Corporate Challenge 2021

BACKGROUND/CONTEXT

Currently most mass market IP camera technologies have poor low light visibility. This may lead to inconclusive outcomes, wrongful allegations or misunderstandings in the event of a theft, break-in, or abuse. More so for markets out of Singapore where security is not as robust, such products would be helpful in solving potential threats.

DESIRED SOLUTION

The final outcome should be of a product that is commercially viable and can be mass produced for international markets.

TECHNICAL SPECIFICATIONS

An AI with algorithm for auto image magnification based on environment condition to improve the overall image clarity.

• To achieve colour mode image @ minimum illumination 0.001 lux@F1.2
• Megapixel (5MP)
• Image Sensor (1/2.8” Progressive Scan CMOS)

> This problem statement is hosted by Aztech.

BACKGROUND/CONTEXT

80% of our business is export, and we supply to more than 50+ countries with long haul shipment. Our customer expects to have early notice from Cargill when potential delays or changes happen. This information helps them better plan their production and reduce costs caused by changes.

Currently, we must contact individual 3rd party vendors to do a shipment status checks on an ad-hoc basis. This is often done via phone, message, or email, which is often late and not very accurate. This is also a very time consuming and manual process for our team.

From the recent customer survey, we believe that providing visibility of shipment status will improve the customer experience and satisfaction.

DESIRED SOLUTION

Centralized platform with data of shipment status for every order that:

1. Indicates if shipment is on-track or potentially delayed
2. Shipment status is at minimum refreshed daily
3. Approximate location of product included with shipment status
4. Scalable to manage more than 8000 shipments per year (affordable and operationally practical)
5. Accessible for our customer service team to view and update our clients

Ideally, the solution enables

1. Real-time shipment status updates
2. Provides real-time location of the shipment
3. Provides estimated time of arrival if there are changes or delays
4. Accessible for our customers to self-serve and check their own shipment status.

TECHNICAL SPECIFICATIONS

System should be able to easily interface to Cargill’s systems such as SAP and mycargill.com an internally built customer facing platform designed on industry standards.

> This problem statement is hosted by Cargill.

BACKGROUND/CONTEXT

The marine exploration space in India is expanding, however there is a lack of technology available in the country with regards to Sonar and surveillance equipment. If this is bridged, there will be a lot of opportunities to work with the Defense establishment, Fisheries, Bio-sciences, Mineral exploration, and Oil & Gas industry.

DESIRED SOLUTION

To manufacture underwater Sonars of multiple frequencies for various uses.

To collaborate with Singapore based companies to develop technology for Sonar equipment and to look at the possibility of taking their IP and products to the Indian market.

TECHNICAL SPECIFICATIONS

Sonar transceivers of varying frequencies starting with 200kHz down to 3kHz.

Integration with software for Oceanographic observations such HI-PAP, QUINCY, CARIS.

BACKGROUND/CONTEXT

The need for both underwater and surface vehicles is expanding quite rapidly. This has presented a new market opportunity across several different industries. These include Fisheries, Oil & Gas, Defense and Mineral explorations.

DESIRED SOLUTION

Assemble/ manufacture Autonomous vehicles for the Asia region, with an already built in India itself.

TECHNICAL SPECIFICATIONS

Autonomous programmable vehicles with the range of uptown 200 km from the coast and 2000m water depth capability (pressure tolerance)

Capable of carrying payloads such as sub bottom profilers, cameras and temperature and conductivity sensors.

BACKGROUND/CONTEXT

Cargill is a large, diverse family of companies operating in 70 countries, with 155,000 employees worldwide.

Currently, COVID-19 social distancing and contact tracing measures on employees, contractors and visitors are done manually, which consume a lot of time and resources. In most cases for contact tracing, we need to partner with public health authorities. Most contact tracing and social distancing solutions in the market require some form of connectivity and limits to very small area.

