Page 28 - Connecting cities and communities with the Sustainable Development Goals

United for Smart Sustainable Cities
Connecting cities and communities with the Sustainable Development Goals

second-hand shipping container, with a greenhouse on top. The installation demonstrates a unique and ultra-
sustainable form of aquaponics, which forms an efficient closed-loop system with just inputting fish food and
a small amount of electricity for the oxygen and the pumps into the system. The container-greenhouse
combo produces a range of fresh salads, tomatoes and herbs, as well as tilapia fish. Unlike similar aquaponics
projects, GrowUp’s plants are stacked on top of each other using a revolutionary high-density vertical
growing system and saving precious urban space. The system was built by Kate Hofman and Tom Webster
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with £16.500, contributed by over 300 supporters in early 2013. It is now located in Stratford, London.
The team organizes private and corporate tours of the box and conducts workshops for children and schools
to learn about aquaponics and sustainable food production.
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Besides the demonstration box, the company has almost 2000 m of growing space in Beckton. The farm also
includes a visitor centre allowing people to understand more about sustainable food production in cities, and
enables the business to increase its social and environmental impact in the local community and engage more
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people in learning about urban farming.

2.3 Results
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The system is 14 m and produces over 500 kg of salads and herbs and 160 kg of fish per year. At the beginning
it served local restaurants and was priced at a premium. They could now expand production since the new
farm produces more than 20 000 kg of sustainable salads and herbs and 4 000 kg of fish each year. GrowUp
is considering producing and selling additional small-scale GrowUp Box installations to fulfil requests from
local community organizers, schools and companies interested in funding social and educational activities.

Figure 2-2 – The seasonality of the grown plants and fish

15 Case Study-Aquaponics. Climate-KIC.
16 GrowUp Project

22 U4SSC series