Spotted: As customers become increasingly aware and invested in health and wellness, demand for nutricosmetics – supplements and foods with beauty benefits – is projected to boom. Indeed, Straits Research estimates the global industry will be worth almost $16 million (around €14.5 million) by 2030.
Nourished, a UK company that creates personalised 3D-printed chewable vitamins, including chewable mouthwash alternatives made in collaboration with Colgate, is joining the growing nutricosmetics industry with new skincare supplements that were unveiled earlier this year.
The vitamins, called SkinStacks, were developed in partnership with skincare brand Neutrogena. Using a smartphone, customers scan their face, and the images are then analysed by Neutrogena’s AI-powered Skin360 software, which assesses more than 2,000 unique skin attributes. Users are then asked to consider what outcomes they’d like to see – more radiant skin or less fine lines, for example – and a recommended combination of nutrients is given. Nourished then 3D prints customised gummies that are based on these recommendations. This stands in contrast with other vitamin brands, who tend to use basic quizzes to guide the ingredients used in personalised supplements.
Because the vitamins are made-to-order, Nourished avoids wasteful overproduction that can leave excess products to expire on shop shelves. And crucially, SkinStacks and other Nourished products combine multiple science-backed ingredients in one supplement. Not only does this save customers unnecessary time and money that would be spent sourcing several different pills – it also cuts out the large volume of plastic packaging that is thrown away when customers buy multiple tubs of vitamin pills. Skinstacks and other Nourished products, in comparison, come in completely recyclable plastic-free packaging, including home-compostable wrappers.
There’s a plethora of innovators out there looking to make the beauty industry more sustainable. In the archive, Springwise has also spotted cosmetics made from unsold fruit and a plant-based beauty brand.
Dutch design studio Loop Loop has pioneered a process of adding colour to aluminium using pigments made from plants rather than petroleum.
Odin Visser and Charles Gateau, founders of the Rotterdam-based studio, claim to have created the “world’s first plant-based aluminium dying process”.
They have produced four bio-based pigment solutions that can be applied to aluminium through anodising, a surface treatment process that typically uses petroleum-based pigments.
Loop Loop has developed four plant-based pigments for anodising aluminium
Visser told Dezeen it was “the most complex issue” that Loop Loop had ever tackled.
“Natural pigments are being used more and more, but most of them are absolutely ineffective in the context of anodising,” he explained.
“We had to take a deep dive into chemistry, using resources from research papers to AI chatbots in order to understand the underlying principles that decide if a pigment is going to work or not.”
The colours include a warm purple derived from dyer’s alkanet flowers
Visser and Gateau are on a mission to make the process of aluminium anodising more accessible to designers, makers and small-scale manufacturers. Currently, it is largely only used in mass production.
The long-term aim is to make their designs and recipes open source, so anyone could set up a production facility.
Their journey began with the Magic Colour Machine, unveiled during Milan design week in 2022. This mobile, custom-built machine was designed to allow anyone to apply colour gradients to aluminium components, wherever they are.
Different effects can be achieved by applying the pigment in different ways
This new project, titled Local Colours, explores how the process could be made more sustainable.
“To find a way to produce the pigments for our Magic Colour Machine ourselves in a plant-based way helps us to further close the loop,” said Visser.
The four dyes developed so far include a warm purple derived from dyer’s alkanet flowers, a mustard yellow created with dyer’s rocket flowers, a deep pink made using madder root and a bright gold produced with red onion.
Loop Loop has explored different techniques for applying these colours to metal with different effects.
As well as smooth gradients, the pigments can be used to create textural finishes.
“The finish depends on how the pigments are applied,” explained Gateau, a Design Academy Eindhoven tutor with a background in material science.
“We can follow the standard practice of anodising and dip our pieces in a dye to obtain a uniform colour finish. In that sense, it is impossible to distinguish it from the industrial pigments,” he told Dezeen.
“It is also possible to press plant parts directly onto the surface we wish to dye; all sorts of patterns can emerge.”
A press effect results in varied textural patterns
The anodising process involves using an electric current to apply a thin aluminium oxide layer on the outer surface of the metal.
Loop Loop’s tests suggest that plant-based anodising finishes behave much the same as petroleum-based finishes, meaning they can be just as easily removed as added.
The main difference is that the colours react when exposed to direct sunlight.
