Digital transformation is growing an agricultural revolution 100 feet under the streets of London. British startup Growing Underground saw an abandoned air raid tunnel under the streets of London as an opportunity to experiment with ways to feed a growing population without increasing our carbon footprint. The tunnels were never built for the production of food, yet they are an ideal place for growing greens that are water and energy efficient, and pesticide free. Designed with insulation to keep people safe, the climate in the tunnels also enables the space to retain optimal heat. The urban farmers use a program from an environmental software company called Priva that runs on a Microsoft operating system and it controls everything: from the LEDs to the ventilation system to the humidity. Every element that’s needed to control the environment. They also use Surface Pros and OneNote to share information as well as everything from Excel for spreadsheets to PowerPoint for investor presentations.
“For a start-up like ours, Microsoft Office is the essence of how we communicate.” If you ever find yourself at a farmer’s market in London, grab some fresh peas and consider a future that no one could have imagined in 1941. And imagine the benefits of growing food anywhere: abandoned mines, under the desert, anywhere.
@Drnatalie petouhoff
Covering Digital Transformation, IOT and Customer Experience
