ENOUGH review recent Plenitude project activity
IBioIC member Enough co-ordinates a large CBE-JU consortium project – Plenitude. On June 30 Plenitude hosted a webinar “The untapped role of fungi in sustainability”. This webinar was targeted at a public audience and featured ground-breaking work pioneered by European and North American fungi companies in the fields of sustainable architecture, human nutrition, packaging, waste clean-up, and clothing.
The event was well attended, with 472 Facebook event registrations and 396 Eventbrite ticket sales. In total, the Facebook event alone reached 11,318 people as of July 8.
The webinar began with opening remarks from Danielle Stevenson, an applied mycologist and a PhD Candidate at University of California, Riverside. Danielle highlighted the principles of sustainability and introduced how fungi can contribute to environmental, social and economic sustainability.
Phil Ayres showcased the technology development progress of fungal architectures (FUNGAR), a H2020 funded project). As well as offering a sustainable alternative to the ½ of European raw materials currently used in building, fungal architecture offers an exciting opportunity to rethink architectural design in the context of greater merging of natural and man-made structures.
Inspired by her work at the other end of the building industry, Joanne Rodriguez of Mycocycle discussed the role that fungi can play in breaking down toxic contaminants that prevent recycling of building materials. Excitingly, Mycocycle has a demonstrated cost-effective productive which is ready to make impact at scale.
Driven by the same sustainability mission but in a different sector, Gavin McIntyre of Ecovative and Forager talked about fungal clothing, food, packaging and beauty products. Gavin also talked about the shift from disbelief about the many sustainability applications of fungi to excitement about realising its potential.
Craig Johnston of ENOUGH, a mycoprotein company representing the BBI-JU/ CBE flagship project Plenitude, discussed fungi’s role as a sustainable food source. Mycoprotein is healthy, low emissions, uses fewer natural resources than livestock alternatives and is compatible with a zero-waste production process. He also discussed their new 10,000te sustainable protein facility about to be completed in the Netherlands.
The event concluded with a panel discussion and closing remarks by Peter McCoy of Mycologos and Radical Mycology. The panel highlighted interesting parallels across industries of needing to scale, account for contamination of fungi during production and the need for wider awareness of the many benefits of fungi. Peter complimented these conclusions with reflections about what we can all learn from fungi and how to accelerate its adoption in sustainability and more broadly.
The webinar recording can be viewed at The untapped role of fungi in sustainability
Links to participants webpages:
· Danielle Stevenson, DIY Fungi https://diyfungi.blog/
· Phil Ayres, Fungal Architectures/ FUNGAR https://www.fungar.eu/
· Joanne Rodriguez, Mycocycle https://mycocycle.com/
· Gavin McIntyre, Ecovative https://www.ecovative.com/
· Craig Johnston, ENOUGH https://www.enough-food.com/ and Plenitude https://www.plenitude-bbi.com/
· Peter McCoy, MYCOLOGOS https://mycologos.world/ and Radical Mycology https://www.radicalmycology.com/