Spotted: Disposable plastics have become a crucial part of research and healthcare, especially for consumables like syringes and test tubes that need sterilisation. A lot of this laboratory and clinical plastic waste is sent to landfill or incinerated without a specialised recycling service.
This linear economy takes its toll on the environment. According to one study, lab-derived plastic waste could amount to 5.5 million tonnes a year around the globe. To address the problem, LabCycle has opened the UK’s first pilot plant that can recycle up to 60 per cent of plastic lab waste to make new lab equipment.
Members of the LabCycle team have experience working in laboratories and were shocked by the amount of single-use plastic consumables that people had to go through in their daily work lives. In response, the company developed technology that enables contaminated plastic waste to be recycled from the laboratory to manufacture lab- and medical-grade consumables, promoting a circular economy approach within the research and healthcare sectors.
After it is decontaminated, the plastic is turned into high-grade pellets the size of rice grains, which are then sent to LabCycle’s manufacturing partner to be transformed into new lab equipment like test tubes and Petri dishes. Waste doesn’t need to be sterilised beforehand, meaning less heat energy is required, and the company also specifies that water for the process can be reused, further reducing the environmental impact.
LabCycle has recently set up its pilot recycling plant in a converted greenhouse on the University of Bath campus, and will be using the plant to recycle waste from the university’s engineering and science labs. The company is also working closely with the local NHS Blood and Transplant to repurpose their plastic waste.
Single-use plastics pose a serious danger to the environment, but promoting a more circular economy can give these plastics a chance to be used again, instead of quickly being thrown into landfill. In the database, Springwise has spotted many innovations looking to boost circular practices, like trainers made from recycled waste materials or on-demand data that makes recycling easier.
Spotted: Global macroeconomic activity is putting pressure on the world’s construction industry, with growth in many regions slowing and in other areas, reversing. One method contractors and owners can use to mitigate the volatility of markets and rising costs of supplies is to reduce the amount of materials used in a build.
Many in the construction industry believe that concrete structures are frequently ‘over-designed’, meaning too much concrete is used for the purpose of the building. Constraints on time are one of the main reasons that this happens, as architects and builders would rather overdesign for safety than not use enough.
Israeli construction technology company Structure Pal has an intelligent solution. An artificial-intelligence-powered (AI) software tool provides structural engineers, project managers and designers with a range of options for the use of concrete in a project. From the type of concrete to placement and volume needed, the tool helps to reduce costs and the amount of concrete used by around 15 per cent. Use of the tool can cut design time in half, and by the end of a build, the tool can reduce construction carbon emissions by up to 30 per cent.
Designers integrate the tool into their usual building information modelling (BIM) platforms, and the AI analyses the many different configurations possible. Structure Pal’s system provides options for different loads on different levels, recommends the minimum number of columns for the required slab thickness, and ensures that each iteration of a design includes and meets local building code requirements. The Structure Pal team estimates that the software can do in one hour what it would take a civil engineer to do in four weeks.
Structure Pal offers four levels of access to the tool. There is a pay-per-project option that costs $2 (around €1.88) per square metre of a floor plan, and for larger businesses, companies can pay per 100,000 square metres, with the option to pay in advance for future projects to receive the largest discount.
Other recent innovations in concrete Springwise as spotted in the database include a light-sensitive concrete that cleans the air in road tunnels and an AI tool that optimises concrete use based on what other materials will be used in a build.
Spotted: For some time, fermentation has been used to produce pharmaceuticals like insulin and vitamins. Now, however, Portuguese startup PFx Biotech has developed a process for producing human milk proteins. The company says that its milk is genetically identical to human breast milk.
To create the milk proteins, PFx inserts the genetic information for human milk proteins into microorganisms. These are then placed in bio-reactor tanks and supplied with nutrients, where they grow and naturally produce the milk proteins. They are then purified and formulated into a fine protein powder that can be used in a variety of applications.
The next step for PFx Biotech is to commercialise its bioactive and functional human milk proteins for use as alternative protein sources in paediatric care and advanced nutrition. The company suggests that, in addition to children, the proteins could be used to improve protein uptake in the diets of the elderly and in sports nutrition.
