Spotted: In Sub-Saharan Africa, almost 9 out of 10 children are unable to read and understand simple text by age 10. And, today, the cause of this learning gap is no longer enrolment, which has improved massively since the 1970s. Instead, the issue is the quality of education, with millions of children attending class but not learning effectively. This is often due to poor support for teachers and a lack of effective learning materials.
Edtech startup KAINO tackles this problem with a complete Early Childhood Development (ECD) mobile solution that leverages lesson guides, children’s workbooks, storybooks, and formative assessments that are aligned with a Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) blended curriculum. These materials, which are targeted at early childhood education centres and parents, help children to learn how to read and write efficiently and can be delivered through mobile and web apps.
The company’s curriculum encompasses six distinct learning areas which are crafted to foster holistic development in children. A key feature of the organisation’s approach is that it eschews traditional educational paradigms to make learning not only effective but also enjoyable for every child. This includes a focus on encouraging children’s curiosity through hands-on learning that introduces them to technology in the context of their daily lives.
KAINO’s next steps include developing its content and technology integration, as well as completing pilot programmes, cultivating meaningful partnerships, and raising awareness of the company’s offering.
Springwise has spotted many educational tools aiming to help young people, like providing TikTok-style content to help young people understand finance or personalised online learning powered by generative AI.
Spotted: To reach net zero by 2050, we need to drastically reduce our reliance on fossil fuels, and that means ramping up green energy generation. According to the International Energy Agency (IEA), that involves adding 390 gigawatts of wind power generation capacity every year by 2030. But, rising upfront construction costs, particularly for offshore farms, could compromise that goal, with several offshore projects in the US needing to be cancelled or renegotiated due to issues around financing. Hoping to make wind farm construction more affordable is Colorado-based Keystone Tower Systems.
The company has devised a revolutionary manufacturing process that streamlines and cuts the cost of making turbine columns. In the company’s spiral welding process, which is a well-established technique used to create pipelines, large pieces of steel are fed into a machine, so they curve around into a spiral shape to form a turbine base. The process can be done quickly and continuously by one machine that completes the joining, rolling, fit-up, welding, and severing of a tower section.
With this method, it’s easy to vary the diameters and wall thicknesses, which means that wind towers can be built twice as tall as existing structures, enabling turbines with bigger blades that can also reach greater wind speeds further up in the sky. This means greater wind energy generation.
Keystone’s manufacturing facilities have a relatively small footprint, meaning they can be placed near proposed wind farms for on-site production. Developers therefore don’t need to worry about making long, expensive, and energy-intensive journeys to transport the massive pre-manufactured components required for larger-scale turbines. Instead, steel can be shipped flat, making for much easier transportation. This is particularly helpful for offshore farms, as a temporary manufacturing facility can be easily deployed on the coast, for the creation of tall, structurally optimised towers.
Wind is playing a key role in the green transition, and innovators are working to make it more efficient than ever. Springwise has also spotted small turbines for wind microgrids as well as this novel design that cuts the cost of wind power.
Spotted: Maritime analysts expect “ever-increasing levels of digitisation and system interconnectivity [for] improved operational efficiency” to be one of the forthcoming improvements in the industry. As electrification of land vehicles continues apace, similar changes to the aviation and marine industries are beginning to gain traction.
In addition to the ships themselves, port traffic contributes to the industry’s considerable carbon footprint. To play a part in improving the sustainability of such busy industrial locations, Turkish marine design and engineering company Navtek created the ZEETUG. According to the company, the novel vessel is the world’s first zero-emissions, electric tugboat.
The tug is smart, efficient, and produces no noise or emissions. Fully electric, the ZEETUG’s operations are managed by smart tug energy management system (STEMS) software. STEMS works on desktops as well as mobiles and coordinates all data related to an entire fleet of tugs. From the position and route of the ship being assisted to wind speed, battery motor charge, and distance to the nearest charging station, STEMS allows the tug to self-manage its energy output.
