Spotted: Many African countries receive more than 2,500 hours of sunshine per year, making the continent an ideal location for solar energy power. As the number of providers grows, so too does access to renewable energy sources. Nigerian-based Starsight Energy expanded into three east African countries before merging with South African company SolarAfrica. The new combined business now covers three sizeable areas of the continent and has plans to develop further.
Tailored solar energy solutions provided by the company include a complete audit of an organisation’s power and cooling needs and a custom-designed installation. One of the main selling points of solar energy on the continent is its reliability combined with the lack of dramatic price fluctuations diesel customers contend with. Starsight says that its customers receive full power 99 per cent of the time. Depending on local conditions, the solar arrays can be on- or off-grid as best suits the situation.
To help make it easier for businesses of all sizes to afford the switch to renewable energy, customers pay no money upfront. Instead, clients pay a set monthly fee that includes all analysis, set-up, monitoring, and support services. Contract lengths vary with a minimum of five years. For businesses requiring energy at night, Starsight provides standby generators for sites requiring particularly heavy power loads as well as a Power-as-a-Service battery storage option.
The application of solar energy is expanding, with Springwise spotting innovations such as greenhouse solar systems that use wavelengths of light that plants cannot use, and solar cells printed onto construction steel for integrated energy generation.
An exhibition in Mexico curated in collaboration with Danish research lab Space10 has showcased five novel uses for local biomaterials.
Called Deconstructed Home, the exhibition was set up as part of a two-week programme organised by Space10, a research arm of IKEA. The lab gave five designers six weeks of experimentation and research to conceptualise “new possibilities and uses for a local biomaterial”.
The materials ranged from beeswax to soil and the final projects will travel throughout Mexico after the initial exhibition at LOOT, a gallery in Mexico City, which took place 26 March to 9 April 2022.
“The recent pandemic has highlighted flaws in our global supply chain, and the ongoing climate emergency has revealed further issues with the way we manufacture and transport materials and products around the world,” said Elsa Dagný Ásgeirsdóttir, lead creative producer at Space10.
Articles of Protection by Taina Campos
Taina Campos worked with corn from the Milpa Alta, a neighbourhood in Mexico City. The design brief required collaboration with Mujeres de la Tierra, a local community organisation.
The organisation helps women become financially independent through the selling of food and they wanted non-plastic vessels. Campos used waste from the corn harvest in order to produce these vessels for Articles of Protection.
Migrating Objects by Bertín López
The rambutan is a plant native to southeast Asia that moved into Mexico in the 1950s.
Using the plant in the state of Soconusco, Bertín López came up with a line of home goods. The project shows the potential usages of migrating species that come to play a role in local ecosystems.
“What was once foreign has become part of the local identity,” said López in a design statement.
Homes for Honey by Gabriel Calvillo
Taking note of the dwindling populations of the melipona, a stingless bee native to Yucatán, Calvillo drew on Mayan apiary techniques used for millennia.
The designer used beeswax from the bees to mould potes and piqueras for what he calls an “interspecies collaboration”.
The structures are prefabricated hives that the bees can inhabit and then finish the construction.
Building with Earth by Karen Kerstin Poulain
Designer Karen Kerstin Poulain chose to work with the soil of Naucalpan for her project.
The result was a composite material made by combining tepetate (volcanic soil), water, rice husk in order to reduce energy usages and resource exhaustion in concrete while also taking advantage of agricultural waste.
“To build affordable housing, we need alternative methods and liquid soil has great potential,” said the designer.
Weaving Heirlooms by Paloma Morán Palomar
This project uses the fibres of the tamarind in order to create a type of thread.
The husks of the tamarind are often discarded so Palomar, working in her native Jalisco, decided to use the thread to weave rugs.
By using the materials on top of traditional weaving techniques, the design manages to be novel in material usage while drawing on indigenous techniques.
To celebrate Earth Day we’ve compiled a list of 50 people who are pushing the boundaries of sustainable architecture and design.
Architects and designers have a key role to play in reducing carbon emissions, pollution and waste while protecting biodiversity.
Here are 50 individuals and studios who are doing pioneering work, ranging from architects exploring timber construction to designers thinking radically about circularity and scientists developing new low-carbon materials.
Adebayo Oke-Lawal, founder of Orange Culture
Adebayo Oke-Lawal is a Nigerian fashion designer. His label, Orange Culture, strives to minimise waste and sources 90 per cent of its supply chain in Nigeria.
He was featured in Circular Design for Fashion, a book aimed at helping the fashion industry become more circular published by the Ellen MacArthur Foundation.