In some of our operating areas such as palm plantations, involve vast area with very remote and poor mobile coverage where existing solutions are not feasible. The availability of company-issued phones is limited and some may not own a smart phone.

DESIRED SOLUTION

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Cargill businesses need a reliable, secure, digital means to ensure personal safety that sends social distancing alerts and enables contact tracing without collecting personally identifiable information.

• Needs to work across Cargill businesses worldwide
• Cannot add an additional wearable to what employees, contractors or visitors already need to carry in a facility
• Low cost in terms of hardware infrastructure/device requirements
• Effective and sustainable solution in terms of not requiring too much human intervention while being able to provide alerts to the right person

TECHNICAL SPECIFICATIONS

Solution needs to be workable without continuous connectivity, e.g. only send data intermittently when mobile/WiFi coverage is restored

• Able to alert the user if safe distance is breached
• Wearable device not acceptable
• Accuracy of distancing +/- 0.2m
• Cargill has very strict data privacy requirements and regulations on personal data both for employee information and corporate information therefore successful solution will need to comply with these. There are restrictions on what can be collected, what can be stored and for how long
• Multi language capability
• Ability to customize, e.g. to differing social distancing regulations in differing jurisdictions

BACKGROUND/CONTEXT

Business to Business (B2B) customers progressively expect the same standards of services and products as they would in their personal transactions.

Every day there are very many personal interactions across departments with different customers. In addition, customers interact directly with our products and services on many levels.

While the customer experience (CX) has traditionally been a core focus for B2C companies, tracking CX is becoming increasingly important in B2B. In recent years, the development of AI also presents us with new opportunities to apply predictive analytics and other tools to CX data.

DESIRED SOLUTION

A ‘real-time’ CX tracker backed by AI The ability to extract and summarize (in real-time) scores based on selected CX KPIs for various points of our customer journey

The ability to provide a comparison to historical results for each customer The ability to learn by using signals to predict CX scores and surface emerging trends and issues.

TECHNICAL SPECIFICATIONS

User language should be in English and Chinese at a minimum.

Provide a seamless interface between mobile versions and computer versions Software must work in China CX tracker should leverage structured and unstructured data Post-implementation maintenance of the CX tracker should be user-friendly within reason or ongoing support made available

BACKGROUND/CONTEXT

Patients who are diagnosed with non-communicable diseases are provided with necessary medications, suggestions on lifestyle changes, and instructed to instill the habits at home. During check-ups, doctors often find themselves in a rush to retrieve a patient's history and treat the patient in 15 minutes. Patients often lack compliance to treatment regimens for reasons such as lack of motivation, not feeling symptoms and not seeing the disease treatment progression.

There is a need to enable doctors to act as partners in the patient’s journey to ensure that patients remain on track to recovery, as well as maximise the interaction time between patients and doctors during consultations. This can take place through the qualitative measurement of patients’ conditions, and their compliance and adherence to their treatment regimen in the home setting and allowing doctors to tap into the history regularly prior to the check-up.

DESIRED SOLUTION

The tool should be able to do the following:

• Measure patients’ autonomous medication intake without requiring active patient reporting
• Track patients’ adherence to lifestyle habits or other recommendations made by their doctors
• Provide doctors with insights on patients’ progress to improve the quality of the healthcare delivered to patients

> This problem statement is hosted by AstraZeneca.

BACKGROUND/CONTEXT

The elderly population is increasing in China and most of these senior residents live alone. The risk of lethal domestic accidents for this population, such as falling in the bathroom and not being discovered in time to be treated, is high.

Delays in detecting and/or reporting falls is the main cause of lethal problems. As one of the world’s leading home appliance companies, Haier smart home is keen to find a feasible and cost effective solution for fall detection in bathrooms to protect vulnerable populations.