The platform integrates with marine traffic charts and enables online diagnostics for maintenance needs. That helps operators minimise the amount of time a tug needs to spend in the yard for repair, and the smart system also enables updates and performance improvements as Navtek continues its R&D. Additionally, the tugs can be custom-built to provide a range of power outputs depending on the size of the ships and ports with which they work.
From zero-emissions cruise ships to the generation of energy from a ship’s movement water, Springwise’s library contains a number of innovations that are helping the maritime industry work more sustainably.
Spotted: The World Economic Forum (WEF) calls the reuse of greywater – lightly used waste water – “one of the most promising avenues for water innovation.” One of the main challenges in increasing this reuse, though, is the highly energy-intensive process required to power the treatment processes and plants.
Renewable energy could be the solution that makes greywater recycling sustainable. French company Geopure designed a system that provides an endless loop of zero-waste, sustainable showers. The company’s WTS100 system was created particularly for organisations and communities living in remote areas or off-grid. The shower requires 100 litres of water from almost any source, including groundwater sources and rain.
Water drains directly from the shower and accompanying taps into the recycling system, to be purified immediately without using chemicals or generating emissions. Once the water has been disinfected and is ready for reuse, the system pumps the water back to the shower.
The WTS100 system is modular and portable, enabling custom sizes and bespoke layouts. Geopure’s systems are currently being used in locations that include an off-grid glamping camp in Australia and a self-sufficient cabin in Finland.
The UN Environment Programme calls wastewater “an invaluable resource” that could supply over 10 times the water currently provided by global desalination. Springwise’s library showcases a number of innovations seeking to make use of that resource, from beer to biomanufacturing feedstocks.
Biomaterials have the potential to significantly cut carbon emissions but designers should approach them with caution to avoid creating a whole new set of problems, warns Sioban Imms.
The vision of a civilisation based on biomaterials is compelling: products, clothes and buildings made from materials that have been “grown”, rather than derived from polluting, extractive fossil industries. The promise is not only lower emissions, but products that are more in tune with the environment – manufactured objects that are part of the natural cycle of life. And consumers are willing to pay a premium for such ostensibly “sustainable” products – 12 per cent more, according to a recent study by Bain.
However, in a bid to gain competitive advantage, marketing narratives surrounding biomaterials are regularly inflated or gloss over important details. Prefixing “bio” to a material name conjures a sense of being natural, compostable, and better all round for personal and environmental health.
Marketing narratives surrounding biomaterials are regularly inflated
But these claims can unravel, or at least become complicated, when researching a little deeper than the material classification, product name and strapline. A report from RepRisk found a 70 per cent increase in incidents of greenwashing between 2022 and 2023. Incoming legislation in the EU is specifically targeting this issue.
The definition and terminology around biomaterials is still evolving. For clarity, we’re not talking here about biomaterial designed for implanting into the body, but biologically derived materials used in product, fashion and architecture.
Often grown using living micro-organisms like yeast, bacteria, cellulose and mycelium, they can be finely tuned at the nanoscale by engineering DNA sequences to produce specific properties. For example, UK company Colorfix tweaks the DNA of bacteria so that they excrete coloured pigments for dyeing textiles. Microbial manufacturing organisms like these tend to be fed, fermented and modified in controlled environments.
The substitution of fossil-derived, high-carbon materials for biomaterials is urgently important. A recently published study by Radboud Universiteit in the Netherlands concluded that biomaterials reduce greenhouse-gas emissions by an average of 45 per cent compared to fossil-based materials.
But biomaterials are not a magic bullet to the multi-faceted nature crisis industrial civilisation is causing. Especially important is avoiding what are sometimes called “regrettable substitutions” – whereby one material is replaced with another that merely introduces a new set of problems.
For example, BioCane disposable food packaging is an alternative to plastic food packaging made from bagasse – pulped sugarcane-fibre, a waste product from the sugar industry. The design is geared to express its natural origins and circularity, from the subtly flecked, neutral colour and matte finish to the embossed logomark featuring a plant within a gradated circle.
