PitchGDSC

Summary

Bruna, a co-founder of sjek, discusses the company's mission to promote sustainable dairy farming through technology. Sjek, founded two years ago, offers apps for assessing animal welfare and carbon footprint, aiming to bridge the gap between consumers and producers. The tools are designed to be user-friendly and can be tailored for global use. They also plan a well-being app for farmers, integrating with their farm diagnostics. The presentation highlights sjek's innovative approach to enhancing dairy industry sustainability and reconnecting people with their food sources.

Takeaways

• 😀 Bruna, one of the co-founders of sjek, gave a speech highlighting the company's mission to drive sustainable production in the dairy industry.
• 🌱 Sjek was founded two years ago with a team of veterinarians and specialists aiming to reconnect people with their food and its production processes.
• 🐄 The company's origin story involves a reflection on traditional family dairy farms in Canada, questioning modern practices and the disconnection from the origins of food.
• 📊 Sjek has developed apps for iOS and Android to simplify data collection and analysis, focusing on animal welfare and sustainability metrics.
• 🏆 The apps gamify the process of assessing farms, allowing producers to answer multiple-choice questions and receive a score from 0 to 10.
• 🌐 Sjek's tools are in-house developments, which allows for quick updates and customization to meet the needs of different clients globally.
• 📈 They conducted a case study with 100 dairy firms, applying an Animal Welfare score to analyze and improve farm practices.
• 🌿 The data from the apps feeds into a platform called 'map', which allows for supply chain analysis, helping processors and buyers make informed decisions.
• 🌱 Sjek is also developing a well-being app integrated with farm diagnostics to enhance self-awareness and balance in the farming community.
• 🌐 The company's approach is adaptable to different countries, with the potential to tailor apps to local farming practices and standards.
• 🔄 Sjek's business model involves an annual subscription for corporate clients, with the cost standardized as one liter of milk per firm per year.

Q & A

What is the main goal of the company Sjek?

The main goal of Sjek is to drive sustainable production by inspiring regenerative practices.

How long has Sjek been in operation?

Sjek was started about two years ago.

What kind of expertise does the Sjek team have?

The Sjek team consists of veterinarians and specialists with backgrounds in sustainability, development, and software as a service.

What is the purpose of the app that Sjek has developed?

The app is designed to simplify data collection and analysis for sustainable farming practices, and it is gamified and user-friendly for producers or consultants.

How does the Animal Welfare score work in the app?

The app provides a score from zero to 10 for a farm based on multiple choice questions answered by the producer or consultant.

What is the significance of the case study involving 100 dairy firms?

The case study demonstrates how Sjek's Animal Welfare score can be applied to a group of farms to identify areas for improvement and track progress over time.

What is PCAL and how does it relate to Sjek's services?

PCAL is Sjek's carbon footprint calculator, a web platform that aligns with IDF and ISO standards to assess the environmental impact of farming practices.

How does Sjek's technology help dairy processing plants?

Sjek's technology allows dairy processing plants to analyze their supply chain, engage with producers, and establish improvement programs to enhance sustainability.

What is the future development Sjek is working on?

Sjek is developing a well-being app integrated with farm diagnostics to enhance self-awareness and balance in the farming setting.

How does Sjek's business model work?

Sjek operates on an annual subscription model for corporate clients, with the cost standardized as one liter of milk per firm per year.

Is Sjek's technology tailored only for Brazil, or can it be adapted for other countries?

While Sjek's technology is initially tailored for Brazil, it can be adapted for other countries by changing databases and adjusting questions to fit local farming practices.

How does Sjek assist in onboarding farmers to their app?

Sjek collaborates with consulting companies to train professionals who can then help producers apply the solutions and use the app effectively.

Outlines

00:00

🌱 Founding Sjek and the Vision for Sustainable Farming

Bruna, a co-founder of Sjek, introduces the company, which was established two years prior with the aim of promoting sustainable and responsible dairy farming practices. She shares a story from her past, reflecting on the disconnection between modern consumers and the origins of their food. Sjek was created to bridge this gap by enhancing communication between farmers, consumers, and communities. The team at Sjek comprises veterinarians and specialists with a strong focus on sustainability, including one who founded a significant herd management software company in Brazil. They have developed technological solutions to simplify data collection and analysis for farms, with a particular emphasis on apps for iOS and Android that gamify the process of assessing farm practices.

05:03

📊 Data-Driven Farm Improvement and Carbon Footprint Analysis

The script discusses how Sjek uses data to drive improvements in farm practices. They have conducted case studies with local consulting teams to apply animal welfare scores to dairy farms, analyzing the distribution of scores to identify areas for improvement. Sjek also offers a carbon footprint calculator aligned with international standards, which uses local data to provide precise estimates. This information is then mapped onto a web platform, allowing for supply chain analysis and the identification of leaders in sustainable practices. The company differentiates itself by focusing not just on tools, but also on inspiring action and a mindset shift towards sustainability.