“This is due to the molecular structure of the dyes, which is way more complex and diverse in the case of natural-based substances,” said Gateau. “The colours have a life of their own.”
Smooth gradients can be achieved using the Magic Colour Machine
Visser and Gateau have been growing their own plants for the dyes, supporting their commitment to localised production.
Once the recipes are made open source, they hope to encourage others to do the same. The ambition is to launch a platform that makes this possible in 2024.
“It’s still at an early stage, but we envision an ecosystem of designers, researchers and makers sharing the outcomes of work in the field of circular products and service systems,” added Visser.
Other designers exploring the possibilities of plant-based pigments include Nienke Hoogvliet, who has launched a brand working with seaweed-based textile dyes, and Studio Agne, which has created textile dye from biowaste.
Spotted: Most people are eager to engage in recycling and want to make more sustainable choices, but logistical obstacles get in the way. In fact, a lack of recycling services was cited as the biggest barrier to recycling worldwide, according to a World Economic Forum study.
To make recycling more accessible for everyone, South-Africa-based Regenize collects separated rubbish directly from users on specified days – including recyclables and compostable organic waste – taking collections to local Decentralised Recycling Hubs (DRHs). Collection is free for lower-income areas and middle-upper communities pay a monthly fee. Once households sign up to the scheme, they receive a starter kit that includes information on how to recycle.
In exchange for their recycling, participants receive Remali – a virtual currency that can be spent with Regenize partners, including Vodacom and Telkon Mobile in return for data and minutes. Users track their recycling and Remali rewards on an easy-to-use app. But for those who don’t have access to a smartphone, Regenize also offers ‘Simplified Remali’ that can be redeemed in participating shops instead of online, which further helps to boost the local economy.
Impactful social change is at the heart of Regenize’s model, and the company chooses existing waste pickers and unemployed community members to become collectors. Collectors are given free uniforms, fossil-fuel-free bikes, equipment, mobile phones, and instead of sorting through dirty landfill sites, they have access to clean and safe rubbish. As well as providing them with a stable income, Regenize also helps the collectors get bank cards and access micro-loans.
Though currently only available in certain parts of South Africa, Regenize has plans to go national within five years, and then expand across the whole of Africa. The company recently launched more of its services at Khanyolwethu Secondary School, Lwandle in June this year.
Social change doesn’t have to come at the expense of sustainability. In fact, in the archive Springwise has spotted many innovators combining the two, including an Indian startup that employs local women and youth to create artisanal products from upcycled plastic and a Kenyan recycling company that ensures fair wages for waste pickers.
Spotted: Petroleum-based plastics are everywhere in our daily lives, from our clothes and cosmetic products to food packaging and deliveries. Though plastic is highly useful, it’s carbon-intensive to manufacture and often isn’t recycled. In fact, of the seven billion tonnes of plastic that have been produced so far, only around 10 per cent has been recycled.
One way scientists have been tackling the impact of plastic is by replacing it with bio-based alternatives. One of these innovators is Canadian startup Genecis, which creates pollution-free, totally biodegradable PHA (polyhydroxyalkanoate) – a naturally occurring polymer produced by bacteria when they are fed organic waste like leftover food.
At the end of its usable life, a PHA product will break down safely in the environment without leaving behind microplastics or leaching toxic chemicals. To become even more sustainable in future, the company hopes to use old PHA products as the feedstock for new Genecis bioplastic, creating an entirely closed-loop system and reducing the need for additional resources.
Mirroring the versatility of traditional plastic, Genecis’ alternative PHA can be used in car interiors, clothing, and packaging. And because the material is natural, it is also safe to use in tools for medical procedures.
The company was recently awarded money from the Female Founder Initiative as part of Amazon’s Climate Pledge Fund to help support female innovators. The online retail giant is “currently evaluating ways to use Genecis’ technology”, potentially in packaging for grocery and pharmacy items delivered by Amazon. As well as Amazon, Genecis is currently working with several corporate clients to help design sustainable bioplastic products for their specific use cases.
In the archive, Springwise has spotted a huge variety of other innovators also working to make more sustainable plastic alternatives, including one made from cellulose, and the world’s first biodegradable water bottle.
Every step of the food production process generates greenhouse gas emissions; but not many of us are aware of how much damage food waste does to the environment, causing up to 10 per cent of our global emissions.
