On Fish Condos and Sexy Concrete: Insights Into Changing an Industry
Dr. Shimrit Perkol-Finkel, co-founder and CEO of ECOncrete Tech Ltd, shares ways to ensure success on the journey into transforming an industry.
When I started studying marine biology, I didn’t imagine that I would be a co-founder of a start-up, managing a global team and disrupting the coastal construction industry (neither did my husband). I established ECOncrete with Dr Ido Sella. ECOncrete is a science based technology that enhances the growth of marine plants and animals on concrete, while increasing the strength and longevity of structures like breakwaters, seawalls and piers.
The general concept of enhancing life on functional man made structures came even before I finished my PhD. After spending years exploring urban marine environments across the globe, I’ve noticed the problematic nature of concrete in the marine environment. It seemed to stay barren and without life for decades after construction. I became passionate about finding a solution. But, tweaking concrete, designated to function for 30, 50 or even 100 years, without compromising its strength isn’t trivial. Our passion led us to an untouched industry, and from there, we had to figure things out along the way, one step at a time. Here are a few things that made this successful:
1. Go for it!
So what if it’s challenging? It’s the right thing to do, so go for it. I knew that we needed to change the way people build along the coastlines. Especially with the accelerated increase in human population along our coastlines, and with climate change impacts sinking our cities and hitting our waterfronts harder and more frequently than ever. So we did. We took it one step at a time, learning about the business world and the crazy life of entrepreneurs as we go. We’ve never stopped to question if this was crazy or think about how it takes over our lives (and it does).
2. Be creative
I honestly think that not having an official business education is a part of the ECOncrete magic. Two passionate scientists taking on two super conservative industries — concrete and coastal construction. We had to be creative to make concrete sexy for marine plants and animals that will live on our concrete, and to people who need to make a decision to buy it. It is important to think outside of the box and combine components from different disciplines. We use materials and production processes that are far from traditional for the industry, like a concrete fusion cuisine. We mixed ecological and engineering considerations to make “fish condos”, an integral part of coastal construction.
We’ve also leveraged our scientific work to what turned out to be a great global marketing campaign. Our main validation experiment spanned 2 years and was conducted simultaneously in the Red Sea, Mediterranean Sea, and across the East coast of the US. It got great press as each place wanted to share that they are taking part in this experiment with this new cool company. So here’s our tip for all of you — be creative. Channel your creativity to make a difference, talk about it and get great press as an added bonus! For this, it was great to get recognition by Fast Company as one of their 100 most creative people in business in 2019.
3. Spread the word
When introducing an innovation in a market that doesn’t really exist when you start — make sure you make a lot of noise. In our case, bio enhancing concrete and the general concept of ecological enhancement of coastal and marine infrastructure was completely unknown. In fact, people saw marine life on structures as a nuisance, let alone think about enhancing it. We had to talk to a lot of people and be in a lot of places to get the word out. To effectively spread the word you must be proactive. Look for relevant networking events and never be a flower on the wall, instead, always raise your hand and ask a question in a conference, stop at least 3 new people and talk to them about what you do — I assure you, they will have some ideas for you and introduce you to more people.
What made it easier was the fact that people instantly fell in love with our mission. Literally every meeting in the early days ended up with people opening their contact list and sharing a whole bunch of contacts that we really must meet. I remember I was amazed to hear that soon enough landscape architects and engineers in NY told me they’ve heard about ECOncrete from three different people within a month. Mouth to mouth. Nothing viral (and we are based in Tel Aviv!).
4. Innovate or perish
When trying to make a change in traditional industries, you must innovate in order to make a change. Especially with big companies — it’s innovate or perish, that’s where you can offer solutions. For example, it’s not easy to make concrete “sexy” to marine life and make it stronger at the same time. We had to come up with innovative technologies that help us mimic nature. We’ve drawn inspiration from corals, oysters, and mangroves in our product designs. This makes them effective biologically, and typically beautiful. We’ve also mimicked complete habitats, like our Tide Pools Armor, that mimic rock pool habitats. This is one of my favorite products, works amazingly, which is probably why it won the Global Biomimicry Design Challenge.
The beauty is that by bringing the concrete to life, we also make the concrete stronger and more durable. But, this is only the beginning of the environmentally sensitive revolution. We still have a long way to go. We need to change regulations and policies to make these new technologies woven into the everyday activities of ports and working waterfronts across the globe. To really make an impact and take a topic or industry that is standard or even boring, you need to take concrete action (pun intended), get creative, use innovation to make a change, and make sure people hear about it.
Dr. Shimrit Perkol-Finkel is the co-founder and CEO of ECOncrete Tech Ltd, a world leader in bio-enhancing concrete technologies that provide for the first time both superior strength and ecological benefits. Shimrit has over 20 years of experience in the field of Marine Biology and Ecology, diving and exploring different environments in over 30 counties. She co-founded ECOncrete in 2012 and serves as CEO and chief scientist since. ECOncrete was honored as a #10 most innovative company in its region by Fast Company, and #13 of the top 50 women led companies by Forbes magazine. Shimrit was selected as a We Empower awardee in 2018 for her achievements in advancing UN Sustainable Development Goals, representing UN region Western Europe and Other (including NA, NZ, and IL). This May, she was awarded the prestigious EU Women Innovators award, was chosen as Forward Actor of the Year in the 2019 GreenTech Festival, and was noted as one of Fast Company’s 2019 top 100 Most Creative People in Business.