Fermentation is increasingly being used to produce new proteins across an array of industries. In the archive, Springwise has recently spotted innovations such as the use of microorganisms for soil enhancement and the creation of plant proteins from brewing waste.
Spotted: According to the International Energy Agency (IEA), Chile is a “world-class destination for solar and wind energy developers,” in large part because of the country’s energy planning, which has helped to boost project development, especially in terms of electricity transmission. However, even in a country with such a good record, there are renewable energy applications where connecting to the grid is difficult.
With more than 50 per cent of Chile’s exports coming from mining, particularly for lithium and copper – two key components in green energy technologies – sustainable energy technology company CleanLight has created a way for heavy industry to reduce its emissions by using off-grid renewably powered lighting solutions.
With mines often located far from stable grid connections, reliable lighting and communication access have long been a challenge. CleanLight is meeting this need through Solar Towers that provide communications, lighting, and surveillance capabilities, while also providing a mobile solar generator named SolBox.
The SolBox is available in various sizes, from a 1,500-watt system with two panels up to a 9,600-watt Plus Pro system that uses eight panels. For industrial users, the eight-panel SolBox supports the most onerous power demands from construction projects to large buildings.
The technology also has domestic uses. Depending on a home’s size and power consumption, a SolBox could save owners anywhere from 40 to 80 per cent on their monthly electric bill.
CleanLight has sold 550 Solar Towers and provides a fleet of 150 towers for rent. With distribution agreements in place with large chain stores throughout Latin America, the company is in the middle of expansion across the region. A recent partnership with British Columbia company RE Royalties Ltd in the form of a loan and royalty acquisition is financing CleanLight’s expansion into North and Central America.
Bringing solar to the people through improvements in accessibility is the focus of a number of innovations in Springwise’s database, including solar panels that work in the shade and a rent-to-own solar panel service.
Spotted: Two issues that often face developing economies are a deficit in recycling infrastructure and the availability of affordable housing. Timao Group is aiming to provide an answer to both these problems through its provision of modular homes made from recycled plastic.
Timao transforms post-consumer plastic into the materials necessary to create its modular homes, like interlocking blocks, universal beams, and plastic beams. In converting the recycled plastic into generic component parts, the homes can easily be constructed and extended, crucially reducing the cost of maintenance and labour. The company also utilises turnkey delivery and installation methods to make sure that construction of the houses is as simple as possible, with the construction systems being produced off-site to then be delivered and fully assembled on-site.
The group believes in a triple-impact philosophy of its business model, meaning it aims to have a positive impact on both the social and environmental levels, without neglecting or risking economic profitability.
Earlier this year, Timao received the SME Award at the Africa Climate Summit (ACS) High-level CEOs Roundtable and more recently, was selected as a participant in the third Project NINJA accelerator programme, which will help the company scale within the Kenyan market.
The construction industry is brimming with new methods and materials to help make the homes of tomorrow more sustainable and affordable. Springwise has also spotted one company that upcycles plastic into building materials, as well as another that creates sustainable home insulation using natural wool.
London agency Blond has designed Edge Slick, a comb-style device for styling hair with a reusable handle that doubles as a hands-free applicator for hair gel.
Edge Slick is a neutral-hued edge styler created by Blond for Ruka, a UK Black women-owned business that creates hair extensions and accessories.
Edge Slick was designed by Blond for Ruka
Edge stylers are tools specifically designed to treat baby hairs, also known as edges – shorter hairs positioned at the hairline.
The product, which has been longlisted for a Dezeen Award, features a double-sided, detachable comb with soft bristles for swooping, shaping and layering and firm bristles for combing and detangling hair.
The detachable, two-sided comb comes in a range of colours
Designed to be disassembled, the comb is clipped onto an “ergonomic” paddle-shaped reusable handle.
The reusable handle also doubles as an applicator for hair gel that can be used to apply gel to the user’s wrist, saving them from using their fingers while they are styling their hair.
Edge Slick comes in recycled packaging
“When the relatively small comb reaches the end of its long lives it can be unclipped and disposed of, but crucially, the reusable handle is kept to extend the life of the product,” said Blond.