As CEO of Swedish architecture firm White Arkitekter, Alexandra Hagen is an industry leader in the shift towards more sustainable, zero-carbon buildings.
The studio has built up an impressive portfolio of structures that go beyond net-zero to carbon negative, including the Sara Kulturhus Centre, which is the world’s second-tallest wooden tower and was featured in the UK Green Building Council’s list of 17 exemplary sustainable projects compiled for the COP26 climate summit.
White Arkitekter has pledged to design only carbon-neutral or carbon-negative buildings by 2030.
Find out more about Alexandra Hagen and White Arkitekter ›
Anab Jain and Jon Ardern, co-founders of Superflux
Anab Jain and Jon Ardern’s design and film studio Superflux was born in 2009 out of a desire to explore the intersection between the environment, technology and culture.
Their recent installation at the Museum of Applied Arts in Vienna, which aimed to raise awareness about climate change, featured 415 fire-damaged pine trees surrounding an oasis of living plants and water.
Last year the pair took part in the Dezeen 15 virtual festival, proposing a new framework for caring for the planet.
Find out more about Superflux ›
Andrew Waugh, co-founder of Waugh Thistleton Architects
Andrew Waugh has long been a vocal advocate for building more sustainably and has been an outspoken critic of existing UK regulations relating to environmental construction.
As part of his role in the Architects Declare pressure group, Waugh co-authored a recent report setting out ways to reduce carbon emissions associated with the built environment.
His own practice, London-based Waugh Thistleton Architects, is known for the extensive use of timber in its projects. A recent office building in London is designed to be fully demountable so it can be taken apart and its materials re-used at the end of its life.
Find out more about Andrew Waugh ›
Arthur Huang, founder of Miniwiz
Taiwanese structural engineer and architect Arthur Huang has been developing novel recycling techniques and machinery for nearly 20 years with his company Miniwiz.
After helping major brands such as Nike to create installations, packaging and other products from post-consumer waste materials, the business is now focused on democratising the recycling process and making it more easily accessible to everyday consumers.
For this purpose, Miniwiz has created a mobile recycling plant called Trashpresso, which received the World Design Impact Prize in 2021 and condenses the same recycling line that normally takes over entire industrial plants into two mobile units about the size of a refrigerator.
Find out more about Arthur Huang ›
Babette Porcelijn, designer and writer
Babette Porcelijn is a Dutch designer, author and speaker with an unusually broad range of knowledge about environmental issues and a strong belief in designers’ potential to make a difference.
She co-wrote The Hidden Impact, a book that lifts the lid on the lesser-known damage that Western economies and lifestyles continue to wreak on the planet. It contends that industrial products created with the help of designers, like mobile phones, are the biggest contributors to climate change.
Find out more about Babette Porcelijn ›
Bethany Williams, fashion designer
Bethany Williams is a fashion designer, humanitarian and artist. She graduated from Brighton University with a degree in Critical Fine Art before going on to study and receive a master’s from the London College of Fashion in Menswear.
Williams launched her eponymous brand in 2017 and has since strived to address social and environmental issues. She is best known for using and repurposing waste and scraps within her works as well as collaborating with local grassroots programs to convey how fashion and design can be inclusive.
An exhibition at the Design Museum recently opened showcasing Williams’ commitment to sustainability.
New York designer Charlotte McCurdy takes providing solutions to the problems caused by climate change as the starting point for her work.
The fashion designer uses biomaterials and carbon sequestration technology in her products such as a dress adorned with algae sequins and a raincoat made from algae bioplastic.
Find out more about Charlotte McCurdy ›
Cyrill Gutsch, founder of Parley for the Oceans
Cyrill Gutsch is a leading voice on the health of the world’s oceans and in calls for the fashion industry to tackle ocean pollution.
His company, Parley for the Oceans, was one of the first to promote the repurposing of ocean plastic, using it to make trainers, sports kits, clothing, trophies and even a floating tennis court.
In a 2020 interview with Dezeen, he warned that the circular economy “will never work with the materials we have” and requires plastic to be replaced with biofabricated substances.
Find out more about Cyrill Gutsch ›
Daniel Fernández Pascual and Alon Schwabe, Cooking Sections
Art duo Cooking Sections investigate the environmental impact of food through architecture and design. Their work includes Climavore, an ongoing project about how we can change what we eat to respond to climate change, which was initiated in 2015 and nominated for the 2021 Turner Prize.
“Food is one of the main drivers and forces that is shaping the ecology of the planet, within and around us,” Cooking Sections co-founders Daniel Fernández Pascual and Alon Schwabe explained in a recent interview with Dezeen.