One-third of the food we produce globally is never eaten, with the financial cost of this wastage estimated $2.6 trillion per year. The environmental impact may be even higher over the long-term. Food that ends up in landfill generates methane, a particularly potent greenhouse gas, while reducing food waste has the potential to draw 87 gigatonnes of CO2 out of the atmosphere.
In India, the issue of wasted food is particularly acute, largely due to the need to transport and store food at ambient temperatures because, unlike in developed countries, cold storage is not widely available. India is the second largest producer of fruits and vegetables in the world behind China, but 40 per cent of its produce is lost before it even reaches consumers. This incurs significant costs for the Indian economy, contributes significantly to global emissions, and does nothing to improve the lives of the 14 per cent of people in the country who are undernourished.
The founders of GreenPod Labs, an agri-biotech company based in Chennai, south-east India, believe this is a preventable problem and have come up with a solution that can increase the shelf life of produce by up to 60 per cent. It produces sachets made of non-woven, gas-permeable membranes that are packed alongside the fresh produce during transportation and storage. The sachets contain 8-12 bioactive ingredients – specific to the particular crop – in powder form. These activate the built-in defence mechanisms in the fruits and vegetables, a bit like the way the human immune system responds to outside stresses. The process slows down the ripening rate and minimises microbial growth that contributes to rot.
GreenPod Labs has completed products for three crops, with two more in the pipeline. It hopes to scale its business to include Africa and other countries in Asia, a welcome solution in regions where food security is already an issue, and climate change increasingly disrupts supply chains.
Spotted: In Nigeria, it is estimated that women’s earned income is 65 per cent of men’s, due to fewer work hours and the fact that women dominate the lower-paid, informal job sector. This means they have fewer opportunities for networking and fundraising than men. Now, an app called Herconomy, is helping to bridge that gap.
Herconomy began as an Instagram page, created by entrepreneur Ife Durosinmi-Etti, who showcased local and international opportunities like grants and fellowships available to entrepreneurs in Africa. The site soon became a hub for thousands of female entrepreneurs looking for information.
The page eventually became a Telegram group, but scaling was an issue, as the team behind it found it difficult to coordinate the large number of conversations on the site. So, the team has now launched a subscription app (which also has a free tier). The app gives members access to a community and opportunity board, grants, weekly capacity-building workshops, and discounts from over 60 brands.
In June this year, Herconomy announced that it was receiving backing from Google for Startups, as one of the recipients of Google’s Black Founders Fund, which will help the femtech startup accelerate its mission.
This is not the first bank Springwise has spotted targeting an underserved market. Other financial innovations in the archive include a banking platform for workers in Africa’s informal sector and nano-credit for low-income entrepreneurs.
Spotted: If you’ve ever ventured out of a city, you’ll know that transportation in rural areas is often unreliable. This leaves people immobilised, often cornering locals to purchase vehicles of their own. Having reliable, shared transportation in these areas is not only a more affordable solution for residents but a more sustainable one too: helping minimise the number of combustion-engine vehicles on the road. UK-based RideTandem decided to put this idea into action, turning local transport providers into smart shuttles for work and educational needs.
To mobilise those in rural areas, the startup has partnered up with local taxi, minicab, and coach companies. Using an app, RideTandem matches these transport partners to those wanting to book a ride into a shared vehicle. The result is an affordable shuttle-type service for commuters living in areas with poor and expensive transport links.
“Even before the cost-of-living crisis hit, public transport outside of big cities was broken – expensive, unreliable, or simply not there for people who need it,” explains RideTandem co-founder and CEO Alex Shapland-Howes. He adds: “Almost 5,000 bus services – more than one in four – were axed between 2012 and 2022. Many that remain, especially outside cities and large towns, are under threat from the recent end of the Bus Recovery Grant.”
Following a recent seed funding, RideTandem has now raised £2.3 million (around €2.7 million) with the aim of extending its reach beyond the UK.
Springwise has previously spotted other innovations in the archive aimed at increasing mobility through ride-sharing, from a company that offers ride-sharing in greener vehicles and remote-piloted shared cars in Las Vegas.
Scientists at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology have developed a low-cost energy storage system that could be integrated into roads and building foundations to facilitate the renewable energy transition.
The research team has created a supercapacitor – a device that works like a rechargeable battery – using cement, water and carbon black, a fine black powder primarily formed of pure carbon.
The breakthrough could pave the way for energy storage to be embedded into concrete, creating the potential for roads and buildings that charge electric devices.