Biomaterials are not a magic bullet to the multi-faceted nature crisis
However, for BioCane to be grease repellant (so it doesn’t fall apart before you’ve consumed the contents) it needs an oleophobic coating, unlike plastic packaging. BioCane uses a polyfluoroalkyl substance (PFAS) for this coating. PFAS are termed “forever chemicals” due to their damaging long-term persistence and accumulation in the environment – not to mention our own bodies.
BioPak, which produces BioCane, transparently publishes information about this on its website, highlighting it as an industry-wide problem. The company also includes a timely pledge to phase out PFAS-containing packaging by June 2024, which happens to coincide with a move to phase out PFAS by the Environmental Protection Agency in the US.
Not all manufacturers are as responsible; it’s common to find unlisted additives – or perhaps a fossil-based lamination to improve a material’s durability – under a headline claim of biological origins.
Bioplastic is another material experiencing significant growth, partly driven by high oil prices making fossil-fuel-derived plastic less competitive. Most bioplastic is made from ethanol, commonly sourced from corn, wheat or sugarcane. Sugarcane, for example, is planted in monocultures in tropical and sub-tropical countries like Brazil. The sugar is extracted, fermented and distilled to produce precursor chemicals for bioplastics.
But to assess the environmental value of using this bioplastic, we need to know about how the crops are managed – for example, the pesticides and synthetic fertilisers used to increase crop yield, the land-clearance practices, and the effect on food prices if the bioplastic became widely adopted. At the end of the product’s life, specialised infrastructure for disposal will need to be in place, further complicating the picture.
Biodegradable bioplastic would seem to offer a solution to the worst ravages of plastic – the alarming buildup of microplastic pollution across the world. How much better if the material could be absorbed back into the environment?
Biodegradable doesn’t mean a material will break down in the environment over useful timescales
The market opportunity for biodegradable plastics is alluring, and forecasts predict that they will account for the majority of the bioplastics market – 62 per cent, by 2028. This opportunity is attracting investment and also the potential for greenwashing as companies vie for a competitive advantage over others.
But biodegradable doesn’t mean a material will break down in the environment over useful timescales. A 2022 UCL study of supposedly “home compostable” bioplastics revealed that 60 per cent did not fully degrade within the tested timespans – a finding that unravels the whole purpose for investing in compostable packaging.
Claims relating to bioplastics were at the crux of a recent legal case brought against US biotech firm Danimer Scientific Inc. The manufacturer of biodegradable products had claimed that its proprietary plastic material Nodax PHA is able to biodegrade not only in industrial composting facilities but in landfill and in the ocean.
Danimer’s share prices rocketed, sparking an investigative report in the Wall Street Journal, which stated that “many claims about Nodax are exaggerated and misleading, according to several experts on biodegradable plastics”. Danimer refutes this statement, but what came out in court was that the company performed biodegradability tests on Nodax in a powdered form, which doesn’t relate to real-world product formats like bottles that have variable thickness.
The legal case was eventually dismissed, but nonetheless the alleged greenwashing spiked Danimer’s share price, shaking investors’ trust in the company and having knock-on effects for the wider industry.
Going forward, manufacturers will need to be transparent about what goes into their products. In the EU, legislation tackling greenwashing in product labelling will come into effect in 2026. The new law is a direct response to the rise in misleading claims that companies use.
When specifying a biomaterial, it’s important to dig into its provenance
It comes after a study commissioned by the bloc found that 53 per cent of green claims on products and services are vague, misleading or unfounded, and 40 per cent have no supporting evidence. In the UK, the Competition and Markets Authority has published the Green Claims Code – a six-point guide to help businesses ensure they are not unwittingly misleading customers.
These two initiatives highlight the importance of using the right language when promoting products and materials, and as the impact of the EU’s legislation ripples through the industry, there will be a natural calibration to more transparency.
The takeaway for designers is that, as ever, the picture is complex. When specifying a biomaterial, it’s important to dig into its provenance, as well as to look at the material use and disposal. The allure of the “bio” prefix from an ethical – and marketing – perspective may be strong, but must be taken along with some healthy scrutiny.
