HORTICITY

SHORT DESCRIPTION: Horticity is a commercial company founded in 2006 in Padova (Italy) and nowadays has its headquarters in the city of Bologna. The company is composed of seven associates: university and private researchers, agriculture professionals and trainers, teachers. All the associates are variously involved in urban agriculture and social farming. The core activity of Horticity is to design and develop innovative products and solutions for urban agriculture and ecology. Research and education activities are an important part of the company, as well as training and international cooperation, both in the field of research and education and in the field of social cooperation (food security). Improve diet thanks to self-production and reduction of food expense for low income people, is one of the goals of the company, as well as, from an ecological point of view, the construction of green corridors in the cities.

ACTIVITIES: International projects; small horizontal and vertical gardens, for private citizens, commercial companies or municipalities; small recycled hydroponic systems for household ("Hortilla: the bottle garden" a recycled little Hydroponic system for home herb production). Handicraft, the use of recycled materials and growing systems with high content in knowledge and technology (e.g. remote controlled hydroponic systems) characterise the products and solutions offered by Horticity. In the cooperation projects in which Horticity is involved (in Brazil, Peru, Mauritania, Burkina Faso, Ivory Coast and Myanmar, etc.)the focus is in the components of research and experimentation, collective farming, education, social inclusion, sustainability, gender equality and women's empowerment.

RELEVANT DIMENSIONS: Inner city, social inclusion, building bound (rooftop), multiple products and services

BUSINESS MODELS: Differentiation; experimental; shared economy