Environmental protection is a major responsibility of every person in the world. With the alarming rate of deforestation threatening our planet’s biodiversity and climate stability, it has become imperative to find innovative solutions that mitigate this environmental crisis. In this article, we discuss one such company CocoPallet a pioneering manufacturing company dedicated to sustainability and environmental conservation. Recognizing the potential of coconut husks as a renewable resource, it has manufactured pallets that we far better and affordable than one-way wooden pallets. The article is also followed by the inspiring entrepreneurial journey of Michiel Vos, who founded Cocopallet in the year 2012.
Michiel Vos: Founder of CocoPallet
Michiel Vos is an impact entrepreneur who wants to solve big problems with a circular business model. He was a Military Police Officer at the Royal Marechausse and was stationed in the Middle East during the first Gulf War in 1991. Later he worked as a project manager at PDC General Cobtarct and was a Sales Executive at DHL. He also worked as a Creative Director at Everet Stone and as a Director of Strategy & Innovation at TERGAO.
Michiel loves challenges and is interested in solving environmental problems. One such environmental problem he found to be considerable was decreasing forests. The trees in the forest were cut down for the wood and Michiel’s quest started to find alternatives to stop wasting wood. That is when he founded CocoPallet in the year 2012, it is a sustainable high-quality transport pallet that is made of coconut waste. Initially, he worked alone and later had a brilliant team that has built strong, circular, affordable Cocopalltes.
About CocoPallet
CocoPallet is a manufacturing company that uses coconut waste to produce sustainable transport pallets. The company is a visionary solution to find alternatives for wood, it was founded by Michiel Vos in the year 2012. A more affordable and sustainable pallet option than most wooden one-way export pallets from Southeast Asia. Cocopallets prevent the wastage of millions of trees and billions of coconut hust that is brunt.
The Cocopallet is made of coconut husk which is usually wasted. It reduces cost and CO2 in the supply chain. It is the perfect export pallet, produced with heat and high pressure. The design of the pallet is nested which saves 70% shipping and storage space. Pallets are 100% natural, biodegradable, and free of synthetic resins. CocoPallet can be milled and used as a soil improver. Basically from farmer to farmer taking care of all stakeholders.Fully circular, valuable as a soil improver at the end of the supply chain. The pallets are customizable, food grade, and flame retardant
The major reason to use cocopallet is it is a sustainable solution for catering to environmental pollution problems as 85% of 73 billion coconut husks are either landfilled or burned annually. It reduces deforestation as 170 million trees are cut down annually to produce wooden pallets. This also helps to reduce farmer poverty by providing income to coconut-producing farmers. The company is for now accepting pre-orders from the companies after being confirmed, pre-order customers have the opportunity to become part of the first cohort of companies using CocoPallets.
CocoPallet is been supported by different companies like Agriterra, Fraunhofer, USAID, and many more. The company has recently opened its first factory in the Philippines which can produce five million cocopallets per year. This creates $ 5 million in new income for coconut farmers. From reducing deforestation to reducing farmer poverty CocoPallet is solving the major problem of the environment.