DESIRED SOLUTION

We are expecting the solution to fulfill the following needs:

• Installation locations: 1) ceiling 2) wall 3) underneath the plastic case of electric water heaters
• Detection area: the whole bathroom
• Detection accuracy: could tolerant certain errors of accuracy, but can NOT miss reporting falls
• Detection number of people: multiple people
• Fall gestures: slow fall in a faint and sudden fall
• Interferences need to be considered: bathroom curtain, small appliances (hair blower, shaver, and so on), etc.

TECHNICAL SPECIFICATIONS

• Square bathroom: 2~3 meters long, 4 ~ 9 square meters
• Rectangle bathroom: 1.5~2 meters wide, 3~5 meters long and 4.5 ~ 10 square meters
• Horizontal viewing angle: ± 50 °
• Pitch angle: ± 15 °
• Monitoring range: above 3 meters
• Module size: within 50mm x 50mm x 15mm
• Cost: less than 100RMB
• Life span of the solution: 8-10 years

> This problem statement is hosted by Haier Smart Home.

BACKGROUND/CONTEXT

As many as 50% of population worldwide is likely to have a micronutrient deficiency – Iron and Vit. B12. Left untreated, these deficiencies can lead to serious health problems, reduced quality of life and expensive medical fees. Current diagnosis requires clinic visit, blood samples and lab analytical tests.

DESIRED SOLUTION

Device which allows non-invasive, portable monitoring of key micronutrients levels in an individual

TECHNICAL SPECIFICATIONS

• Device/ Software/ Methodology
• Digital user interface
• Portable: Ideally at home or min. by HCP
• Real-time result (nice to have but not essential)
• Easy and quick to use (easy to train the frontliners/ non-HCPs)
• Iron, B12 (scalability to other micronutrients nice to have)
• Validated vs gold standard (high level of accuracy, +90% and reproducibility, +95%)
• Adequate sensitivity across deplete/ normal. Replete range, e.g. Haemoglobin 3gm/dL to 18gm/dL
• Depending on solution: Target Unite costs USD 500 – 1000 max/ USD 0.25 per test

> This problem statement is hosted by P&G.

BACKGROUND/CONTEXT

The cost of chronic health conditions is a huge burden on both economies and hospitals, with direct healthcare treatment for chronic conditions reaching US$1.1 trillion in the US in 2016. Moreover, it also burdens the tertiary healthcare systems with patients whose conditions could have been better managed at home.

With the trend towards decentralized healthcare, Philips is interested to partner with innovative startups whose solutions provide the ability for both patients and clinicians to prevent, manage, and treat chronic health conditions outside of tertiary health systems.

DESIRED SOLUTION

The objective of this innovation call is to design solutions, for patients with chronic diseases, that have the following capabilities:

1. Empower patients (and providers) to have a clear view of their health condition
2. Enable patients to take control of their health, provide information on personalised activities to manage and improve their condition
3. Support providers in better managing a patient’s condition, and intervene when necessary

TECHNICAL SPECIFICATIONS

• User language will be English, and/or a relevant Southeast Asian language
• Ability to process raw data and create actionable insights and recommendations for patients to manage their health
• Solutions should be on track to obtain clinical validation within the next 3-6 months (if applicable)
• Solutions should be on track to obtain relevant healthcare regulatory approvals within the next 12 months (if applicable)
• Solutions should be on track to obtain relevant quality and security certifications within the next 12 months (if applicable)

> This problem statement is hosted by Philips.

BACKGROUND/CONTEXT

Unaddressed mental health problems can have a negative influence on the individuals concerned, their family and the larger community.

It impacts collective productivity and impedes children and youth’s ability to succeed in life. Mental wellness in today's society requires a non-biased approach to encourage affected individuals to get clinical assistance. The early detection of mental conditions such as depression, anxiety, stress, behavioral withdrawal symptoms, etc would help individuals receive treatment in a timely fashion. ST Engineering is working with clinical collaborators and public health organizations to provide early detection assistance services for public mental wellbeing.

