Spotted: Pesticides and fertilisers are widely used in food production. But while they can have important benefits, they are expensive, and their use creates numerous environmental problems impacting human health, biodiversity, and water and soil ecosystems. Now, startup Pluton Biosciences is identifying microbial solutions that could provide chemical-free crop protection and enhancement.
Pluton is working to identify novel microbes with commercial applications using its proprietary Micromining Innovation Engine. Pluton has already discovered multiple previously unknown bacteria that can protect against several agriculturally relevant plant pests, including the fall armyworm. The active anti-pest molecule has been isolated and is being developed into a natural pesticide.
The company is also developing a microbial cover crop that captures and sequesters carbon and nitrogen in the soil – providing soil enhancement as well as carbon sequestration. The company claims that applying the microbial spray at planting and harvest could scrub nearly two tonnes of carbon from the air per acre of farmland each year, while also replenishing nutrients in the soil.
Microbial solutions are not only good for crops and the environment, they are also a potentially valuable market, and investors agree. In 2021, Pluton raised $6.6 million (around €6 million) in a seed round and more recently it completed a series A round for $16.5 million (around €15.2 million).
Nature can be very effective at solving problems, a fact that has not escaped the notice of those searching for more sustainable ways to grow crops. In the archive, Springwise has spotted a number of innovations in this space, including a maggot-based fertiliser and nature-inspired insecticides that protect biodiversity.
Spotted: The average baby goes through approximately 7,000 nappies before they are potty trained, and the vast majority of nappies used around the world are disposable. Considering that there are over 400,000 babies born in Rwanda and over 46 million across Africa annually, the number of nappies generated is staggering. The problems posed by single-use nappies are two-fold: there is a financial burden, with some mothers even needing to delay changing to reduce cost; and the environmental impact of disposing of that many plastic-based nappies.
Founded with the goal of helping mothers and families provide their babies with a sanitary and dignified alternative to rationing disposable nappies, Kigali-based Toto Safi gives mothers the ability to subscribe and save money on reusable nappies, while also eliminating the wastefulness of single-use alternatives.
Toto Safi’s nappies are designed and produced in Rwanda through partnerships with local women tailor cooperatives. By choosing Toto Safi, parents can not only make a positive impact on the environment, then, but also contribute to community development and the well-being of local economies.
The final products are high-quality, affordable, adjustable, and environmentally sustainable. They are also made with breathable and waterproof materials like cotton or bamboo, which means the nappies are gentle on babies’ skin, highly absorbent, and free from chemicals. Customers can either purchase the reusable nappies outright or subscribe for weekly sanitised nappy deliveries, along with the pickup of soiled nappies for cleaning. This system reduces waste and offers parents long-term cost savings.
Toto Safi is currently testing and developing new product lines, including two-in-one diapers, pocket diapers, and adult diapers, to meet diverse customer needs. The aim is to offer a comprehensive range of reusable items like padded underwear, period pants, and incontinence products, providing sustainable and comfortable solutions for people of all ages.
Springwise has recently spotted other sustainable nappies, such as a reusable nappy made from seaweed, and another disposable one made from biodegradable bioplastic.
Spotted: Exacerbated by recent extreme weather temperatures and drought across the country, the UK’s production of greenhouse-grown vegetables decreased in 2022 for the seventh year in a row. At the same time, the need for increased irrigation plus rising costs of fuel, energy, and plant protection products means that traditional field agricultural methods remain stressed.
Innovators everywhere are struggling to reduce carbon emissions as quickly as possible. UK agtech company Albotherm’s founding team identified greenhouses and commercial high rises as two of the areas with the greatest opportunities for savings. Set up as a means of using science for good, the company created a reversible coating for glass that transitions between transparent in cool temperatures to opaque in heat.
Because the coating changes format depending on the temperature it has been programmed to respond to, there is little to no maintenance required after application, and it can be left on year-round with no risk of blocking essential sunlight in the winter months. The coating can be set to transition at any temperature between 18 and 45 degrees Celsius.
The traditional technique of painting greenhouses with opaque white, chalk-based paint in spring and then removing it in autumn is effective at blocking heat, yet it can also limit crop growth. In contrast, Albotherm’s technology increased crop yields by up to 34 per cent in trials. And with the closing of its £1.6 million (around €1.9 million) seed funding round, the company plans to scale up its manufacturing capabilities, complete large-scale commercial pilots in 2024, and prepare for a 2025 official product launch. Further development will focus on expanding the company’s product line for use on commercial buildings, where energy efficiency could save millions in heating, ventilation, and air conditioning (HVAC) costs.
