industrial design and product development services

Biodegradable treeguards replace plastic versions

Katapult recently had the opportunity to work with entrepreneur Humphrey Herington, a sustainably minded nurseryman from Northern NSW, on his product Gropod.

For us, this project celebrates how far expectations have come with regard to the environment and what is possible when someone has a single-minded vision to make a difference.

What may seem on face value like a simple solution was in fact quite a challenge. The competing requirements of protecting a young seedling for the first 2 years of it’s life versus the desire to have a biodegradable replacement for the existing plastic tree guards on the market made things tricky.

However we’re super proud to say that after numerous concepts, many prototypes and lots of field testing by Humphrey and his team the new Gropod Treeguards have hit the market.

They’re manufactured in Australia, faster to install, more robust and certainly less impactful on the environment than competitors and they’re at a competitive price point. Win Win.

Read more about the design process here – Gropod Treeguard

3th October 2023

Interested in developing a new product? Let's talk.