DESIRED SOLUTION

The ideal solution consists of a non-invasive mental health monitoring system using data from sensors and machine learning bio parameters or classification taxonomy supported by mental health clinical practitioners. The selected solution will have the opportunity to collaborate with ST Engineering's solution platform.

TECHNICAL SPECIFICATIONS

Leverage on ubiquitous sensing technologies and cloud native solutions that support continuous data collection where applicable. For example: location, mood, physical activities, and vital biodata monitoring.

BACKGROUND/CONTEXT

The automotive industry is going through a transition from manufacturing and selling cars to becoming a mobility service provider. What used to be a product being sold to the customer was the end of any interactions. However, car manufactures are going beyond being a service provider.

We are keen on not only the act of selling forward-looking cars but providing convenient services revolving around the theme of mobility. It is imminent that in the near future, cars will become the platform for new e-mobility services to be created and developed.

While value added services for mobility services are being developed, we see that such services can be expanded to lifestyle related services that car manufacturers couldn’t dare to imagine. The current connected service is still focused on the car itself, while not much has been developed for the passengers or their behaviours.

Current outcomes are suboptimal as:

• Current services are mirrored services from smart phone applications without the factor of movement and lifestyle among vehicles being factored.
• The infrastructure systems from the government and cities doesn’t enable these services to function properly

DESIRED SOLUTION

The objective of this innovation call is to implement lifestyle services within our E-mobility service platform:

• Design a service that EV owners will want to experience for their convenience
• Build a community of EV drivers to improve the overall life cycle experience of EVs: From buying stage(pre-ownership) to using and selling EVs.
• A user retentive service that will give a value-addition in the ownership of IONIQ5
• A service that makes the ownership of EVs much easier (not limited to charging, finding charging stations along the route of navigation, repair and maintenance, car payments, drive thru enabling, car washing, etc.)
• Make the use of charging down time into a new service opportunity for EV customers (connecting services to ‘E-pit’ next generation petrol station with added on services)
• Introduce a new form of business model idea by connecting the startup’s service within the E-mobility service

TECHNICAL SPECIFICATIONS

• Software solutions and services should be able to be connected through API or web landing page-based connection to E-mobility platform, without switching out of the platform
• Gather relevant car movement data and adjacent app related data to create valuable insights and form new business opportunities
• The service should have its own dedicated payment gateway for the transaction with option to transit to other payment gateway
• User language will be English

> This problem statement is hosted by Hyundai.

BACKGROUND/CONTEXT

At the moment, the maintenance planner will allocate aircraft tails to various routes as per the guidelines given by network planning. However, in some cases, the aircraft is required to stay in the outstation for 1 or 2 days based on commercial opportunities and any other operational considerations. Airlines need a tool to help them better understand the optimal turn-round duration that will both bring commercial and operational benefits

DESIRED SOLUTION

1. Aircraft layover penalty that can be used for aircraft scheduling.
2. Single platform for the data and analytics
3. Health monitoring capability for the success of deployment and layover plans.
4. A tool that consolidates all information and constraints like MELS, scheduled checks, aircraft performance limitations for decision making.

TECHNICAL SPECIFICATIONS

1. The optimization tool that can be plugged into the maintenance system
2. The tool should be able to recommend the optimal layover plan considering all constrain

> This problem statement is hosted by Rolls-Royce.

BACKGROUND/CONTEXT

Aircrafts, like any other machine, deteriorate over time while it is being operated. Both the airframe and the engine will degrade from the original model. This requires the flight plan and the flight management computer to factor in the performance penalty due to the deterioration. This factor is computed from a set of parameters from actual flight data and the performance factor is updated on a regular basis depending on the airline policy.

DESIRED SOLUTION

1. Single platform for the data and analytics
2. Established continuous data pipeline that updates APD daily for operational use
3. Real time updates available
4. More accurate fuel planning
5. Optimized route planning
6. Boarding of additional fuel is avoided
7. Pilot confidence on the plan
8. Fuel savings and opportunity for additional payload

TECHNICAL SPECIFICATIONS

1. Updated APD on daily basis
2. Synchronized information flow to the pilots and dispatchers

> This problem statement is hosted by Rolls-Royce.

