Halifax-based social enterprise Greenii Inc. has been named a recipient of the ISANS Divert NS Grant, securing $1,500 to support its next phase of sustainable manufacturing growth.
A participant in Propel’s Fall 2024 Traction and Growth cohort, Greenii has developed semi-automatic machines to swiftly upcycle old newspapers, magazines, brochures, and flyers into paper bags without any pulping or bleaching processes.
With the Divert NS funding, Greenii will purchase a paper-cutting machine to speed up production, ensuring more precise sizing of recycled papers and reducing material waste. The company says it’s a major step toward scaling operations efficiently and sustainably.
“This grant helps us move closer to our vision of making eco-friendly packaging more accessible and efficient,” said Greenii Founder and CEO Purushothaman Cannane in a statement. “The investment in automation is a critical milestone as we continue to grow our impact.”
Greenii said it has achieved significant milestones in the last year, including:
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Producing custom bags for the City of Fredericton using recycled city maps;
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Launching production of crinkle paper shreds, reaching a yield of 100 kilograms per hour with a high-speed machine;
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Selling over 200,000 handmade newsprint paper bags to businesses and organizations committed to sustainability;
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And completing 80 percent of semi-automation processes to convert newsprint flyers into paper bags, improving production speeds by up to 10 times over manual methods.