Two other innovations spotted in Springwise’s archive that focus on reducing HVAC costs are net-zero glass and adjustable sunshades.
The cost of employee turnover is difficult to quantify, but one estimate from Gallup suggests that voluntary employee turnover costs US businesses $1 trillion (around €915 billion) per year. And, according to payroll firm Remote, turnover rates have increased by nine per cent in the UK and US since 2019.
While the importance of talent retention is well understood, it can be difficult for HR departments to be proactive in holding onto their most valuable employees. By using algorithms to analyse masses of data, startup HR Signal is making it easy for companies to predict the chances that any employee will leave in the near future.
The startup’s software assigns each employee a ‘Retention Risk’ score that represents the likelihood that they will voluntarily leave their role in the next 90 days. This score is based on information on the current job market and patterns in career progression taken from millions of anonymised CVs. This is then supplemented by salary information and other forms of public data. So far, the startup has harvested data on over 50,000 job positions across all sectors.
If an employee’s Retention Risk score exceeds a certain level, they are automatically flagged to the HR team. The software then provides a step-by-step suggested workflow so that companies can plan suitable interventions and record the outcomes.
Using additional data about tenure trends both inside and outside the company, HR Signal’s platform also highlights potential promotion opportunities to encourage employee development – thereby increasing worker satisfaction and corresponding retention rates.
In the archive, Springwise has spotted many other innovations looking to improve employee well-being and boost retention, including workplace digital counselling services and smart greening solutions for the office.
Spotted: The volume of edible food waste created around the world is estimated to be 1.3 billion tonnes a year, with a lot of that ending up in landfills. Once in landfill, this waste breaks down and releases CO2 into the atmosphere. While some are doing important work to reduce the amount of material that ends up in landfills, Edinburgh-based Carbogenics is going in another direction and turning this waste into a material that is useful in multiple agricultural and industrial processes.
The company produces a product called CreChar. This is a type of biochar – a carbon-rich, porous material that can be used to enhance the production of biogas from food and farming waste. While most biochar is made from virgin wood, Carbogenics’ process uses organic waste, such as wastewater screenings and difficult-to-recycle food, farm, and paper waste instead.
CreChar is made by heating biomass in the absence of oxygen. This process, known as pyrolysis, produces carbon-rich biochar alongside oil, synthetic gas (syngas), and heat. This versatile material could be a gamechanger for the biogas and wastewater treatment sectors, but it can also be used as a plant fertiliser and for soil restoration and carbon sequestration. When used in place of biochar in biogas production, for example, CreChar increases biogas yields by up to 15 per cent.
At the same time, because the carbon locked in CreChar during its production process cannot easily be broken down by microorganisms, it can be sequestered in the material for hundreds or thousands of years.
Carbogenics recently secured £1 million (around €1.2 million) in investment from Green Angel Ventures, Scottish Enterprise and Old College Capital. The funds will be used to build a production and research and development (R&D) facility in Scotland. It’s anticipated the facility will be operational by the end of Q1 in 2024.
Researchers are working on a number of projects that aim to maximise the efficiency of converting biomass to energy. In the archive, Springwise has also spotted a project at EPLF that uses food waste in the pyrolysis process, as well as a small-scale biowaste processor that turns food waste into cooking gas and compost.
At the Global Fashion Summit in Copenhagen, Allbirds has unveiled a woolly sock-style trainer with a bioplastic sole that effectively adds zero emissions to the atmosphere over the course of its life, the shoe brand claims.
The minimal all-grey Moonshot sneaker features an upper made using wool from a regenerative farm in New Zealand, which uses sustainable land management practices to capture more carbon than it emits.
This on-farm carbon storage offset any other emissions generated over the product’s lifecycle, Allbirds claims, making it the “world’s first net-zero carbon shoe”.
“Regenerative wool was a critical pillar of helping us reimagine how products are designed and made through the lens of carbon reduction,” co-founder Tim Brown told Dezeen.
“To me, the currently untapped opportunity for naturally derived, net-zero products is the future of fashion.”
