2019 is over, happy 2020!

This has been a crazy year, so we really want use this occasion to thank all of you who have supported us all from the start and throughout 2019. It being you using your own money (!) to fund plastic waste clean ups and job creation around the world (you are true Plastic Heroes empowering other plastic heroes!) or through partnerships bringing deposit systems out to more people and markets, or sharing your competence, experiences and providing moral support. It all makes a HUGE DIFFERENCE to us.

Without all of this we would not be able to move the way we have been or have the opportunities to reach as broadly as we have. So we’ll start this of with another big THANK YOU!

Hamarapur cleanup with Indias Barn, March 2019

Then, the other crazy part that follows from your (very positively) crazy support; these are some of the Empower highlights from 2019:

1. Collected ca 90 tons of plastic waste in 2019, up from roughly 10 tons collected in 2018
2. Collected plastic waste & introduced digital deposit systems in 16 countries in Europe, Asia & Africa by end 2019, up from 7 countries in 2018
3. Established first permanent collection point in India, outside Mumbai with Indias Barn, expanding in 2020
4. Launched Worlds First Deposit system for snusboxes with Swedish Match in Norway in February → Today 22 stations in Norway and Sweden! The Swedish Match 2019 pilot keeps going into 2020
5. Record Breaking collection and registration of plastic waste in December 2019 → 65 tons of plastic waste
6. We have collected more than 20 million water pouches and about 15 000 snusboxes in 2019
7. Registered the first waste management companies and plastic waste into our global registry & tracking system
8. Did the worlds first blockchain driven Arctic beach cleanup together with Arctic Whale
9. Top 10 solutions to plastic waste in EU 2019, EUSIC
10. Top 25 global scalable solutions to the SDGs, to be showcased at EXPO 2020
11. Top 50 global innovators 2019, CODEX
12. Shortlisted for Top 10 sustainability innovations, UNESCO awards 2019
13. Top 100 Norrsken Foundation Nordic Startups 2019
14. Top 111 tech companies in Nordics & Baltics 2019, Picante
15. Won the Battle of Startups by French-Norwegian chamber of commerce and soft landing with BNP Paribas in Paris
16. Top 12 global Finalists in the MIT Tiger Challenge presenting scalable solutions to fight poverty in Bangladesh
17. Selected for the ASHOKA accelerator, working closely with Accenture and Nordea to build system change and sustainable impact
18. Selected to speak at Our Ocean 2019 conference in Oslo
19. Got the European Seal of Excellense — H2020 SME
20. Went from 1 impact product (products that fund clean up of more plastic waste than they contain and creates jobs around the World) with New Movements in 2018, to more than 10 impact products in 2019 (with great partners like Akuna, Revie, Ren Røros, Vallon, Atlas, James Ay, Bluewater and more..) and companies in 7 countries
21. Went from 0 employees in 2018 to 10 in 2019 (growth pains here we come!)
22. Mentions in articles/communication/reports by Veolia, Orange, Forbes, Waste360, Sustainable Brands, INSEAD/CocaCola, MIT, Kapital, NRK, Finansavisen, DN and more
23. Developing Marine Litter Collection Point Software for Oslo Kommune in 2020, more info to come!
24. Formalised partnerships & pilots with Orkla & Klar → increasing activity in 2020 with exciting pilots and work towards a circular economy
25. First Plastic Positive Major Events with Gullruten & PWC, in addition to the amazing EcoViking Triathlon and X2 Festival!
26. Participated in handful of film & media projects (you’ll probably see something of this soon)
27. Established several strategic partnerships that will bring exciting news in 2020, bringing recycled plastic and deposit systems to new products and waste management to new countries and regions — there is still a lot to come (and it’s needed!)
28. Established Empower Clean City (20% ownership) as a strategic partner & solution for smart cities and cleanup events
29. Participated in the winning applications POCO Plast with Sintef, and the MRC Arena with several companies working on marine pollution. Excited to see the outcomes of these projects!
30. Closed our first Share Issue — getting professional investors in and starting our real scale-up phase :-)

These are some of the highlights from an amazing year, a lot more has happened. Perhaps most importantly, throughout the year we kept interacting with a steadily growing global community of passionate individuals, businesses and government officials, all working towards a circular economy and sustainable future. Together we can make a difference, together we will make a difference.

We hope everyone has had a great 2019 and that we keep turning the tide in 2020, making this the decade where the world goes sustainable, for real, with real impact!

Join us at www.empower.eco and we’ll push a better world together :)