BACKGROUND/CONTEXT

It is essential to transform traditional retail to modern stores, particularly for convenience stores in developed economies. The existing technology is maturing, but still expensive and needs to blend with current infrastructure.

DESIRED SOLUTION

• New technology fitted to make completely autonomous or semi-autonomous stores for conventional retail outlets
• Ability to address a wide variety of possible store formats while reducing the cost of infusing new technology and cost of operations

TECHNICAL SPECIFICATIONS

• AI driven autonomous robotic solutions, with sensor fusion, controls and data management
• A solution that can integrate to legacy systems like current accounting systems, inventory systems, etc.
• Able to fit different store formats in terms of size, access, type of products to be delivered, etc.

> This problem statement is hosted by Infosys.

BACKGROUND/CONTEXT

The Elderly and differently-abled are facing a lack of mobility solutions that are affordable & user friendly. This means that they face emotional & physical challenges with regards to their movement. If this continues, this would affect their mental & physical health over time & their overall wellbeing.

DESIRED SOLUTION

Solutions that are scalable i.e. large scale production can be done, lightweight & user-friendly.

TECHNICAL SPECIFICATIONS

Usage of materials that are affordable & lightweight as compared to carbon fibre. Portable, easily packed & easy to use.

> This problem statement is hosted by Tata Steel.

BACKGROUND/CONTEXT

Traditional materials are heavy, designed using the design paradigms of the previous era, less sustainable and may not have new functionalities/ features and are regulation compliant. This means that there is significant risk from emerging technology & materials portfolios. If this continues, potential risk of losing sustainable competitive advantage, new business/market/revenue opportunities.

DESIRED SOLUTION

New materials and Novel applications with new features using them.

TECHNICAL SPECIFICATIONS

Composites/ Graphene/ Ceramic/ Hybrid products and applications.

> This problem statement is hosted by Tata Steel.

BACKGROUND/CONTEXT

Aerospace visual inspections often involve finding small and sometimes subjective defects/anomalies against visually similar backgrounds. The defects/anomalies can be in the order of 1E-6 area ratio which might be masqueraded as noise. The majority of parts inspected are often defect-free, but aerospace safety standards mandate meticulous coverage nonetheless. These inspections are often laborious for humans, and therefore favorite subjects for automation. Many attempts to develop automated visual inspections are premised upon rules and logic to detect the defects/anomalies. However, since defects/anomalies are exceptions rather than the norm, it is challenging to codify computational rules and logic that can capture all possibilities and one-offs.

Furthermore, aerospace parts may tolerate a small level of dimensional variations, which means that conventional image processing methods (such as template matching) would flag up an unnecessary level of false alarms that nullify the intended value-add from automation.

We welcome novel ideas from the teams overcome this challenge.

BACKGROUND/CONTEXT

Every single day, DHL Express handles more than 3.5 million parcels and flyers globally. These parcels are delivered from the airports to the local service centers, where they are sorted by delivery zones.

Currently, at the service centers, couriers stand along a conveyor belt to conduct the sorting activity, they identify the parcels that they need to deliver by manually eyeballing the shipping address on the shipping label. Any parcels that are missed and not picked up on the first pass are put through the conveyor again for subsequent passes.

This process is manual and time-consuming, and can easily take up to 1 hour.