Allbirds races to reduce trainers’ footprint
Set to launch commercially next spring, the product follows in the footsteps of the Futurecraft.Footprint trainer, which at 2.94 kilograms CO2e was reportedly the lowest-carbon trainer ever made when Allbirds and Adidas launched it in 2021.
Back then, the team focused mainly on simplifying the construction of trainers, which have an average footprint of 13.6 kilograms CO2e, and reducing the number of separate components from 65 to just seven.
This same principle was also applied to the Moonshot, which features no laces or eyelets and integrates its insole directly into the knitted upper.
Moonshot was unveiled at the Global Fashion Summit
But this time, the key advance came in the form of materials – primarily the merino wool upper sourced from Lake Hawea Station, a certified net-zero farm in New Zealand.
Through regenerative practices such as replanting native trees and vegetation, as well as maintaining soil carbon through rotational grazing, the farm says it sequesters almost twice as much carbon as it emits.
However, these carbon benefits of sustainable land management are generally not considered in a material’s lifecycle assessment (LCA).
“Frequently, the way that the carbon intensity of wool is looked at is just acknowledging the emissions, so completely disregarding any of the removals happening on farm,” said Allbirds sustainability manager Aileen Lerch. “And we think that that is a huge missing opportunity.”
That’s because it prevents brands, designers and architects, who are increasingly making use of biomaterials to reduce the footprint of their projects, from reliably calculating and certifying any emissions savings.
With the Moonshot project, Allbirds hopes to offer a template for how these carbon benefits could be considered within LCAs, using Lake Hawea Station’s overall carbon footprint as a basis.
From this, the Allbirds extrapolated a product-level footprint for the wool, which the company has so far failed to disclose, using its own carbon calculator.
Carbon sequestered on the wool farm offsets emissions elsewhere in the lifecycle, Allbirds claims
As a result, there is a degree of uncertainty around the actual footprint of the trainer because it cannot currently be verified by a third party according to official international standards.
But Allbirds head of sustainability Hana Kajimura argues that this is a risk worth taking to help push the discussion forward and incentivise a shift towards regenerative agriculture.
“It’s about progress, not perfection,” she said. “We could spend decades debating the finer points of carbon sequestration, or we can innovate today with a common sense approach.”
Plastics still play a role for performance
Regenerative wool also cannot yet fully contend with the performance of synthetic fibres, meaning that to create the Moonshot upper, it had to be blended with some recycled nylon and polyester for durability and stretch.
For the midsole, Allbirds managed to amp up the bioplastic content from 18 per cent in 2021’s Futurecraft.Footprint trainer to 70 per cent in the Moonshot, using a process called supercritical foaming.
This involves injecting gas into the midsole, making it more durable and lightweight while reducing the need for emissions-intensive synthetic additives.
“In the industry right now, most midsoles have no bio content or quite a minimal one,” Lerch explained. “So it’s really a large step change in what’s possible because of this supercritical foaming process.”
Stuck to the front of the sneaker is a bioplastic smiley face badge by California company Mango Materials, which is made using captured methane emissions from a wastewater treatment facility that is then digested by bacteria and turned into a biopolyester called PHA.
The shoe itself will be vacuum-packed in bioplastic polyethylene to save space and weight during transport, which Allbirds plans to conduct via electric trucks and biofuel-powered container ships.
There is no “perfect solution” for end of life
Another area that will need further development is the end of life, meaning how the shoe’s packaging and its various plastic and bioplastic composite components can be responsibly disposed of given that they are notoriously hard – if not impossible – to recycle.
“We don’t yet have a perfect solution of what will happen at its end of life,” Lerch said. “We don’t want to make a promise of: send it back, don’t worry, buy your next shoe and move on.”
“We acknowledge though, that the answer isn’t just to keep making more products that end up in landfill or incinerated. So we’re continuously looking at what those solutions can be.”
The sock trainers feature a minimal wool-heavy design
In a bid to overcome challenges like this and encourage collaboration across the industry, Allbirds is open-sourcing the toolkit it used to create Moonshot and encouraging other companies to adapt, expand and improve on it.
“It is also about ushering in a new age of ‘hyper-collaboration’ across brands and industries to share best practice, build scale for all parts of the supply chain, to reward growers and lower costs,” Brown said.
Allbirds became the first fashion brand to provide carbon labelling for all of its products in 2020.
Since then, the company has committed itself to reducing the carbon footprint of its products to below one kilogram and its overall footprint to “near zero” by 2030.