A minimalist, apple-shaped stand also comes with the edge styler, as well as packaging made from 100 per cent recycled paper pulp.
Users can also store their clip-on brushes inside a translucent sanitary protective case.
“Edge Slick addresses a gap in the hair industry for a product that caters specifically to Black afro hair, in an industry that has historically and disproportionately focussed on white aesthetics,” said Blond.
“It is the first refillable edge styler on the market, reducing plastic consumption by 86 per cent compared to its competitors,” added the agency.
It also features an apple-shaped stand
Previous hair products that were designed to push boundaries include a smart hairbrush by beauty brand L’Oréal and healthcare company Withings that tracks and scores the quality of hair.
Inventor James Dyson has created a hairdryer that is silent to human ears and controls its own temperature to protect hair from heat damage.
Spotted: Kenya has a thriving livestock industry that employs half of all agricultural workers in the country. But gaps in the cold chain contribute to large volumes of food being wasted, with Sub-Saharan Africa losing 36 per cent of all food post-harvest, and 94 per cent of that figure being caused by inefficiencies across the supply chain. With the goal of finding a way to reduce waste and improve income for local communities, Kenya-based company Baridi has created a means of using Africa’s sunshine to preserve meats.
The startup’s solar-powered cooling solutions keep fresh meats cold or frozen, and the solar chillers come in three different sizes: a ‘Nano’, ‘Mini’, or ‘Mega’. The Nano is 10 square feet, while the Mini is 20 square feet and the Mega 40 square feet.
Mindful of the range of sizes of operations run by farmers and distributors, Baridi makes it possible to buy or rent a unit via a leasing agreement. And as part of founder Tracy Kimathi’s work to involve more women in the country’s meat supply chain system and boost economic opportunities for families, Baridi also offers a pay-as-you-store model for smallholder farmers and smaller distributors.
Each solar-powered unit the company installs reduces annual meat spoilage by more than 290,000 kilogrammes and decreases public market losses by up to 15 per cent. The units are Internet-of-Things- (IoT) enabled to allow remote monitoring of temperatures and humidity, as well as door openings. Baridi plans to install more than 60 of the cooling units within the next five years at locations across the country.
As temperatures rise around the world, refrigeration becomes even more important to the healthcare and food supply chains that crisscross the globe. From creating ways to store vaccinations and other medicines as solids to portable, solar-powered refrigerators, innovations in the Springwise database showcase the importance of bringing sustainable cooling solutions to communities everywhere.
Australian design student Alexander Burton has developed a prototype kit for cheaply converting petrol or diesel cars to hybrid electric, winning the country’s national James Dyson Award in the process.
Titled REVR (Rapid Electric Vehicle Retrofits), the kit is meant to provide a cheaper, easier alternative to current electric car conversion services, which Burton estimates cost AU$50,000 (£26,400) on average and so are often reserved for valuable, classic vehicles.
Usually, the process would involve removing the internal combustion engine and all its associated hardware, like the gearbox and hydraulic brakes, to replace them with batteries and electric motors.
REVR is designed to convert almost any combustion engine car to hybrid electric
With REVR, those components are left untouched. Instead, a flat, compact, power-dense axial flux motor would be mounted between the car’s rear wheels and disc brakes, and a battery and controller system placed in the spare wheel well or boot.
Some additional off-the-shelf systems – brake and steering boosters, as well as e-heating and air conditioning – would also be added under the hood.
By taking this approach, Burton believes he’ll be able to offer the product for around AU$5,000 (£2,640) and make it compatible with virtually any car.
Burton is a bachelor’s student in industrial design and sustainable systems engineering at RMIT University in Melbourne but has worked on REVR largely outside of his course.
Alexander Burton designed REVR to make electric car conversion more accessible
The spark for the project came a few years ago when he and his dad started thinking about converting the family car, a 2001 Toyota that Burton describes as well-built and reliable.
“But it’s just not really something you can do get done,” he told Dezeen. “It’s super expensive and it’s not really accessible.”
Burton wanted to find an affordable solution for others in his position while helping to reduce the emissions associated with burning petrol as well as manufacturing new electric vehicles, which are estimated to be even higher than for traditional cars.
