Essex Business Wins £40,000 Climate Change Innovation Prize

2009-02-25 12:28:55

A Chelmsford based business with a big idea for tackling climate change has won a Shell Springboard award of £40,000 giving their business a valuable boost in a programme designed to promote the growth of the low carbon economy in the UK.

Ma (Innovation) 2T4 Ltd received the award for its mechanism that makes green, hybrid cars with smaller engines even more fuel efficient and powerful. The Supercharger Air Hybrid uses the energy created from braking the car to power the downsized engine, which means a more powerful drive for less carbon emissions. Fitting one of these devices to your hybrid car could produce a substantial fuel efficiency improvement, with up to a 40 per cent reduction in CO₂ emissions compared with a standard car.

Left to Right Jonathan Ma, Duncan MacLeod, Tom Ma & Karen Lawrence

Shell Springboard gives a financial boost to innovative, commercially viable business ideas that tackle climate change.  The programme encourages a positive business response to the challenge of climate change by providing a no-strings financial boost to small ideas with innovative products and services that could help reduce greenhouse gas emissions and really make a difference.

Jonathan Ma, Business Development Director of Ma (Innovation) 2T4 Ltd said: “We’re very grateful to Shell and the judging panel for the work they’ve put into the Springboard programme and are ecstatic to have won the award.  The funding will be transformational for our business and we hope to be able to report back soon on our success in the global market and the CO₂ savings we have generated.”

Duncan Macleod, VP Hydrogen & GTL, Shell International Ltd said: “Congratulations to Jonathan Ma and Ma (Innovation) 2T4 Ltd. The Supercharger Air Hybrid not only has genuine commercial potential but could also have a significant impact on the UK’s carbon emissions. It’s this kind of cutting-edge innovation that has made the UK a world leader in low carbon technology investment. In a difficult economic climate, it has become more important than ever that we continue to foster such independent entrepreneurialism which is so crucial to the UK economy in the long term.”

Jonathan Ma & Tom Ma from Ma 2T4 Ltd

According to Shell Springboard’s Race Against the Carbon Pound report the UK’s ‘green’ companies attracted over £1billion of venture capital and private equity investment in 2007: 41% of the EU total.  This makes the UK the European leader when it comes to attracting venture capital and private equity investment in low carbon technologies, second only to the United States worldwide.

Ma (Innovation) 2T4 Ltd competed against eight businesses from across the region on 24th February 2009 in London and will now compete to be named as the overall UK winner in London on the 3rd of March.

Juice Technology Ltd, based in Hertfordshire, and Alertme.com Ltd in Cambridge also received awards of £40,000, and will go forward with Ma (Innovation) 2T4 Ltd to the UK final on the 3rd of March.