Spotted: The ability to collect solar energy here on Earth is often at the mercy of factors such as nightfall, cloud cover, and other adverse weather conditions. But what if solar power could be collected in space and beamed back to Earth? After all, in space, the energy is constantly available without being subjected to the cycles of day and night, seasons, and cloud cover. That is exactly what a team of researchers has done.
Caltech’s Space Solar Power Project (SSPP) has recently demonstrated wireless power transfer from space. In January of this year, the SSPP launched a prototype – dubbed the Space Solar Power Demonstrator (SSPD) – aboard a SpaceX rocket, to test key components of the plan to harvest solar power in space and beam the energy back to Earth.
This month, one of these components, the MAPLE (Microwave Array for Power-transfer Low-orbit Experiment), succeeded in transferring power wirelessly to receivers in space. It used constructive and destructive interference between individual transmitters to focus and direct the energy it beams out – all without any moving parts.
Caltech Professor Ali Hajimiri, who led the team developing MAPLE, explained: “Through the experiments we have run so far, we received confirmation that MAPLE can transmit power successfully to receivers in space. We have also been able to program the array to direct its energy toward Earth, which we detected here at Caltech.”
Solar energy is growing rapidly, but it still accounts for only around four per cent of the world’s energy needs. A number of recent innovations spotted in the Springwise archive hope to improve on this, however, including floating solar plants and fully circular solar PV cells.
Spotted: Often, it can be challenging for teachers to effectively communicate sustainability topics to their students. Research shows that educators worldwide experience difficulties from combining the various aspects of sustainability and feeling unprepared for the content, to lacking the necessary resources, materials, or time to provide comprehensive lessons.
Twin Science recognised that the traditional educational approaches are insufficient to tackle these issues and is, instead, using STEM (science, technology, engineering, and maths) for children’s sustainability education. While volunteering with the Young Guru Academy, the makers behind Twin Science saw the power of STEM education to deliver engaging workshops to children in underprivileged areas.
The company uses a range of hybrid products to support its double-winged approach to education and has integrated the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) into the curriculum to provide a framework for addressing social, environmental, and economic challenges. Twin Science’s STEM Kits include hands-on activities and electronic modules for students to explore robotics and coding concepts. The mobile app serves as a “digital companion” for students, giving them access to interactive sustainability content, games, challenges, trivia quizzes, and additional learning resources.
The teacher platform provides access to educational resources, curriculum materials, and teacher support, enabling educators to access lesson plans, track student progress, and facilitate discussions and collaboration among students.
Twin Science is now focusing on enhancing its artificial-intelligence- (AI) powered teaching assistant tools to provide personalised support for teachers, parents, and students. The company is also exploring the use of augmented and virtual reality for immersive educational content to enhance students’ understanding and engagement.
We need to educate the current cohort of students about what is happening to our planet, and traditional teaching methods aren’t cutting it. In the archive, Springwise has spotted other innovators thinking differently to provide better education on sustainability, like those using fairy tales to teach climate change and toy wooden cubes to teach children about energy sustainability.
Over the past year, searches for sustainable fashion have grown in popularity on Pinterest. We round up 10 projects from our sustainable fashion board which feature items made from more environmentally friendly materials.
The fashion industry generates an estimated 92 million tonnes of textile waste every year. With the aim of reducing their textile footprint, many designers are now using eco-friendly biomaterials and processes.
Designers such as Valdís Steinarsdóttir and Phillip Lim have used gelatin and plant matter in their work, amongst other materials.
Scroll down to see 10 sustainable fashion designs and browse our popular sustainable fashion board to see more.
Shellmet by TBWA/Hakuhodo
Tokyo advertising agency TBWA/Hakuhodo and plastics manufacturer Koushi Chemical Industry CO collaborated to design the Shellmet.
The helmet, which was made from discarded scallop shells and recycled plastic, was developed to be used as protective headgear for fishermen in Japan. The Shellmet can also be used as a cycling helmet or a hard hat.
Find out more about the Shellmet ›
Bioplastic sequins dress by Phillip Lim and Charlotte McCurdy
Algae bioplastic fronds cover this petroleum-free dress created by fashion designer Phillip Lim and industrial designer Charlotte McCurdy.
The dress has a biodegradable base made of plant fibres, making it free of crude-oil by-products such as synthetic fibres, dyes and plastic sequins.