DESIRED SOLUTION

• Eliminate need for manual eyeballing of shipping labels
• 100% pick up rate on first pass on conveyor belt
• Significantly decrease time that couriers need to spend in the service centres
• Free up courier time so that transit times for deliveries can be faster

TECHNICAL SPECIFICATIONS

• Software should be able to be integrated with DHL existing platforms (for a pilot, not necessary, but to be adopted as ongoing solutions this would be necessary)
• Hardware: prefer minimal infrastructure/equipment requirements in terms of machinery, devices, etc. (Note constraints: in SG, ceiling height is fixed and conveyors are sitting on floor - ceiling is high and no space for floor-mounted infra, and the cannot be modifications to existing infrastructure)
• Locations: Pilot in SE Asia
• Languages: prefer an interface that is simple and visual, ideally not dependent on languages, but post-pilot, any text would need to be multi-lingual for various Asian languages)

BACKGROUND/CONTEXT

Kellogg's sustainability goal is to have all our packaging be 100% reusable, recyclable or compostable by 2025. Kellogg's AMEA region consists of Asia, Australia, Africa continents, which has countries with diverse climate, consumer requirement & regulations.

Kellogg's Sustainability commitment: https://www.kelloggs.com/en_US/sustainability/sustainable-packaging.html 

EMF Link: https://ellenmacarthurfoundation.org/topics/plastics/overview 

DESIRED SOLUTION

1. Biodegradable & recyclable films/materials meeting our product barrier requirements with minimal capex/changeover
2. The technology needs to be commercially viable and scalable across the countries in the region

TECHNICAL SPECIFICATIONS

1. Biodegradable packaging which can biodegrade in soil and marine environment
2. Recyclable laminate which meets EMF guidelines.
3. Recyclable can be a monolayer/mono materials or coated.

> This problem statement is hosted by Kellog's.

BACKGROUND/CONTEXT

Sustainability needs to ensure long-term value creation for the organization. It follows environmental, social and governance factors as guiding principles.

DESIRED SOLUTION

Enable provision of sustainable air transportation services, such that the airline gains a competitive advantage

TECHNICAL SPECIFICATIONS

Leverage operational data

> This problem statement is hosted by Rolls-Royce.

BACKGROUND/CONTEXT

Indoor farms are facing high cost of production due to high energy consumption. This means that the crops grown by indoor farms will always be more expensive. If this continues, indoor farming will not be sustainable in the near future.

DESIRED SOLUTION

We are looking for any solution that can help reduce energy consumption of indoor farms by at least 10-20%.

TECHNICAL SPECIFICATIONS

This can either be a power management system or more efficient lighting solutions.

> This problem statement is hosted by Trendlines.

BACKGROUND/CONTEXT

Currently, options for consumers to consume sustainable food exist, but the existing choices are limited and require consumers to either sacrifice the taste of the food or spend more money.

This solution is meant to be a business solution for F&B manufacturers.

DESIRED SOLUTION

An approach on how to create a new food experience by using novel sustainable and natural food ingredients without compromising taste and affordability.

TECHNICAL SPECIFICATIONS

Food ingredients which will be:

• Regulated by agencies as “natural”
• No GMO or GMO Free
• Sourced Sustainably (good care of natural resources)

> This problem statement is hosted by Givaudan.

BACKGROUND/CONTEXT

Unilever’s purpose is to make sustainable living common place. In this context, Unilever has set bold ambitions across various dimensions of sustainability. One key focus is to reduce and eliminate greenhouse gas emissions from our products up to point of sale by 2039. Our sustainability performance data indicates that the biggest contributor to Unilever GHG Footprint is the choice of ingredients (excluding footprint linked to consumer use). This calls for radical reformulation of our products to deliver our ‘Net Zero Carbon/GHG Footprint’ ambition.

We are keen to create a detergent product which is “Carbon Negative”, focusing on the actual product used for cleaning (i.e., what is inside the box/pouch or bottle), and excluding packaging design.

In recent times, new technology developments in the space of Carbon Capture can provide new opportunities for us to create Carbon Negative products. For example:

• Algae have been used to make triglycerides which are similar in composition to Palm Kernel Oil which is a key feedstock for many ingredients used to make detergents.
• Unilever has recently launched a laundry capsule which uses captured carbon dioxide from environment to make surfactants/cleaning ingredients.
• Companies like Lanzatech have also made progress on recycling carbon emissions.