10:05

🌐 Global Applicability and the Future of Sjek

Bruna addresses the question of whether Sjek's apps are tailored for Brazil or if they can be applied globally. She confirms that the apps can be adapted to other countries by adjusting the questions and databases to fit local practices. Sjek's business model involves an annual subscription for corporate clients, with the cost standardized based on milk prices in Brazil. The script concludes with a discussion about the company's approach to engaging farmers, which often involves collaborating with consulting companies to train professionals who can then assist producers. The presentation ends with a Q&A session, where Bruna invites further questions and thanks the audience for their time.

Keywords

💡Sustainable Production

Sustainable production refers to the practice of creating goods or services using methods that minimize environmental impact, conserve resources, and maintain ecological balance. In the video, the co-founders of sjek aim to drive sustainable production in the dairy industry by inspiring regenerative practices and making production more responsible. This is evident when they discuss their tools designed to help dairy farms improve their environmental footprint and overall sustainability.

💡Regenerative Practices

Regenerative practices are agricultural methods that not only sustain the environment but actively work to improve it, often reversing past damage. The video emphasizes the company's mission to inspire such practices on dairy farms, suggesting a shift from traditional farming to more ecologically conscious methods that can restore soil health, increase biodiversity, and sequester carbon.

💡Disconnection

Disconnection, as mentioned in the video, refers to the growing gap between people, their communities, and the origins of their food. This term is central to the video's theme, as it highlights the need for reconnecting consumers with the production process to foster a better understanding of and responsibility for the food they consume. The disconnection is illustrated by the story of a small family farm in Canada and the question of whether current milk production would be as environmentally conscious if consumers were more aware of its origins.

💡Data Collection and Analysis

Data collection and analysis are critical components in the video's narrative, as they form the basis for assessing and improving farm sustainability. The company's app is designed to simplify this process, allowing for the collection of key data points that can be analyzed to track a farm's progress towards sustainability. This is integral to the company's mission of driving sustainable production through measurable and actionable insights.

💡Gamification

Gamification is the application of game-design elements and principles in non-game contexts, and it's used in the company's app to make the process of data collection and self-assessment engaging and user-friendly. The video describes how the app presents multiple-choice questions to producers, which not only makes the process accessible but also motivates them to participate actively in improving their farm's sustainability score.

💡Animal Welfare

Animal welfare is a key concept in the video, focusing on the well-being of animals, particularly in the context of dairy farming. The company has developed a specific app to assess and improve animal welfare on farms, which is part of their broader sustainability initiatives. The script mentions a case study where the Animal Welfare score was applied to 100 dairy firms, indicating the company's commitment to ensuring ethical treatment of animals in food production.

💡Carbon Footprint

The carbon footprint is a measure of the total greenhouse gas emissions caused by an individual, organization, event, or product. In the video, the company's carbon footprint calculator is highlighted as a tool for assessing and reducing the environmental impact of dairy farms. This aligns with the company's mission to promote sustainable and regenerative practices, as understanding and reducing carbon emissions is crucial for combating climate change.

💡Life Cycle Assessment

Life cycle assessment (LCA) is a comprehensive approach to evaluating the environmental impact of a product or service throughout its entire life cycle. The video mentions that the company's carbon footprint calculator is a life cycle assessment tool, which means it considers emissions from all stages of a dairy farm's operations, from feed production to milk processing, to provide a holistic view of its environmental footprint.

💡Supply Chain Mapping

Supply chain mapping is the process of visually and systematically representing the flow of materials and information from suppliers to end consumers. In the context of the video, the company uses a web platform called 'map' to map the supply chain, allowing processors and buyers to analyze and filter by various sustainability metrics, such as scores, carbon footprint, and supplier locations. This tool is crucial for understanding and improving the sustainability of the entire dairy production network.

💡Well-being App

The well-being app, mentioned as a future development in the video, is designed to enhance self-awareness and reintegration among farm workers. It aims to bring metrics related to personal health and well-being, such as sleep patterns and physical activity, into the farm setting. This reflects the company's broader vision of sustainability, which includes not only the environment and animals but also the people involved in the dairy industry.

Highlights

Bruna, co-founder of sjek, emphasizes the importance of reconnecting with our food sources and the environment.

Sjek was founded two years ago with a mission to drive sustainable production through regenerative practices.

The team at sjek consists of veterinarians and specialists with a strong focus on sustainability.

Eloi, co-founder, has experience founding a major herd management software company in Brazil.

Sjek's app is an in-house development, offering a fast and reliable tool for sustainable farming diagnostics.

The app gamifies the process of assessing farm sustainability with a scoring system from zero to ten.

Case study of 100 dairy firms shows the distribution of Animal Welfare scores and areas for improvement.

