TWO Scottish businesses have been chosen from 26 finalists in a Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) initiative to help the banking group cut energy and water consumption and waste generation.
The firms, Livingston-based Sunamp and Perth's Glaze and Save, were two of the 16 organisations chosen as part of the RBS Innovation Gateway, which also aims to foster new concepts and help local innovators and SMEs bring their ideas to market more quickly.
It launched in March and attracted more than 140 entries in 40 days from around the world, ranging from new concepts to market-ready products and services.
The two Scottish firms were selected in the market-ready category and will be allowed to test their products in RBS properties.
Impressing the judges, who included Maggie Philbin, CEO of Teen Tech and former presenter of Tomorrow's World, were Sunamp's innovative, high-efficiency Sunamp Heat Batteries, heat energy stores that have been developed with the University of Edinburgh to store between four and 16 times more heat than hot water tanks of the same size.
Also chosen was Glaze and Save's bespoke magnetic secondary glazing that the company supplies and installs for homes and businesses with sash and case or draughty windows.
Marcela Navarro, head of customer innovation at RBS and leader of the project, said all the finalists did a "brilliant" job and she was looking forward to seeing their products in RBS.
She added that the project is very valuable, saying: "We know small businesses and innovators can struggle to get the opportunity to pitch their ideas to larger corporates, which means they struggle to get the chance to prove their brilliant ideas can work."
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