UCL Start-Up To Produce Biofuels From Beans

UCL HAS JOINED FORCES WITH START-UP BIO-BEAN TO TURN WASTE COFFEE GROUNDS PRODUCED ACROSS THE CAMPUS INTO BIOFUELS.

bio-bean, founded in 2013 by former UCL BSc Architecture student Arthur Kay, has committed to working with UCL Estates, Sodexo, O&G, UCLU and Bywater Waste Management to implement this initiative, and in doing so prevent the waste grounds from being deposited in landfills instead.

Waste coffee bins will be placed in UCL cafes, as well as at certain locations around campus including Chenies Mews, Foster Court and the South Quad. The whole initiative is cost neutral.

Arthur Kay says about the scheme, ‘It’s very exciting to be working with my alma mater, I feel like I’m closing the loop and coming back to the place where it all began…It’s great to know that we’re helping to reduce the university’s carbon footprint and proving…that the sustainable choice can also be the logical one.’

Kay has also begun work with UCL Professor Henrietta Moore, Director of the UCL Institute for Global Prosperity, to launch the scheme Fast Forward 2030. This scheme helps support entrepreneurial ideas that will ultimately help in the deliverance of the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals.

Richard Jackson, UCL Director of Sustainability, added, ‘UCL is delighted to be working with bio-bean on this sustainability initiative…UCL has huge potential to create positive change by embedding sustainability into the core activities of the institution…and I hope that the partnership we have developed between bio-bean, UCL Estates, Sodexo and Bywater Waste Management will act as a catalyst to further change.’

Kay committed to his business idea full time after wining UCL’s Bright Ideas Award, and in doing so receiving £25,000 in funding. Charlotte Croffie, Director of Entrepreneurship at UCL’s department of Innovation and Enterprise concluded, ‘We’re thrilled to see bio-bean going from strength-to-strength since starting at UCL. It’s an encouraging testament to the quality of support that UCL provides to our entrepreneurial students.’