Sjek's tools help dairy processors and global buyers analyze their suppliers for sustainability.

PCAl, sjek's carbon footprint calculator, is a web platform aligned with IDF and ISO standards.

Data from sjek's tools is integrated into a mapping platform called pmap for supply chain analysis.

Sjek's approach focuses on inspiring action through a state of mind that values sustainability.

Future development includes a well-being app for farmers, integrating human health with farm diagnostics.

Sjek's business model involves an annual subscription fee based on the economic indicator of milk prices.

The company's tools are adaptable to various countries by tailoring questions and databases.

Sjek collaborates with consulting companies to train professionals who assist farmers in using their apps.

Bruna concludes by emphasizing the need for individuals and stakeholders to take action for sustainable dairy practices.

Transcripts

um okay cool yeah so thank you everyone

for being here today uh we're very happy

to be part of this speech and so I'm

Bruna I'm one of the co-founders of sjek

and also with me here today is eloi we

started this company about two years ago

with um a couple of other co-workers and

just before we start I'd like to tell

this little story so this is a firm I

used to live at in Canada and way before

my time this used to be a small family

firm so there was a house and cows

across the street we also could see the

mountains and this keeps us wondering if

most of our milk today would still be

produced this way um would we care for

the environment the same way we do or

would would we be more responsible would

we be less Reckless um would consumers

challenge us less because they would

know better um about how milk is

produced um would we be less challenged

on the practices we adopt and what we

see today is that um most young people

or all of us actually we are growing to

be very disconnected from ourselves from

our communities our families and we are

also most of us living very far away

from where food is produced so there is

a um a bit of a gap there and that's

where we we walked into that's the

questions we've been asking ourselves is

how we can we can communicate better the

challenges of the routine on a firm make

production more sustainable more

responsible and communicate better with

our consumers and our

communities so basically this how do we

contribute to reestablish these

connections uh with ourselves and with

the food we consume and that's um how

our company came to be so as cek as I

mentioned was born two years ago and our

purpose here is to to drive a

sustainable production by inspiring re

regenerative practices

and we are a team um of veterinarians

and it Specialists so we have a very

powerful combination of expertises um

some of us are very intent on a

sustainable way of living uh we have

large academic and research

backgrounds Specialists on on

development and also woi who is here

with me today uh founded one of the

largest her management software

companies in Brazil which was fully

acquired by a fund around two years ago

and they had around 5,000 firms as their

clients either on a B2B or a b2c um

business model and so a large experience

dealing with with this public and

establishing software as a service at a

time around 15 years ago where this

wasn't common in Brazil and now is a

very well established practice just as

we starting this whole business of

sustainability diagnosis and

Communications and we are at the the

frontier of that as well and how we we

see um our company today our motives the

why we are doing this is to drive this

regeneration and more sustainable

practices On Da firms we aim to do this

by simplifying data collection and

Analysis and by developing and through

uh these technological solutions which

are some of those that I will show you

here today so this is one of our um

tools it's a it's an app for iOS or

Android it's already live and being used

I'll show you some data so it's an

in-house development which um makes it

very fast um partially cheap and and

reliable to make additions to make

updates and we can work on it internally

on what any company da processor Global

buyer would like to so on the the right

side of the screen you can see a bit of

how it works it's um very gamified

uh user friendly and the idea here is

that the producer or the consultant will

answer a few multiple choice questions

and from that we'll get a zero to 10

score for the firm and from that we can

follow up on how this Farm has been

evolving um how their numbers have been

changing and the same way as we have

this app for Animal Welfare which is the

one I'm showing you here we have um

similar ones for uh to see if a firm is

ready for the carbon footprint

calculation and a more holistic approach

to sustainability on the on the firm and

here is a case study so we worked with a

local Consulting team on a 100 Dairy

firms applying the the Animal Welfare

score and um I brought some examples of

how we can look at this data so here's

the distribution um of these firms by

score so on top of the bars is the

number of firms on each score range and

basically here we can see if this is a

normally distributed population if um if

and uh where are the firms that have low

scores so the six and Below scores where

are they what are the risks we need to

mitigate as uh the processing industry

and um where we need to focus our

efforts and another way to look at the

data is through the five um domains of

Animal Welfare so here you can see that

on this sample this is real data um we

have nutrition and environment as uh the

strongest components but we do have a

lot of work to do on the health domain

so from this let's say the dairy

processing plant that um picks up the

milk from these producers can start uh

an action plan and um a continuous

progress program for these Farmers so

they also have better quality product

and can communicate better with their

consumers and we also have pcal which is

our carbon footprint calculator so this

is a web platform but it's also mobile

friendly and it's also an inhouse

development of Our IT team and and our

Specialists um and basically it's a it's

a life cycle assessment tool it's

aligned with IDF with ISO standards um

and we we obtain data on um

internationally validated databases but

