Written by: on October 14, 2019
Red Bull Basement Hatch brings social innovators, creatives and enthusiasts together to exchange ideas on how technology can change the world for good. Join us on Tuesday 19th November, from 6pm-9pm at SCALE (The Tapestry) in Liverpool’s maker district and enjoy inspiring conversations and networking opportunities with leading experts and change-makers. Discover Red Bull Basement and the opportunities that technology offers to create environmental impact and solutions. The event will encompass technology’s role as an innovator in sustainable farming, single use plastic solutions, and waste management within UK cities.
Chelsea Slater, co-founder, InnovateHer
Chelsea works tirelessly to achieve gender equality within the tech sector. Her direct experiences of inequality within the sector inspired her to start her first business Liverpool Girl Geeks in 2013. Now, Co-Founder of InnovateHer she has ambitious plans to support teenage girls across the UK and beyond through a tech programme for teenage girls, providing them with the skills needed in order to have a thriving career within tech.
Dr Jens Thomas, co-founder, Farm Urban
Jens is the co-founder and Technical Director of Farm Urban. The company’s mission is to create a model of socially-transformative, community-embedded and technologically-advanced urban farms and education programmes. Farm Urban’s core technology is aquaponics; a food production system which combines aquaculture (growing fish) and hydroponics (growing plants without soil) to produce fish and vegetables in a highly efficient and sustainable way.
Jens started his working career after finishing a degree in chemistry with an editorial traineeship at the New Scientist magazine, which led to him working in publishing and journalism. Missing actually doing science, he went back to university to learn about computers, and then worked in quantum chemistry, molecular graphics and supercomputing at Daresbury Laboratory, before leaving to study for a PhD Bioinformatics and Macromolecular Crystallography at Liverpool University. Jens started Farm Urban in 2013 and has been working there full-time since 2019.
Sophie Walker, co-founder, Dsposal
Sophie is the enthusiastic COO and Co-Founder of Dsposal, a clean-tech start-up working towards a world where all waste is treated as a resource. Dsposal builds easy-to-use tech to help you meet your legal obligations by bringing transparency and clarity to the waste supply chain. We believe in making the relevant data accessible and convenient to use, driving behaviour change and creating value by maximising the utility of waste.
As part of a recent GovTech Catalyst Smart Waste Tracking research project Dsposal worked with Open Data Manchester to develop a prototype Open Data Standard for waste as well as propose a holistic suite of solutions to digitally transform the whole waste pathway and revolutionise the industry.
Prior to founding the company in 2016, Sophie gained a degree in Conflict Resolution, cycled 8700 miles around North America and enjoyed a winding career encompassing logistics and supply chain, the food industry and sustainability. She brings a fresh pair of eyes and breadth of experience to her new-found passion for the waste and resources industry. She was voted joint 5th in the 2019 Resource Hot 100, sits on the MBA Industry Advisory Board at the University of Bradford and is an alumna of the CSC Leaders Programme.
Arthur Rowland, founder, Plastic Tactics
Arthur Rowland is the founder of Plastic Tactics, a social enterprise making it possible for anyone to take charge of plastic. Through building small scale machines, and local networks, Plastic Tactics has an impact not only on the local environment through reducing and recycling plastic waste, but builds a sense of community identity and purpose in taking responsibility and ownership.