At its heart, all the routes are linked to using carbon dioxide as feedstock to make new materials using either biotechnology or conventional chemistry. Unilever is thus seeking cost-effective and innovative ingredients or formulations, in order to create Carbon Negative fabric cleaning detergents.

DESIRED SOLUTION

A saving of 1 million tons of GHG can lead to savings of €15M to €30M depending on Carbon Offset costs. Flexible timelines, a conceptual proposal can be made available by December 2021.

TECHNICAL SPECIFICATIONS

The proposed detergent design (ingredients and/or formulation) must meet the following criteria:

• Utilises Carbon Negative ingredients which can substitute for existing ingredients used in fabric cleaning detergents.
• Ability to clean or remove soil (dirt) from fabrics. This can be assessed through a comparison with any existing detergent in the market. This check can be done easily at any location. For a more rigorous check, AISE Laundry Detergent Testing Guidelines can be used.
• Detergent should leave the clothes fragranced after washing.
• Ingredients/formulation should be compatible with use in a front load washing machine.

> This problem statement is hosted by Unilever.

BACKGROUND/CONTEXT

Unilever’s purpose is to make sustainable living common place. In this context, Unilever has set bold ambitions across various dimensions of sustainability. One core focus area is our commitment to reduce plastic waste across the globe. While we continue to make progress in using post-consumer recycled plastic in our packaging across the globe, we have a specific challenge to tackle in Southeast Asia where a large part of our fabric cleaning business is dependent on single-use plastic sachets which are difficult to segregate, collect and recycle.

Examples:

The best-case scenario for this type of plastic waste is that they end up in well managed landfills and the worst-case scenario is leakage into waterbodies such as rivers and oceans. It is important to note that this problem is not limited to sachets for fabric cleaning but spans across industries. In Southeast Asia, leakage of plastic waste into rivers and oceans has become a significant problem.

A key reason these single-use sachets have found favour with consumers is the fact that they are affordable at low prices (approximately 500 to 1000 IDR in Indonesia or 5 Pesos in the Philippines). It is critical for any solution to continue to be affordable for companies like Unilever to be able to serve the bottom of the pyramid consumers. It is for this reason any proposal to upgrade consumers from single-use sachets to rigid plastic bottles (where use of post-consumer recycled material is finding increasing favour) is not viable.

Another key advantage of single-use sachets for consumers is dosage control offered during wash. This convenience is another key reason consumers do not want to upgrade to a bigger flexible pouch solution.

Unilever has made significant commitments in the space of managing its plastic footprint. One among those is to make the plastic packaging completely recyclable, reusable, and compostable. Unilever currently uses “heterogenous laminate structures” and has a well-defined programme to move to “mono material laminate structures” for plastic sachets.

However, considerable commercial challenge exists in actual collection and recycling of flexible plastic waste which limits the opportunity to make a difference on the ground through technical changes to composition of the plastic used for making sachets. Thus, the focus of this brief is to address this key challenge in the collection and recycling infrastructure, and not design recyclable/mono material structures.

Unilever is seeking a solution which is as affordable as current sachets for fabric cleaning and has a “unit dose” characteristic. These solutions must tangibly address the fabric cleaning plastic sachet waste issue.

DESIRED SOLUTION

Currently, approximately €25M is spent by Unilever Home Care in SEAA on plastic sachets. Any solution proposed can create equivalent revenue stream while solving a very important problem facing us. Any viable solution can be scaled up further to other product segments hence this is an extremely conservative estimate of market size. Flexible timelines, a conceptual proposal can be made available by December 2021.

TECHNICAL SPECIFICATIONS

Suitable solutions can include, but not be limited to:

• Technical alternatives (e.g. novel materials) to currently used plastic sachets which do not persist in water bodies such as rivers.
• Alternative business models to deliver the same user experience to consumers without the use of plastic (or reducing by >90%).
• Creating a circular loop between the material used in our fabric cleaning sachets and waste generated.

