Karibati, a cooperative and participatory company (SCOP), is a young, innovative company born from the conviction that the buildings of tomorrow will incorporate plants to achieve high performance at every level (energy, comfort, environment, circular economy, etc.). It has just completed its first three years of operation. It currently comprises a team of six people, including expert engineers and more general positions (finance, business development, and external relations). Karibati’s business is based on our knowledge of the entire bio-based construction materials and products sector.Derived from plant and animal biomass, bio-based materials are increasingly used in the construction sector. Approximately 10% of thermal insulation projects now include bio-based solutions. We provide our expertise through research and consulting services to businesses and communities, in order to develop innovative solutions or to develop strategies for and with any player in the entire bio-sourced building value chain, who wishes to innovate, develop or live better thanks to bio-sourced materials for buildings: local authorities, agricultural cooperatives, material sectors and manufacturers, real estate players, etc.
Through our awareness-raising and training initiatives, we also strive to combine entrepreneurship and civic responsibility by working to increase the visibility of bio-based sectors in construction. The !MPACT competition (sponsored by the Ministry of Ecological and Inclusive Transition and the Ministry of Territorial Cohesion), dedicated to bio-based architecture and which we are organizing for the third year, illustrates our commitment to this goal. Indeed, the competition’s primary objective is to raise awareness and familiarize future architects and specifiers with the use of bio-based materials in construction.
We are also committed to giving pride of place to innovation: the bio-based sector is full of initiatives combining technology and the circular economy! In December 2016, Karibati was a winner of the Ministry’s GreenTech initiative thanks to its PEPIN BIO project (Environmental Performance of Innovative, Natural, Bio-based Products). The aKacia tool, currently under development, is the result of this project. It will allow manufacturers and sectors of bio-sourced products and materials to produce Environmental and Health Declaration Sheets (EHDS) for their products, simply and at low cost, via an online platform. These sheets, which have become mandatory, are traditionally very expensive to produce and require the intervention of an external service provider, which constitutes a barrier for a large number of VSEs and SMEs manufacturing bio-sourced materials.
This tool will be available to manufacturers of bio-based insulation and concrete by the end of 2018. For the few interested manufacturers, it is now possible to become a project partner and benefit from the creation of two FDES at low cost, by integrating product data into the tool.
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