The pair also created a zero-water garden in Sharjah to demonstrate how desert plants can be used as an alternative to water-hungry plants in arid cities.
Find out more about Cooking Sections ›
Daniel Mitchell, founder of Space Available
UK-born architect and designer Daniel Mitchell now lives in Bali, Indonesia, where was formerly creative director of the hospitality brand Potato Head and has since launched multidisciplinary studio Space Available.
While at Potato Head he introduced a move towards zero waste as part of embracing circular economy principles. Notable projects he worked on include the Katamama hotel, which uses local crafts and materials. In 2020, Mitchell took part in a live talk hosted by Dezeen on how art and architecture came together for the project.
Space Available consults brands on circularity and produces its design own products made from waste materials.
Darshil Shah, senior researcher at the University of Cambridge
Dr Darshil Shah is a senior researcher within the Centre for Natural Material Innovation at Cambridge University, where he works to develop new biomaterials.
He is a leading expert on low-carbon construction materials, particularly hemp, and how they can be used in different industries, including construction, transport, healthcare and wind energy.
Last summer, he told Dezeen that hemp is “more effective than trees” at sequestering carbon from the atmosphere.
Find out more about Darshil Shah ›
Edward Mazria, founder of Architecture 2030
Edward Mazria is an internationally recognised architect, author and researcher who has dedicated the past four decades of his career to advocating for sustainable architecture.
He is best known for founding the pro-bono organisation Architecture 2030, which exists to help transform the built environment from a contributor to a solution in the climate emergency. As part of Architecture 2030, he has launched initiatives such as the 2030 Challenge and addressed world leaders at events including the 2015 United Nations Climate Change Conference.
In 2021, the AIA awarded Mazria its coveted Gold Medal prize for his “unwavering voice and leadership” in the fight against climate change. Last August, he set out three steps for architects to reach zero-carbon through their work in a piece for Dezeen.
Find out more about Edward Mazria ›
Ellen MacArthur, former sailor and founder of the Ellen MacArthur Foundation
Ellen MacArthur became one of the world’s preeminent advocates for the circular economy after the former round-the-world sailor retired from yachting to launch the Ellen MacArthur Foundation in 2010.
Since then, the charity has partnered with some of the biggest brands in the world to accelerate the shift towards a circular economy and published a number of influential reports on plastic pollution and textile waste, alongside practical guides on how to design products and garments in a more circular way.
Eric Klarenbeek, co-founder of Studio Klarenbeek & Dros
Dutch designer Eric Klarenbeek has pioneered ways of using bioplastics made from mycelium and algae in combination with 3D printing, as an alternative to materials derived from fossil fuels.
Klarenbeek’s projects include a 3D-printed chair made out of living fungus that continues to grow, strengthening the product over time. He believes the method could eventually be used to make larger, more complex structures such as houses.
His studio, run in partnership with fellow Dutch designer Maartje Dros, was also a collaborator on a pavilion built with panels grown from mushroom mycelium.
Find out more about Eric Klarenbeek ›
Gabriela Hearst, creative director of Chloé
Born in Uruguay at her family’s remote ranch, Gabriela Hearst is a fashion designer and creative director of luxury fashion house Chloé, as well as being founder of her own eponymous label.
Hearst is best known for her forward-thinking approach to sustainability and slow-growth business ethos.
Since 2015, Hearst has committed to using deadstock fabrics, non-virgin materials and becoming plastic-free. As creative director at Chloé, Hearst was instrumental in helping the company secure a B Corp environmental certification, becoming the first luxury brand to achieve that status.
Hélène Chartier, director of urban planning and design at C40 Cities
Hélène Chartier is the director of urban planning and design for C40 Cities – a network that coordinates the decarbonisation strategies of nearly 100 of the world’s largest cities, which together make up one-quarter of the global economy.
Through projects such as the Reinventing Cities competition, she brings together architects and planners with city leaders to encourage the widespread adoption of zero-carbon building strategies.
Before joining C40, Chartier was responsible for advising visionary Paris mayor Anne Hidalgo, who has made headlines for her approach to sustainable urban regeneration.
Find out more about Hélène Chartier ›
Photo is by Iwan Baan
Henna Burney, product designer at Atelier Luma
Henna Burney is a Columbian product designer based at Atelier Luma, a design and research laboratory in Arles, France.
She specialises in developing biomaterials and discovering new purposes for low-value materials that are often overlooked. Most recently, this saw Burney and her design partner Kalijn Sibbel create cladding made from salt, which is installed inside Frank Gehry’s tower for the Luma Foundation.