local data so we have this um precise

information or estimates on how's the m

carbon footprint in Brazil and then from

then of course we can understand where

we need to act if it's fuel energy if

it's on the animals consumption if it's

mean emissions where do we need to act

to have um more sustainable uh firms and

be able to communicate that about our

product and all this information both

from the scores and from the carbon

footprint it goes to map which is also a

web platform and here we can map the the

supply chain stand and filter by by

scores by carbon footprint by suppliers

uh where they're located so this U this

base of the supply chain can be actually

analyzed and this is a bit of how we

propose that the uh the mil processors

the global buyers they um analyze their

their suppliers which is um as an

example here if 93% of the the the

producers have been analyzed how many of

them have been engaged meaning they are

included in the program how many are

Advanced that have already obtained

score high levels at this scores and how

many of those are actual leaders that

inspire people to change and for example

that have a low carbon footprint

milk um but also you might be asking

yourselves right now um there are lots

of carbon footprint tools lots of Animal

Welfare assessments many of the global

buyers they already have their own

programs so how are we different why are

we doing all of this and this is a

question we've been thinking about a lot

is why have the solutions if the people

who take action they're not on the right

State of Mind to do so if people are not

ready to take action and inspired to

take action which is probably the the

most important part here so so it's

thinking about this question that we

came up with our next development so

everything I showed you to you up to now

is fully operational and ready this one

here is a future development and it's

basically a well-being app so this one

is for us for the people um that is

integrated to the firm Diagnostics and

the idea here is to bring a bit of the

self-awareness of this reconnection of

this balance to the firm setting where

um this is not as common as um let's say

in cities or in the urban setting so we

aim to do this to bring this enhancement

of self-awareness identity reintegration

using metrics of briefing sleeping

patterns importance of physical activity

physiological parameters to the firm

setting and ideally in the future

integrate this with pmap so we can have

this correlation of how both people and

animals and the environment has been

taken for at the

firm and um we see this working at the

supply chain in uh four level program so

would be a first step to get to know the

supply chain through the simple and

comprehensive Diagnostics then establish

tailored Improvement programs for each

profile report status commitments and

progress for both consumers and

investors or other stakeholders and

finally we can bring this enhancement to

farm to

Communications and Care better for the

people the animals and the environment

so our business model is an annual

subscription for this corporate clients

and we we stab we establish this we

standardize the the cost of this as one

liter of milk per firm per year for the

this corporate client um taking as

reference an economic indicator of milk

prices in

Brazil and um just uh as we're reaching

the end here so as I mentioned we have a

lot of indicators carbon footprint meain

emission intensity Animal Welfare

productivity among many others at the

firm and we have all these players right

the people the animals nature and

community and the question we we keep

asking ourselves and that we want to

contribute contribute to answer is that

um each of us as individuals as

consumers as Farmers as uh stakeholders

of the industry that were ready to take

action

um from a real purpose of making our

dairies more sustainable and the milk

will produce um ever more present on the

on the table of the consumers so thank

you again for the opportunity and was

really nice talking to

you thank you so much Bruna um we do we

might for a short question if anyone has

one yeah sure yeah thank you so much

Bruna uh just wondering whether um there

are specific aspects of your um that the

different apps that you've developed

that uh make it uh particularly well

suited to to Brazil do you think it will

work in other um countries or is that

not necessarily part of the

plan um it can totally work at other

countries so for example for welfare we

followed the standards that are usually

applied in Brazil um but it is as I I

said an in-house development so it can

also be tailored to other countries and

maybe we we won't have the exact same

tool on two countries um exact same

questions but we can for sure with some

research um established scores that

would be equivalent for countries with

different practices let's say Brazil

compost burns are very common but if you

go to New Zealand we most likely would

have to have a lot of questions on

pasture so just as a general example and

for the the holistic sustainability

score I mentioned we used as reference

the da sustainability framework 11

criteria so that's um I would say the

one that is more ready

to uh to be applied um globally yeah and

our carbon footprint too as well we

would just have to change databases for

um each country's specific inventories

okay and do you on board uh Farmers like

um do you have to go and and help on

board people to your app or they tend

to um they're very user friendly so um

they've been able to do it on their own

but a model we've been working on is um

collaborating with Consulting companies

so we can train the the nutritionist or

the the vet or anyone that works on the

herd and they can can help the producer

apply the the solutions this been the

best model so

yeah all right thank you very much Bruna

unfortunately we are out of time so we

can't do any more questions but we

really appreciate you taking the time to

present this to us it was super

interesting to hear um so we'll spend

the next couple of days doing a review

of all these pictures that we're hearing

and you can definitely expect to hear

from us sometime next week so again

thank you for coming to speak to us and

good luck perfect thank you for the

opportunity right bye bye