Gravity Climate named winner of SHV Energy Global Sustainability Challenge

Today, we’re thrilled to share that we’ve been named a winner of SHV Energy’s first ever Global Sustainability Innovation Challenge. SHV Energy, a leading global distributor of off-grid energy serving 30 million customers across 4 continents, launched this competition to identify startups that could help SHV Energy reduce carbon emissions 25% by 2025. Each winner of the challenge earns a fully-paid pilot project. The winners were selected out of 50 startup applications and six finalists from five different countries.

“We’re thrilled to partner with the forward-thinking team at SHV to give them a birds eye view of their carbon footprint and help them prioritize decarbonization paths to reach their ambitious climate goals,” said Saleh Elhattab, CEO and Founder of Gravity Climate. 

Gravity Climate joins IM Efficiency, a retrofittable solar panel technology for trucks from the Netherlands, and CombiFuel, a retrofittable LPG conversion kit for diesel and semi trucks from Switzerland, as winners of the challenge. SHV Energy is also exploring collaborations with Meight, an end-to-end freight platform from Portugal, and Sensorfact, a wireless sensor company providing insights to reduce energy consumption from the Netherlands. 

This challenge was set up for SHV Energy to collaborate with innovative startups and make off-grid energy distribution more carbon neutral. SHV Energy was looking for practical solutions focused on: Efficient Transportation & Logistics, Smart Facilities and Decision Support Systems. It partnered with Unknown Group, a Dutch VC and open innovation firm, with a view to expanding its existing open innovation activities.

Michael Kossack, COO and Member of the Management Board at SHV Energy said: “The winners of our global sustainability challenge can help us take a big step forward in becoming a more sustainable organisation and achieving our goal of reducing 25% of our carbon emissions by 2025, and we are excited to support these innovative companies in further developing their solutions by providing them access to resources, network and knowledge.”

Jeroen van den Bosch, Unknown Group CCO said: “We’re proud to support SHV Energy on their road to becoming the go-to brand for venture collaborations in the domain of off-grid energy distribution. We are happy to see SHV Energy pursuing pilot projects with not only the three winners of the challenge, but also two more finalists.”

SHV Energy believes that these companies and their technologies have immense potential to help a wide variety of industries to reduce its emissions and is confident of their position to help these innovative companies with their development, go-to-market and expansion activities. Following the necessary planning period where milestones, deliverables and timelines are agreed upon, the pilot phase for the three startup winners with the relevant SHV Energy business units is expected to begin in Q1 2023.

About SHV Energy

SHV Energy is a leading global distributor of off-grid energy such as LPG and LNG and is active in the area of sustainable fuels and renewable energy solutions.

SHV Energy is a wholly owned subsidiary of SHV, a family-owned multinational, that consists of a group of specialised companies, including Nutreco, Eriks, One-Dyas, Kiwa, NPM Capital, Mammoet and Makro.

SHV Energy global brands include Calor, Ipragaz, Liquigas, Primagaz, Supergas, Primagas, Supergasbras, Gaspol, SunSource, EM3, Pinnacle. With these companies, we make it our mission to provide decentralised, low-carbon and clean energy solutions to 30 million business and residential customers off the energy grid.

About Unknown Group

Unknown is an early-stage venture capital and business development firm, supporting founders and industry leaders to successfully bring innovations to the market: a “Venture Engine®”. With a fresh approach to delivering venture success, lining up the industry and creating a pool of solutions ready to be adopted by the market.