MIT researchers created a set of button-sized supercapacitors. Image courtesy of MIT
Unlike batteries, which rely on materials in limited supply such as lithium, the technology could be produced cheaply using materials that are readily available, according to the researchers.
They describe cement and carbon black as “two of humanity’s most ubiquitous materials”.
“You have the most-used manmade material in the world, cement, combined with carbon black, which is a well-known historical material – the Dead Sea Scrolls were written with it,” said MIT professor Admir Masic.
The research team included Masic and fellow MIT professors Franz-Josef Ulm and Yang-Shao Horn, with postdoctoral researchers Nicolas Chanut, Damian Stefaniuk and Yunguang Zhu at MIT and James Weaver at Harvard’s Wyss Institute.
“Huge need for big energy storage”
They believe the technology could accelerate a global shift to renewable energy.
Solar, wind and tidal power are all produced at variable times, which often don’t correspond with peak electricity demand. Large-scale energy storage is necessary to take advantage of these sources but is too expensive to realise using traditional batteries.
“There is a huge need for big energy storage,” said Ulm. “That’s where our technology is extremely promising because cement is ubiquitous.”
The team proved the concept works by creating a set of button-sized supercapacitors, equivalent to one-volt batteries, which were used to power an LED light.
They are now developing a 45-cubic-metre version to show the technology can be scaled up.
Calculations suggest a supercapacitor of this size could store around 10 kilowatt-hours of energy, which would be enough to meet the daily electricity usage of a typical household.
This means that a supercapacitor could potentially be incorporated into the concrete foundation of a house for little to no additional cost.
“You can go from one-millimetre-thick electrodes to one-metre-thick electrodes, and by doing so basically you can scale the energy storage capacity from lighting an LED for a few seconds to powering a whole house,” Ulm said.
The researchers suggest that embedding the technology into a concrete road could make it possible to charge electric cars while they are travelling across it, using similar technology to that used in wireless phone chargers.
Battery-powered versions of this system are already being trialled across Europe.
Carbon black key to “fascinating” composite
Supercapacitors work by storing electrical energy between two electrically conductive plates. They are able to deliver charge much more rapidly than batteries but most do not offer as much energy storage.
The amount of energy they are able to store depends on the total surface area of the two plates, which are separated by a thin insulation layer.
The version developed here has an extremely high internal surface area, which greatly improves its effectiveness. This is due to the chemical makeup of the material formed when carbon black is introduced to a concrete mixture and left to cure.
“The material is fascinating,” said Masic. “The carbon black is self-assembling into a connected conductive wire.”
According to Masic, the amount of carbon black needed is very small – as little as three per cent.
The more is added, the greater the storage capacity of the supercapacitor. But this also reduces the structural strength of the concrete, which could be a problem in load-bearing applications.
The “sweet spot” is believed to be around 10 per cent.
The composite material could also be utilised within a heating system, the team suggested. Full details of their findings are due to be published in an upcoming edition of science journal PNAS.
Other attempts at creating large-scale, low-cost energy storage systems include Polar Night Energy’s “sand battery”, which is already servicing around 10,000 people in the Finnish town of Kankaanpää.
Spotted: As the climate becomes more unpredictable, the importance of precise weather forecasting is more important than ever. Accurate forecasting plays a vital role in industries such as transportation, agriculture, management, and insurance. Benchmark Labs is one of those working to make weather forecasting much more accurate.
Benchmark collects data from site-specific sensors and analyses it with its proprietary artificial intelligence (AI) software. The result is accurate forecasts tailored to its customers’ precise locations, instead of the regional or grid level. Company CEO and co-founder Carlos Gaitan says that, unlike traditional approaches, “Benchmark Labs offers location-specific environmental forecasts to high-value asset managers to increase … operational margins.”
The company claims its platform offers an improvement in the accuracy of weather forecasts by as much as 85 per cent relative to the National Weather Service. This improved accuracy translates into better planning and reduced operational costs.
Benchmark Labs is now serving customers around the world, and over the next year will be working with leaders in the renewable energy sphere to help them obtain more accurate weather forecasts at their installations.
Climate change is leading to the creation of a wide variety of forecasting products. Benchmark joins other innovators spotted by Springwise in the archive, including a system that uses high-resolution imagery to forecast climate risk and a platform that focuses on helping financial services with climate risk.