Find out more about the bioplastic sequin dress ›
Sonnet166 by Lobke Beckfeld and Johanna Hehemeyer-Cürten
Sonnet155 is a bag that was made from fruit skins left over from juice production and short cellulose fibres. The product dissolves in water and can be used to fertilise plants.
The bag has a lifespan similar to a disposable paper bag and was designed to break down naturally before it can be composted or recycled.
Find out more about Sonnet166 ›
The Soil Project by Yuhan Bai
The Soil Project is a clothing collection made with a soil-based leather alternative and vintage garments dyed with soil.
After conducting research into the fashion industry’s reliance on cotton, Royal College of Art fashion student Yuhan Bai devised the concept.
Find out more about The Soil Project ›
Jelly clothing by Valdís Steinarsdóttir
Designer Valdís Steinarsdóttir designed a collection of vest tops made from gelatin or agar. The tops are created by being cast in a mould and then left to solidify.
The garments require no seams or stitches and can be melted to create new clothes if they are damaged or no longer needed.
Find out more about Jelly clothing ›
Jumpsuit made with iridescent BioSequins by Stella McCartney
Earlier this year, fashion brand Stella McCartney revealed a sleeveless bodysuit, which was embellished with bi0plastic sequins that are made from tree cellulose.
Biomaterials firm Radiant Matter created the sequins called BioSequins as a substitute for the petroleum-based plastic options which are commonly used.
Find out more about iridescent BioSequins jumpsuit ›
Fluff Stuff by Aalto University students
Students at Aalto University created Fluff Stuff, a textile filling created from plants cultivated on re-wetted peatlands in Finland.
The students designed a collection of soft homeware and clothing, which include cushions, duvets, jackets, bags and a hooded hat which were filled with typha latifolia, a plant known as broadleaf cattail.
Find out more about Fluff Stuff ›
Fungal Integrated by Helena Elston
Fungal Integrated is an upcycled clothing collection made from mycelium and London-sourced textile waste.
Pieces, which include a seamless dress, a navy trouser suit, chunky heeled boots and a jacket, were all made by designer Helena Elston from a combination of local waste products such as discarded textiles, coffee sacks and fungi.
Find out more about Fungal Integrated ›
Shrimp and mushroom food waste garments by TômTex and Peter Do
Fashion designer Peter Do joined forces with biobased material developer TômTex to create garments for Do’s Spring Summer 2023 collection at New York Fashion Week.
The pair created glossy wide-leg trousers and rounded-neck tank tops in two colours, which were constructed from TômTex’s non-woven biofabric. The 100-per-cent biodegradable material was made from shrimp and mushroom food waste to have the look and feel of leather.
Find out more about the collection ›
Kajola by Olaniyi Studio
Kajola is a series of shoes made from biomaterials by architect Yussef Agbo-Ola of environmental design practice Olaniyi Studio.
Agbo-Ola created nine experimental shoes made out of natural materials including clay, volcanic dust and cocoa. The shoes were created as artwork and curl up like plants when they decay.
Find out more about Kajola ›
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Spotted: Following the COVID-19 pandemic and the rise of hybrid work models, companies need more flexibility than ever to scale their physical presence up or down as circumstances change. But as companies optimise their offices to fit changing working practices, there is a nagging problem: furniture.
Danish startup Nornorm has developed a new model for circular office furniture – one that is based on subscription rather than ownership. Under the startup’s system, companies pay a monthly fee that starts at €3 per square metre (with a startup fee of €12 per square metre).
At the start of the process, the company provides a floor plan and information on functional needs and personal style, and with this input, Nornorm creates a bespoke furniture solution. Before final sign-off, the company is provided with a 3D model of the re-configured workspace so they can add or remove elements as needed.
Once the design phase is over, Nornorm installs the furniture at the company’s office – but this is not the end of the collaboration. Companies are free to alter their design at any time, scaling up or down as circumstances require. If a change is requested, Nornorm will deliver any additional furniture required and disassemble any items that are no longer needed. Companies are also free to cancel their subscription at any time, in which case all their furniture will be collected and re-used with another business. To minimise waste and extent the lifespan of each item, any retired furniture is repaired and refurbished for use elsewhere.
Throwaway culture is leading to increased waste, and that includes our furniture. Springwise has spotted many innovations tackling this issue in the archive, including customisable and dynamic cork-based furnishings and a marketplace for second-hand furniture.
