Ridder is this year’s winner of the Energy Globe Award in the Netherlands. An international jury awarded Ridder for the development of Ridder NoNa+, an innovative selective sodium removal solution that allows greenhouse growers to minimize their water footprint.

The Energy Globe Award provides a podium for innovative solutions that tackle the world’s most pressing environmental problems of our time like resource scarcity, air and water pollution, erosion, climate change or dependence on fossil fuels. Even though these solutions are readily available, they often remain unknown to the public. Energy Globe gives them a voice and presents them to a larger audience to make them visible and encourage others to come up with their own innovative solution.

The jury of the Energy Globe Award praised Ridder for its commitment to develop ‘a sustainable initiative for a sustainable future’. Ridder’s NoNa+ is the industry’s first cost-efficient sodium-removal solution that removes harmful sodium levels from drain water and enables emission free cultivation thanks to a unique combination of selective membrane and electrodialysis technology. This innovative system minimizes the loss of expensive fertilizers and makes it possible to remove sodium without adding other minerals. Applying the Ridder NoNa+ in the irrigation system makes it possible to recirculate the irrigation water for a complete growing season.

Ridder’s Chief Innovation Officer Joep van den Bosch is delighted with the recognition of the Energy Globe Award. “Winning the GreenTech Innovation Award in 2019 and a Sival Innovation Award in 2020 confirmed the urgency of our solution by our own horticulture industry. However, winning an Energy Globe Award is very special as this is a public award. It is very rewarding that our solution is also recognized by others outside of our industry and that it serves as an inspiration for other innovators to secure the future of our planet.”