The proposed solution should meet the following criteria:

• Suitable for fabric cleaning powders and liquids.
• Cost per wash for consumers to be maintained at current levels, while eliminating the plastic waste leaking into landfills, oceans and rivers.
• Technical alternatives should be completely reusable, biodegradable or compostable.
• Technical alternatives will also need to have high barrier properties (to prevent movement of water across the packaging or prevent leakage of fragrance) and resist damage during transit from factory to end retailer. Additional details can be provided on request.

> This problem statement is hosted by Unilever.

BACKGROUND/CONTEXT

Unilever’s purpose is to make sustainable living common place. One focus area is our commitment to reduce plastic waste across the globe. We have set ambitious targets to reduce the total amount of virgin plastic we use, to ramp up the use of recycled plastic and to only use reusable, recyclable or compostable plastic packaging in our products. We are also supporting the establishment of collection and processing infrastructure in various countries that we operate in.

We are pursuing a circular economy approach – one in which resources are kept in use in a closed-loop system, rather than thrown away – across every aspect of our business. Today, a large fraction of plastic ends up in incineration, landfill or leaked into the environment as waste. This is not acceptable, as the plastic materials can be given a new life as food grade packaging, if collected and recycled using chemical recycling (creation of Circular Polymers) solutions.

While we continue to make progress in using post-consumer recycled plastic in our packaging across the globe, we have a specific challenge to tackle in Southeast Asia where a large part of our business is dependent on flexible plastic sachets which are considered low value, as they are difficult to collect, segregate and recycle.

Today, Asia is the fastest growing market for flexible packaging, with over 42% of the global market share. The best-case scenario for this plastic waste is to end up in well managed landfills and worst-case scenario is leakage into waterbodies such as rivers and oceans. In Southeast Asia, low recycling rates across the region have also contributed to leakage of plastic waste into rivers and oceans becoming a significant problem. Increasing the use of Circular Polymers made from plastic waste (especially flexibles) will drive up its value and subsequent collection infrastructure. Once established, the material can be infinitely recycled into food grade packaging material via chemical recycling, which is superior to mechanical recycling, in which the material can only be recycled for a limited number of times and may not be suitable for food contact applications.

Unilever is seeking partners to build the ecosystem for circular polymers and chemical recycling, specifically pyrolysis. These include players across the value chain, involved in the collection, sorting, shredding, cleaning of plastic waste, and/or involved in the process of pyrolysis, developing Circular Polymers and supplying packaging materials. This brief excludes the chemical recycling process of Solvolysis as it has been previously tested and found to be commercially not viable due to yield and quality issues.

DESIRED SOLUTION

Application of Circular polymers into SEAA portfolio is expected in 2022, starting with thin wall, high speed injection molded tubs and lids. Desired timing on creating viable circular economic model is 2022-2025, with the desire to increase capacity and availability of locally sourced circular polymer made from packaging waste.

Foods industry as primary target, however, all sectors of fast-moving consumer goods (FMCG) can be considered to drive volume demand. While Unilever desires first-to-market allocations, application to the entire FMCG industry is expected in the longer term.

TECHNICAL SPECIFICATIONS

The primary input to the recycling process may be coming from reclaimed or collected post-consumer flexible packaging waste made of multi-layered laminates (combinations of low-density and high-density polyethylene, aluminium, polyethylene terephthalate, polypropylene, printed ink, etc) in the form of sachets or pouches. Enhanced, automated sorting and cleaning, in preparation for chemical recycling via Pyrolysis should be considered. The desired output of the chemical recycling solution is Circular Polymers that are food grade and must be suitable for use in food contact applications. The material should also be FDA compliant.

Some of the potential applications of the Circular Polymers are for packaging including high speed injection moulded tubs, buckets, lids and hinged closures for the immediate term. In longer term, blown and cast flexible films will also be considered. Application will depend on resin performance grades offered.

> This problem statement is hosted by Unilever.