Sioban Imms is a colour, material and finish (CMF) and sustainability strategist with a background in design and manufacturing. She is co-founder of consulting agency Substance and a contributing editor at trend forecasters Stylus and WGSN.
The photo, of MarinaTex designed by Lucy Hughes, is courtesy of the University of Sussex.
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Spotted: Data centres are a significant but often overlooked contributor to climate change, responsible – along with their accompanying data transmission networks – for around one per cent of global greenhouse gas emissions. Computer processes generate a lot of heat as a by-product, and cooling systems therefore account for a significant proportion of the energy consumption of a typical data centre.
Now, however, French startup Hestiia is looking at the heat generated by computing differently, using it to create a new kind of domestic radiator, called the myEko.
The startup collects and upgrades used ASIC chips from data centres and places them on a custom-made electronics board, which forms the core of the radiator. Conductive layers and piping then transfer the heat produced when the refurbished chips perform calculations to the space that needs heating.
Hestiia provides the compute capacity embodied in the radiators to companies that need it for heavy workloads such as scientific research, 3D modelling, crypto mining, and blockchain. The startup’s customers, meanwhile, install the radiators to heat their homes.
In addition to being highly efficient, the radiators use smart sensors to automatically regulate the temperature of a room, and users can tweak preferences on the app, such as setting day and night modes to automatically adjust temperatures for each space depending on the time of day. And, the system further detects temperature changes from actions such as opening a window and alerts owners, signalling them to turn the temperature down to avoid wasted energy. In ‘geolocation mode’, the system can detect when a user is coming home and turn on the heating accordingly.
Hestiia’s initial product was a water heater system called SATO that similarly reused the heat from computer chips to supplement a standard boiler. The startup is now pivoting to focus on myEko, which it believes is an even more accessible, mass-market solution.
Other innovations in Springwise’s library working to decarbonise computing include a new power distribution unit that maximises efficiency, and the use of AI to reduce the number of calculations required.
Spotted: In all the talk of technology to help various sectors reach climate targets, less attention has been paid to nature-based solutions. Often, nature restoration projects are met with long and cumbersome processes, which hinders fundraising, scaling, and speed.
Nature tech company Arkadiah Technology has developed a solution to bring traceability and transparency to these projects, making it easier to unlock financing and scale land restoration projects. Arkadiah has built a platform designed especially for climate mitigation projects in Southeast Asia, a region that saw greenhouse gas emissions rise faster than anywhere else in the world between 1990 and 2010.
Arkadiah’s approach uses artificial intelligence (AI), LiDAR, satellite imagery, and ground truthing to provide transparent and verifiable data. Project developers, landowners, and corporations can then use this information to streamline the deployment of nature-based climate solutions, such as reforestation projects, and quickly issue quality carbon removal and biodiversity credits.
The company has recently closed a successful seed funding round led by Golden Gate Ventures, with participation from The Radical Fund and Money Forward Venture Partners. Oriana Soryo, Head of Marketing at Arkadiah, told Springwise that the company is “now working on developing the technology and onboarding project partners and investors. Our focus is on restoration and regenerative agriculture, where there is a shortage of such high-quality carbon removal projects.”
Platforms like Arkadiah’s can help make it easier and quicker for climate projects to attract the funding they need. Springwise has spotted other platforms that are boosting essential nature-based projects, including the use of AI to unlock climate investments and prevent wildfires.
Spotted: Food waste is a major problem, with around one-third of all food produced for human consumption going to waste and 13 per cent of that happening between harvest and retail. That is a lot of wasted resources and nutrition. One thing that could help is extending the shelf life of crops while preserving their quality.
In Switzerland, AgroSustain, a spinout from the University of Lausanne, is hoping to tackle this problem by becoming a one-stop-shop for natural and biological fungicides and coatings that prevent food waste from farm to fork.
