Newark, N.J.-based AeroFarms, an indoor vertical farming company, won the Circular Economy Innovation of the Year from the EDIE Sustainability Leaders Awards.
Established in 2007, EDIE’s Sustainability Leaders Awards highlight and recognize forward-thinking businesses and ambitious business professionals who go above and beyond in achieving environmental objectives and who deliver transformational change in society.
The Circular Economy Innovation of the Year award highlights the critical ways in which AeroFarms is addressing the global food crisis by building, owning and operating cutting-edge indoor vertical farms in the U.S. and all over the world.
“By embedding sustainability into all that we do, from our operations to our business model to our final product, we aim to champion true transformational innovation for the agricultural industry,” AeroFarms cofounder and CEO David Rosenberg said in the release. “We are proud to be recognized by EDIE as a leader in sustainability and innovation. We also know that truly moving the needle on global sustainability cannot be accomplished by one company alone, and we applaud the many other companies recognized for their impact.”
A certified B-Corp., AeroFarms is on a mission to disrupt traditional supply chains by building farms on major distribution routes and near population centers, significantly reducing carbon emissions incurred from leafy greens trucking and distribution. The company’s environmentally controlled indoor farms can grow food all year round, independent of climate and weather events, with 390x the productivity of field farms per square foot.
AeroFarms designs its operations and business to embody circular and cradle-to-cradle thinking. Its aeroponic growing towers are a closed-loop system, recycling and using less water and nutrients while misting the roots of plants with targeted nutrients and water, as well as optimally oxygenating the roots. Because of this, AeroFarms can grow plants faster and more efficiently than in the field, with zero pesticides.
AeroFarms was also recognized as a finalist in Building/Infrastructure Project of the Year category for its buildout of a 90,000 square foot sustainable farm in Abu Dhabi, which, once completed, will be the world’s largest of its kind. The farm will be dedicated to the research and development, and commercialization of local crops.
Finally, the company was named a finalist for Business of the Year, with the recognition highlighting AeroFarms’ multidisciplinary team of growers, scientists and technologists, who are setting a new standard for totally protected agriculture from seed to package, growing safe, nutritious, fresh food in a sustainable and socially responsible way while championing circular design and cutting-edge science.
