In 2003, The United States only produced 9% of fresh greenhouse tomatoes consumed all over the country. Hence, the vast majority of such produce comes from abroad: Mexico and Canada.

The transportation of greenhouse tomatoes from outside our country causes higher carbon footprints, and food safety issues. Therefore, it will be vital for a cleaner environment to produce more greenhouse tomatoes in USA.

SEAT’s idea is to serve as a platform to distribute vegetables DIRECTLY to high end consumers/restaurants/hotels to reduce warehouse, transportation and marketing costs while reducing carbon footprint associated with tomatoes’ import processes.

In a conventional greenhouse, non-renewable fuel is used to generate heat during winter. During summer, electric power, which is generated primarily from coal, is used to run evaporative cooler. In an NZC greenhouse, solar PV system is used to generate more than sufficient electricity to power all equipments in the greenhouse during day.

NZC greenhouse technology presents an innovative design with Phase Change Material (PCM) based Thermal Energy System (TES) to conserve thermal energy.