The company’s first product is an invisible, odourless, and tasteless coating that extends the shelf life of fruit. This coating, which is called AgroSFruits, has been in use since 2022, but the company is not resting on its laurels and is committed to ongoing research to develop further products for both pre- and post-harvest applications.
These new products include similar natural coatings for flowers and vegetables, as well as a new category of ‘next-level’ biocoatings. Beyond this, AgroSustain is also working on a biostimulant that will improve the productivity of crops and boost their resilience to emerging environmental stresses, such as drought.
The company claims that its natural coatings can extend the shelf life of some goods by up to one month, while reducing water use by up to 70 per cent.
Increasingly, innovators are interested in developing new ways to reduce the vast amount of emissions from agriculture. Springwise has spotted a number of these, including using farm waste as fertiliser and turning fruit waste into delicious new products.
Spotted: The European Commission recently warned France that, as a nation, it lags “far behind on its targets for recycling household waste and (…) it will have to step up efforts considerably to achieve them.” Helping the country close the gap between its goals and reality is French waste management technology company Akanthas.
Akanthas calls waste a ‘resource’ and combines Internet of Things (IoT) hardware with artificial intelligence (AI) analysis to identify, categorise, and more efficiently manage it. The company’s intelligent, AI-powered digital waste production and management platform helps organisations reduce the volume of waste sent to landfill.
Co-founder and CEO Viviana Contreras told Springwise that the system helps companies reduce their waste transport needs by 15 per cent a year and improves the sorting of their waste by 20 per cent. Currently focused on businesses, including heavy industry, Akanthas creates custom KPIs for waste management companies, recycling centres, construction and demolition companies, asphalt plants, manufacturers, and retail brands.
For waste management companies, the platform identifies sorting errors, flags cross-contamination and tracks the effectiveness and efficiency of pickup locations, driving routes, and fill rates. One sensor can monitor up to four containers, and the AI-powered image analysis blurs human faces so the focus is on the waste. The data gathered by the system lets organisations better allocate their vehicles and pickup times and work more closely with customers to support them in taking the most sustainable actions.
For industrial spaces and construction sites, the system is customised for the materials being generated, including liquid and toxic waste, and monitors volumes to ensure that pickups are booked for the right times to keep a space safe. The system also generates automatically required reports and certifications.
Akanthas is already working with Veolia and Bouygues Travaux Publics, among other waste management companies in France. Now in the process of closing a €2.5 million funding round, Akanthas plans to use the capital to expand the availability of its system globally.
Other innovations in Springwise’s Library that are also working on cutting waste and improving waste management include AI food scanners and real-time communication between waste generators and disposal companies.
Spotted: Lithium is a vital component in rechargeable batteries, including the batteries used in electric vehicles (EVs). However, the conventional process for extracting the element from its ore involves high levels of dangerous chemicals such as sulphuric acid. These are not only environmentally harmful, but also expensive.
As a more sustainable alternative, Novalith Technologies has developed a process that uses carbonic acid in carbonated water to extract lithium from rocks and clays in the form of lithium carbonate, leaving inert, CO2-infused rock as a by-product. This method, called LiCAL, cuts process costs by 65 per cent and plant costs by 50 per cent, while using 90 per cent less water than conventional processes.
If the energy for Novalith’s extraction process is taken from renewable sources, the overall production can even be made carbon-negative. The company also claims the process can achieve higher recovery rates and can operate at a much faster rate than other extraction methods.
Following seed funding in August 2021, Novalith built an R&D facility in Sydney, Australia, to demonstrate the process across several different ore resources. In April 2023, the company raised AU$23 million (around €13.9 million) in a series A funding round led by Lowercarbon Capital, with participation from the Clean Energy Finance Corporation and others. The funding will go towards a new pilot facility in Sydney, and help the company scale and commercialise LiCAL.
With the world’s demand for lithium batteries rising, more and more innovations in the Springwise Library are working to make their production greener. These include a cleaner way to recycle lithium batteries and a lithium extraction technique that uses far less land than conventional methods.