City Farm Systems was nominated for the 2024 Earthshot Prize by US based Impact Entrepreneur. We are a UK based green-tech company founded on a simple principle: improving resource efficiency by Growing closer to the Consumer. Producing more fruit and vegetables at the point of need reduces supply chain costs, emissions, builds local food security and hands shelf life to the consumer. Our mission is to utilise our agritech equivalent of the solar PV panel that make this a viable and affordable reality for communities and businesses in urban areas.
Our approach repurposes unused spaces such as rooftops with lightweight glasshouses that take advantage of natural sunlight and capture the building’s CO2. Many other hydroponic growers depend on a dizzying arrays of LED grow-lights and costly CO2 generators in their attempt to grow crops as fast as possible all year round – producing big yields with an even bigger price-tag. Our data-driven systems can pace growing to respond to seasonal demands while providing an optimised growing environment for a huge variety of crops and ornamentals with a much lower cost per growing unit.
By taking advantage of the resources already available on rooftops (rain, sunlight, and air handling units) CFS makes hydroponic growing economically and environmentally sustainable, helping to build urban resilience and make locally grown food affordable on the road to Net Zero.