Pedro Glória, entrepreneur from StartUp Portimão, from Algarve, won the 1st prize in the Green Up program for his SWRS project, an innovative system for reusing gray water for toilet flushing, which saves around 30% of drinking water without the need for works .
This competition, promoted by the Creative Territories and by Turismo de Portugal, began with a roadshow by national tourism schools, with more than 40 hours of masterclasses on sustainable development goals. After receiving 130 applications, 38 projects were selected.
Born in Lagos, where he was born 46 years ago, Pedro Glória presented the SWRS, an innovative system for the reuse of gray water for toilet flushing, which saves around 30% of drinking water without the need for works. prototype production for testing and improvement.
The Grand Final of Green Up took place online from Coruche on the 27th of January, with Pedro Glória's project having won 1st prize, in the amount of 4 thousand euros, among seven finalists.
The decision to distinguish the StartUp Portimão entrepreneur was made by an internationally renowned jury, composed by Cristina Salsinha (innovation project manager from Turismo de Portugal), Isabel Neves (vice-president of FNABA), Jean Pierre Baronet (consultant), Odyle Cardoso (administrator of Banco Millennium Atlântico) and Pedro de Mello Breyner (member of the executive board of Portugal Ventures).
A full-time musician since 2007, the disastrous effects of Covid-19 led to the suspension of professional activity and forced Pedro Glória to rethink his life plans, with StartUp Portimão emerging as the most valid possibility of putting environmentalist notions into practice with the which it has been identified for a long time, namely permaculture.
For the rest, environmental issues have always deserved his special attention, to the point that, in recent years, he has attended conferences and various training courses in the areas of hydrology, sustainability and circular economy, among others.
With the SWRS project, the entrepreneur intends to apply the concepts of permaculture to the urban environment, a social and environmental science that combines scientific knowledge with traditional and popular knowledge, thus ensuring the permanence of human beings as a species on planet Earth.
According to Pedro Glória, being part of the Portimonense business incubator since May allowed him to find motivation not to give up, highlighting the importance of mentoring, meetings and other initiatives in which he participates in raising his spirits in these unstable times.
A municipal project just over three years old, StarUp Portimão arose from the objective of promoting entrepreneurship and innovation in the municipality, creating jobs and settling people in the territory, providing the environment and essential services for business development.
This bet by the Municipality of Portimão currently has 20 incubated startups (physically and virtually), 85% of which in the area of SmartCities. It brings together more than 45 regional, national and international partners, which contribute to this entrepreneurial ecosystem becoming more and more a reality in the Algarve region.
StartUp Portimão was recently one of the EPA winners – European Enterprise Promotion Awards, an initiative of the European Commission that aims to distinguish the best practices in promoting entrepreneurship.
The Algarve incubator took second place in the category of business environment development, with the project Portugal Site Selection, with the national competition for these awards being coordinated by IAPMEI – Agency for Competitiveness and Innovation.
Already with five non-Portuguese entrepreneurs in its ranks, one of StartUp Portimão's main objectives for this year is to attract more foreign companies, namely linked to the automotive sector, taking advantage of the potential generated by operating at the Autodromo Internacional do Algarve, the that allows proximity to major brands and clusters of potential customers.
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