Meaningful Business, a global platform for leaders combining profit and purpose, today recognizes Shely Aronov, CEO and co-founder of InnerPlant, as a Meaningful Business 100 (MB100) leader for 2021. The award program identifies and celebrates the leaders globally who are combining profit and purpose to help achieve the UN Sustainable Development Goals.
The 3rd edition of the MB100, sponsored by EY, received over 500 nominations from 75 countries following a global nomination process. Curated by an expert panel of 21 judges, each nominee was scored across five key areas: Durability, Impact, Innovation, Leadership, and Scope.
The 100 business leaders include corporate CEOs, entrepreneurs, micro-entrepreneurs, sustainability leaders, functional heads, and impact investors from 33 countries. Industries that dominate the list include healthcare, financial services, agriculture, energy, and education.
The worlds population depends on large-scale agriculture for food but the widespread, blanket use of chemicals to fertilize and control pathogens drives a cycle of increasing costs and lower yields that degrades the environment, explains Aronov. Todays recognition by the MB100 is strong validation of the values driving InnerPlant to combine a better business model for farmers with better outcomes for consumers and the environment.
Aronov founded InnerPlant in 2018 with the vision of revolutionizing farming for a growing planet by developing genetically adapted living sensors that help farmers grow plants more sustainably, cutting their reliance on pesticides and fertilizer.
Farmers routinely see up to 20% of their harvests destroyed by pathogens that could have been controlled with earlier detection and more responsive, plant-specific interventions. InnerPlants approach to collecting data directly from plants and its use of advanced algorithms to process the data provides plant-by-plant status thats impractical using external sensors.
InnerPlant delivers this unprecedented flow of data by tapping plants natural defenses. Plants have evolved sophisticated defense mechanisms to protect themselves from environmental stresses. InnerPlant piggybacks on these signals by adding a safe protein, long studied for human consumption, to plants capabilities. When plants are thirsty, short of nutrients, or under attack by pests or fungi, they generate different optical signals that can be seen in daylight using common optical filters on devices ranging from an iPhone or tractor to a satellite.
Congratulations to Shely Aronov for being included in this years MB100, representing the best of what business and social innovation can be, says Tom Lytton-Dickie, founder and CEO of Meaningful Business. These leaders are dedicating their work to tackling the worlds most pressing issues, providing hope and inspiration to us all.
Meaningful Business is devoted to creating a unified platform for these leaders to collaborate and share knowledge in order to amplify their positive impact in support of the UN 2030 agenda.
“It was an honor to join the judging panel for the Meaningful Business 100 award, adds Stasia Mitchell, EYs Global Entrepreneurship Leader. I truly believe that todays most innovative leaders are those who are driven by purpose to impact, looking to achieve long-term value for the world with a focus on diversity, equity, and inclusiveness. This group represents all of that and more. Congratulations to the class of 2021.
Todays award comes on the heels of InnerPlants recent launch of InnerCircle – a network of highly experienced, highly successful farmers collaborating to influence the future of seed technology.
Find out more about 2021 MB100, here: https://meaningful.business/mb-100-2021/
About Inner Plant
InnerPlant is a team of agronomists, scientists, and entrepreneurs creating living plant sensors that alert farmers to crop stresses, like pathogens and a lack of water or nutrients – allowing farmers to mitigate problems weeks before they affect an entire field. Founded in 2018 by Shely Aronov and Rod Kumimoto, their team of seasoned food entrepreneurs and scientists uses millions of years of Mother Natures R&D and a protein extensively studied for safety as a food additive to help plants send signals that farmers can use to boost yields, increase profits, and preserve the environment. For more information visit: innerplant.com
About Meaningful Business
Meaningful Business is a curated network of progressive leaders across the world, who are combining purpose and profit to help achieve the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The platform is focused on content creation, knowledge sharing, and meaningful connections, bringing leaders together across geography, industry, role, and company size, to share and collaborate, resulting in meaningful impact. The community consists of Founders, CEOs, Impact Investors, Sustainability leaders, Humanitarian leaders, and academics across 90+ countries, representing 50 industries. To know more, visit: https://meaningful.business/
About EY
EY exists to build a better working world, helping to create long-term value for clients, people, and society and build trust in the capital markets.
EY Ripples, the EY global corporate responsibility program, sets forth a vision to positively impact one billion lives by 2030. Through EY Ripples, individuals and organizations in the EY network can create a positive impact by supporting the next generation workforce, working with impact entrepreneurs, and accelerating environmental sustainability.
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Media Contact
Sean Yokomizo
Media Relations/Communications, InnerPlant
sean.yokomizo@innerplant.com
925.878.1200
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