Local studio Lab La Bla sourced diabase rock from a nearby mine and created seating from MDF and recycled cork for the interior of energy company E.ON’s headquarters in Malmö, Sweden.
Lab La Bla designed the headquarters’ reception area, coat room and lounge area, while also creating furniture, sculptures and other accessories across nine floors of the 22,000-square-metre building.
The studio aimed to create a sequence of space that had variety, while taking inspiration from sources including airport terminals.
The studio used recycled materials for the interiors
“Creating work for an office that houses 1,500 employees is both challenging and inspiring,” co-founders Axel Landström and Victor Isaksson Pirtti told Dezeen.
“It’s about creating spaces and functions that cater to the many while offering a mix of focus, creative and social environments, so it’s really about designing for the masses without making it boring or generic,” they added.
“There’s a current fascination about airport interiors in the studio, so for the reception area we drew from that source of inspiration.”
Seating was made from MDF
In the reception area, the studio created a set of sunny yellow furniture made from medium-density fibreboard (MDF) covered in nylon fiber.
“The overall project for us is sort of a reaction to dysfunctional and non-sustainable processes inherent within our industry,” the studio explained.
“For the reception area MDF and screws have been coated with repurposed nylon fiber using a technology commonly seen in the automotive industry, resulting in furniture that celebrates leftover material but without compromising on durability.”
A bench features a “melting” diabase stone detail
For the building’s central atrium, Lab La Bla designed an unusual bench that features a gloopy stone decoration resembling an oil spill.
This was created using diabase stone, which is famous for its blackness and was mined nearby in southern Sweden. The process of creating it was informed by its setting at an energy company headquarters.
Lab La Bla sourced local materials for the project
“Since electricity and magnetism are essentially two aspects of the same thing – and E.ON being an electric utility company – we thought it suitable to introduce magnetism as a modelling tool,” Landström and Isaksson Pirtti explained.
“The shape of the piece comes from dropping a lump of magnetic slime on top of a conductive material,” they added. “The slime seemingly randomly slump and drapes over a metal bar before settling in its final shape.”
Lab La Bla then scaled this shape up and hand-sculpted the shape from a single block of diabase, which was finally sandblasted and polished.
“We see this process as an adventurous exploration in making a physical representation of the invisible force that shapes our world,” Landström and Isaksson Pirtti added.
Mouth-blown glass panels form a three-metre-high sculpture
The studio also turned brick beams, left over from the construction of a school in Malmö in the early 1900s, into umbrella stands, and sourced mouth-blown glass panels from one of the few remaining producers of the material.
This was used, together with dichroic glass, to create a three-metre-high glass sculpture with a graphic pattern that depicts a CT-scan of a wood-fibre material.
Glass sculptures were formed inside hollowed-out tree trunks
Lab La Bla also created decorative vases and glass sculptures using molten glass blown into tree trunks that had been hallowed by fungal decay. The trunks were sourced from E.ON’s own local heating centre.
These trunks “serve no industrial purpose, but are burnt for energy by E.ON and used for teleheating for Malmö,” the studio said.
“We borrow these tree trunks to blow glass in them, before returning them to their final purpose.”
Lounge sofas were made from ground-down wine corks
In the headquarters’ lounge areas, the designers created modular sofas made from ground-down wine corks sourced from restaurants.
“The modular cork sofa uses a unique process where 100 per cent recycled cork is sprayed onto a foam structure, proudly incorporating signs of imperfection into the design while bringing superior durability and sustainability to your furniture,” Landström and Isaksson Pirtti said.
A table has an office-style glass relief with a keyboard
To the designers, the aim of the interior design was to use disused or forgotten materials, as well as ones that were recycled and recyclable.
“We took a conscious decision of picking hyper-ordinary materials such as MDF and aluminium to pinpoint and educate people about cyclic and sustainable qualities inherent in the processes of creating these materials,” the studio said.
“We often try to celebrate the beauty and intrinsic qualities of everyday, industrial materials otherwise consigned to temporary or low-cost construction solutions,” it added.
“We wanted to design objects which require significant time and skills from craftspeople, usually reserved for expensive, rare and high-quality materials – to some of the very inexpensive and found materials that we used throughout the project.”
Lab La Bla’s designs have previously been shown at the Moving Forward exhibition at Stockholm Design Week and as part of the Metabolic Processes for Leftovers exhibition in Malmö.