Burton was motivated by the desire to reduce carbon emissions
With REVR, people should be able to get several more years of life out of their existing cars.
The kit would transform the vehicle into a hybrid rather than a fully electric vehicle, with a small battery giving the car 100 kilometres of electric range before the driver has to switch to the internal combustion engine.
However, in Burton’s view, this is where people can get “the most bang for their buck” with few changes to the car but major emissions reductions.
“You can’t fit a huge battery in a wheel well but we wager you won’t need one,” said Burton. “While people drive a lot, especially here in Australia, on average they drive 35 kilometres a day and it’s mostly commuting.”
“This distance would require only a five-kilowatt-hour battery, and we can put three times that in the wheel well.”
Burton used the motor modelling packages FEMM and MOTORXP to develop the design of his motor, which sees the spinning part, called the rotor, placed between a vehicle’s disc brakes.
The stationary part, or stator, is fixed to existing mounting points on the brake hub.
Burton used the FEMM and MOTORXP software packages to model the motor
Borrowing a trick from existing hybrid vehicles, the kit uses a sensor to detect the position of the accelerator pedal to control both acceleration and braking.
That means no changes have to be made to the car’s hydraulic braking system, which Burton says “you don’t want to have to interrupt”.
While the design is in its early stages, the concept was advanced enough for the jury of the James Dyson Award for exceptional student design to pick the project as the national winner in Australia.
The international prize winner from the 30 included countries will be announced on October 18.
Burton plans to use the AU$8,800 winnings from the national award to buy a small CNC machine and the specialist materials that are required to build a working prototype, building on a previous non-working prototype made in RMIT’s workshop.
Burton made a prototype of the device in the RMIT workshop
He says he has “a stretch goal” of converting a million cars with REVR and is interested in working with partners in the automotive industry. But he is also critical of its lack of investment in retrofitting to date.
“It’s like with repairability, industry is so against that,” Burton told Dezeen. “They love the whole planned obsolescence thing.”
“Ultimately, to retrofit goes against their profit margin because it extends the usefulness and the lifetime of their products. I think that’s why there’s retrofitting companies out there but they’re still largely reserved to classic cars. It’s just so expensive to do.”
Previous winners of the James Dyson Award include an infection-sensing wound dressing created by students from the Warsaw University of Technology and a fish-waste bioplastic by British designer Lucy Hughes.
Spotted: Reports that consumers buy around 60 per cent more clothing than they did at the beginning of the century help to explain the vast amounts of textile waste generated around the world. Much of that waste ends up in the global south, compounding the problems those countries have with their own production excesses. While researchers expect the global textile recycling market to grow significantly in the next few years, to just under $10 billion (around €9.6 billion) by 2030, more still needs to be done to extend the life of clothing.
In South Africa, startup Faro has partnered with a number of different fashion brands to create a new supply chain. Rather than dilute current markets with unsold goods, the company redirects overstock and returns to markets throughout the African continent. Pieces are sold for up to 70 per cent less than the original retail price.
Faro helps reduce textile waste by preventing goods from being sent to landfill while also reducing the reliance that many communities in developing economies have on fast fashion. With much of fast fashion made from virgin fibres and synthetic materials, the re-commerce model brings products from reputable brands to communities that would otherwise buy knockoffs.
Faro manages the entire process, beginning with buying from international fashion brands. The clothing is then sorted and, if needed, reconditioned, before being distributed to micro-merchants for direct-to-consumer sales. Such retailers are able to reach customers who are farther away from urban hubs and who generally have less disposable income. In addition to reselling clothing, Faro pledges to save an equivalent amount of textile waste from landfill through repurposing and upcycling by local artists.
The company recently secured pre-seed funding and plans to open its first retail outlet in October 2023. Up to 20 stores are already being planned for, with at least five to open by mid-2024.
Other solutions showcased in Springwise’s archive of ways in which innovators are reducing textile waste include an easy-to-remove yarn for fast disassembly and artificial intelligence (AI) size recommendations to help reduce returns.
