Tapio guides companies on the way to a sustainable future

The Brussels investment fund Innoviris has given 500,000 euros of support to the Brussels-based start-up Tapio. The start-up is striving for a world where every company is able to tackle its CO₂ emissions by themselves. The company provides software that allows companies to act on and commit to global CO₂ neutrality. The company develops tools that guide companies every step of the way towards sustainability. Louis Collinet of Tapio talks more about it in this installment of Start-up of the day.

How did the idea for Tapio come about?

“We help companies that want to incorporate environmental issues around the climate into their development strategy. Many companies want to act, but often don’t know where to start. They are faced with a whole host of questions, on the one hand about market expectations, regulations and on relevant data. On the other hand, where CO₂ reduction itself is concerned, they’ve got plenty of questions about the potential reduction of their emissions and communication surrounding this all.

It is up to our generation to respond to this. So we genuinely try to provide solutions. They can be simple solutions, we then help companies integrate them into their businesses. For example, we advise them to take the train or cycle if they have to travel. We work in a variety of fields, such as energy and waste. We do this through workshops and webinars.”

What solutions do you offer?

“With the help of CO₂ experts, data engineers and software developers, we have designed a solution that enables companies to manage their own climate strategy. This ranges from measuring their emissions, to implementing concrete solutions to cut down on these. With an emphasis on the importance of integrating business partners, who on average account for more than 80 percent of emissions. We want to help make the entire supply chain and ecosystem carbon-free this way. By doing this, a company can multiply its impact on the climate and create a virtual network of sustainable companies. By using our solution, each company can play its own role in the ecological transition.”

So you think the solution should come from companies. Why is that?

“We do indeed believe that the solution to climate change must come from companies themselves. We want every company to be able to do its part in this and we’re making that possible through the use of technology. Ultimately, they have to do it themselves. We can only offer them advice.”

Recently, you received a grant from Innoviris

“Thanks to Innoviris and their ISA program, we are able to significantly accelerate the development of our tools by leveraging ArtificiaI Intelligence (AI). This is a great opportunity and our team is really enthusiastic about it. It will allow us to go even further and invest more.”

What are your plans for the future?

“We have a solid foundation to take the next step. We want to expand the number of partners we work with from 1,000 to 10,000. And we want to have a global impact and keep on innovating. We will also continue to focus on AI. As part of the ISA project, Tapio wants to automate the creation of impact networks and subsequent recommendations, using AI and Machine Learning technology and climate data as key levers in the process. This is how we want to make even more progress with the development of our action plans.”