KILDARE: Meet the Naas firm involved in a landmark sustainable businesses programme

A company located in Naas has been selected to join the Accelerate Green programme, which was developed by Bord na Móna (BNM).

HUB360, which was co-founded by John O’Neill and Denise O’Kelly, is a software platform that aims to optimise logistics, with a particular focus on reducing carbon emissions, for companies that use their own delivery fleet or third-party hauliers to deliver their goods.

Denise was inspired to become an entrepreneur in order 'to engage in meaningful work that has a tangible impact on businesses and clients, delivering significant returns on their technology investment', while John was inspired to become an entrepreneur as he ‘had the drive to take charge of his own work destiny to create and build a product that would make a difference’.

HUB360’s goals include reducing carbon emissions in the heavy-duty vehicle industry, and to solve inefficiencies in picking and loading services.

John and Denise work with manufacturers who are supplying directly to customers, either via their own fleet of drivers and trucks or through subcontractors to streamline the labour-intensive management process.

According to the duo, due to the industry’s focus on manual paper-based transactions with little measurable transparency, there are major inefficiencies across all stages of the delivery process, including the management of fuel consumption — "For example, the scheduling and routing of deliveries may not be optimised, the trucks may not be full or there may be idle time while drivers are waiting to offload."

As such, they both aim to overcome this issue through HUB360.

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GREEN INNOVATION

Accelerate Green is an accelerator programme designed for businesses innovating in the sustainable climate solutions space, which is being delivered by BNM in conjunction with Resolve Partners.

The goal of Accelerate Green is to support companies interested in scaling or developing products and services based on green innovation.

Sharon Doyle, Head of Corporate Affairs at BNM, said about the programme: "Supporting green innovators through Accelerate Green is a top priority for us at Bord na Móna.

"We are currently on a path to continue expanding our renewable energy solutions to support Ireland's sustainable energy requirements by 2030, with a longer-term goal of supporting our national ambition of achieving new zero emissions by 2050."

She added: “These goals cannot be reached without the growth and support of energy-conscious and environmentally sustainable companies, and the Accelerate Green participants are leading the way in this field.”

The seven other companies involved with the programme are: NanobOx, Hibra Design, HaPPE Earth, Superfy, Trinity Green Energy, EC Charging, and CW Applied.

HUB360 is supported by Enterprise Ireland, the Local Enterprise Office and the DCU Ryan Academy.

Further information about HUB360 can be found at https://www.hub360.ie/.