity as their utility costs were so high, the founders were able to build out a custom closed loop system to optimize the growing of their produce as they expanded to a full-sized warehouse. As such, this penned a focus on base of the pyramid thinking, to create a system that would use less water, less waste, and less electricity while providing better products than competitors. This yearning to do something different has paid dividends both in their passion for this business but also with their results on the business end of things.

Overall impact

Vigeo Gardens is a three-year old company, however the problems that the company seeks to tackle are all issues that need to raised now in order to manage food production in the future. Vincent, Vigeo’s Co-founder, has been focused on the potential future water issues as climate change begins to take effect. As such, he claims, “we have to learn to do more with less.” While Vigeo Gardens grows into the market, especially in the early stages, it has to minimize costs so it can maximize profits and manage the scalability. 20% of the company’s cost of goods sold (COGS) comes from utilities. Creating this closed loop system has helped reduce Vigeo Garden’s utility cost such as only 1/300th water use of a typical farm and a reduction in the wattage use of their farm from 2400 watts down to 400 watts. This has helped reduce the overall resources necessary meaning that local resources of the city of Akron such as a water and electricity can be diverted to other purposes. This plays a factor in the positive branding and flouring opportunity of the company as local consumers can enjoy a product that is less resource intensive to create, and recycles the waste more efficiently which can have a positive effect on the local community meaning a beneficial outcome for both shareholder’s and stakeholders.

Business benefit

The closed loop system has not just had an impact on business but also a resource impact within the community. Due to the possibilities, Vigeo Gardens is targeting 100% zero carbon footprint thanks to its closed loop system. Vigeo Gardens is also testing its system for use with other plant growing industries. Knowing that your product uses 1/300th of the water as a normal farm, and less electricity (2400 watt to 400 watt) to produce is a truly exciting prospect and feel good story, not just as owners, but also for customers. Financially, the benefit has been staggering, as Vigeo Gardens has gone from $23,000 in sales in 2014, to an expected $750,000 in sales for 2017. Vincent said, “Money is a byproduct of living your dreams.” The founder’s passion for their work and acknowledgement of creating a sustainable solution to growing produce has helped their business increase revenues, but also created opportunities for expansion in other areas of the plant growth industry.

Vigeo Gardens has expanded to selling produce with local grocery chains while it continues to distribute to local restaurants. The business has seen large retail customer growth in its lettuce products while the microgreens business is still large for its restaurant customers. Their customer base is growing, and as more consumers become wary of GMO or pesticide sprayed produce, Vigeo Gardens has a business model that is running parallel to customers concerns.

Social and environmental benefit

Vigeo Gardens is not just a vertical farm industry, it is a startup seeking to scale a closed loop farming system that can have a huge benefit to society if scaled. The company is integrating sustainability within its business structure to minimize cost and maximize profit while at the same time providing a superior quality product than normal farms. Vigeo Gardens is 100% GMO and pesticide free. Since these are locally grown, the finished products are fresher and last longer than competitors who farm their produce traditionally and then ship them out to customers. Another positive is that since the produce are grown in sterile environments, their potential issues relating to E.coli or chemical pesticide are drastically reduced.

Due to ongoing global water crises, such as heavy droughts in parts of the world, water is becoming a scarce resource. By focusing on not just water conservation, but electricity optimization, sterile growing environments, and community outreach, Vigeo Gardens encompasses the future of agriculture. A future where produce is grown locally all year round, with no GMO’s or pesticides, for a fraction of the water use and electricity cost. That is the idea behind Vigeo Gardens and the potential for business use of Bottom of the Pyramid thinking. Pairing technology to help reduce cost in growing plant-based products which are superior than traditional methods is happening and Vigeo Gardens is focusing on getting to that future now, to the benefit of both shareholders and stakeholders

Interview

Vincent Petterson, Founder