Approximately 28% of annual global greenhouse gas emissions are generated by the operations of buildings. And heating, ventilation, and air conditioning (HVAC) systems alone contribute to 40% of the average commercial building’s energy consumption. More and more, high performance buildings are turning to data to curb energy use with cost-effective, easy-to-implement energy conservation measures. Feedback Solutions uses third-party people counting sensors, with a patented software platform, to optimize ventilation rates seamlessly, in real-time, based on actual occupant demand.
Continuously calculating highly accurate occupant counts within each HVAC zone in a building, Feedback Solutions communicates occupancy to the existing building automation system (via BACnet, cloud platform, or DDC controller). Then real-time adjustments can reduce the HVAC-related energy consumption by as much as 40%. This can save money, significantly reduce carbon emissions, and result in less wear and tear on critical HVAC equipment—all while meeting important ASHRAE standards for maintaining occupant health and comfort.
Feedback Solutions has completed multiple successful installations for universities (New York University), commercial landlords (Manulife Financial/John Hancock), and progressive municipalities throughout the US. This technology also attracts significant incentives from a number of utility companies. For example, Con Edison recently approved an incentive application—covering 50% of the project costs—implementing Feedback Solutions in a large New York library building.
Retrofit solution
The over-ventilation of campus, municipal, and commercial buildings is both a prevalent and longstanding issue. The results achieved with Feedback Solutions tools produce compelling payback periods and ROIs for organizations seeking immediate greenhouse gas reductions without doing deep retrofits.
A building’s automation system is normally designed to bring in outside air, which it then heats or cools and circulates, based on the number of people in an HVAC zone. In the absence of accurate real-time occupant counts, the building automation system typically brings in the amount of outside air assuming “full” occupancy. This is almost never the case (even before the introduction of new trends like the hybrid back to work model).
As occupancy goes up and down in a zone over the course of a day, Feedback Solutions cues an automatic ventilation response. The significant savings and emissions reduction are produced by both fan energy reduction and thermal conservation. At the same time, Feedback Solutions also provides for a data-driven indoor air quality strategy that prevents under-ventilation.
How Feedback works
Feedback selects the most appropriate and cost-effective people-counting sensors according to site conditions at the building.
Next steps include hardware installation, appropriate zone creation, and assurance of the accuracy of the data. (Feedback is able to produce highly accurate real-time occupant counts, even where there are multiple entrances and exits, via their proprietary intelligent algorithm running on an Intel IoT edge device.)
Zoned, real-time occupant counts are then delivered to the building automation system. Then once the sequence of operations has been defined, the HVAC equipment is optimized automatically, and seamlessly. This patented solution integrates easily with all the major building management systems.
Cleantech and proptech converge
The space utilization data that Feedback Solutions creates, can also be used to inform numerous operational decisions. Feedback provides customers with up to 10 customized reports—including analytics such as a comparison of peak occupancy over the course of a day, week, or month—providing visibility to how many people use a given facility and when. Thus, operations, security, marketing, and planning groups within a campus, municipality, or commercial real estate portfolio gain valuable insights custom to their operations.
USGBC-LA Net Zero Accelerator
Feedback Solutions joined the 2023 cohort of the Net Zero Accelerator (NZA), to benefit from learning from subject matter experts in marketing, business development, and networking. The NZA, a program of the U.S. Green Building Council–Los Angeles (USGBC-LA), focuses on piloting projects in real-world, trackable implementations, to drive measurable adoption of net zero solutions, today.
Since its founding in 2018, the accelerator has guided the success of 85 growth-stage companies in the cleantech and proptech space across the US and Canada. The program bridges the gap between net zero building policy and current technologies in use in both commercial and affordable housing sectors. The NZA builds awareness of viable solutions and market-ready innovations through marketing, media, events, and curated networking. Then shepherds the tech to market through onsite pilots with committed green building leaders, accelerating scaled adoption. The goal? Make net zero carbon, energy, water, and waste a reality for Los Angeles and beyond.
The author:
As Chief Marketing Officer of Feedback Solutions, Karen Smith focuses on helping facility operators understand and evaluate Feedback’s hardware-enabled software platform. Smith has extensive experience in the commercial real estate industry, both private and institutional owners, specializing in leasing, marketing, asset management, and capital budgets. She believes that property owners and managers engaging with cleantech initiatives seek easy-to-implement solutions that produce immediate results.