Other young designers at Atelier Luma also made biomaterial interior finishes for the Luma Foundation tower, such as algae tiles for the bathrooms and acoustic panels made from sunflower stems.
With Takt, trained physicist Henrik Taudorf Lorenson has built one of the most carbon-conscious furniture brands on the market today.
All of its products are EU Ecolabelled and made from FSC-certified wood in order to reduce their carbon footprint, which is displayed publicly on the Takt website.
The company already offsets all emissions from its products by investing in certified carbon removal projects and aims to be fully net-zero in the next 2 years.
Find out more about Takt ›
Hester van Dijk, co-founder of Overtreders W
Hester van Dijk is a co-founder and principal of Overtreders W, an Amsterdam-based spatial design studio that specialises in zero-waste architecture.
Its projects include the award-winning People’s Pavilion at the 2017 Dutch Design Week, made entirely from borrowed materials that were reused after the building was dismantled, as well as a zero-waste temporary restaurant and another reusable pavilion.
Van Dijk also founded Pretty Plastic, a startup that produces recyclable shingles from plastic waste that it claims are the first 100-per-cent-recycled cladding material.
Find out more about Overtreders W ›
Iris van Herpen, fashion designer
Known for her experimental approach to fashion, Iris van Herpen’s couture collections often focus on the qualities of water and air, with one informed by the cyclical processes of planet Earth.
As well as exploring natural biomimetic processes of the planet, many of Van Herpen’s collections are made from unusual materials such as leather alternative mycelium.
In 2020, she sat down with Dezeen for a series of three exclusive video interviews to discuss her work.
Find out more about Iris van Herpen ›
Jalila Essaïdi, CEO of Inspidere BV
Jalila Essaïdi is a Dutch artist and inventor based in Eindhoven who specialises in bio-based materials.
She is the chief executive of biotechnology company Inspidere BV and the founder of the BioArt Laboratories foundation, which provides entrepreneurs with access to biotech labs.
Among her most notable projects is a fashion collection made from recycled cow dung, which simultaneously addressed the harmful global manure surplus and the potential to turn waste into a useful material.
Find out more about Jalila Essaïdi ›
Julia Watson, designer and author
Designer and environmental activist Julia Watson is an expert in nature-based methods of dealing with the effects of climate change.
In her groundbreaking book, “Lo-Tek: Design by Radical Indigenism”, she explored how solutions to environmental issues could be found in the existing climate-resilient technologies of indigenous and traditional communities.
Watson’s eponymous studio helps find creative ways for businesses and projects to become more sustainable and symbiotic with nature.
Find out more about Julia Watson ›
Kabage Karanja and Stella Mutegi, co-founders of Cave Bureau
Kabage Karanja and Stella Mutegi are the co-founders of Cave Bureau, a Kenyan architecture and research studio focused on the relationship between buildings, infrastructure and nature.
Their work particularly tries to reconcile traditional cultures with present-day issues, such as sustainability. For Dezeen 15, Cave Bureau proposed replacing major roads in Nairobi with naturalistic “cow corridor” for Maasai people.
Find out more about Cave Bureau ›
Author Katie Treggiden
Katie Treggiden, writer and speaker
Katie Treggiden is an English writer, podcaster and speaker known for championing circular approaches to design. Her fifth, most recent book, “Wasted: When Trash Becomes Treasure”, explores how waste materials can be upcycled using craft techniques.
She is also the founder and director of Making Design Circular, a membership community for designers seeking to make their creations more sustainable, and a Dezeen Awards judge.
Find out more about Katie Treggiden ›
Lena Pripp-Kovac, chief sustainability officer at IKEA
Lena Pripp-Kovac is leading IKEA’s drive to become circular and climate positive by 2030, with all its products set to be made from renewable or recycled materials and able to be reused, refurbished or recycled by that date.
The giant Swedish retailer is the highest-profile corporation to have made a commitment to circularity. In a 2019 interview with Dezeen, Pripp-Kovac described the ambition as a “change of our total business”.
Find out more about IKEA ›
Liina Klauss, artist
Liina Klauss is a German artist based in Hong Kong and Bali. Klauss describes herself as an “artivist and beach curator” and creates environmentally-centred artworks and installations from waste found along the coast.
Klauss’ practice came as a result of working in the fashion industry and witnessing the effects and reality of mass production and over-consumption. Her work aims to help viewers visualise crises such as pollution and prompt discussion.
She previously collaborated with Daniel Mitchell (see above) on the Katamama hotel in Bali, celebrated for its use of local crafts and materials, and appeared alongside him on a panel for a Dezeen talk about the project.
Lucas De Man, is an actor, director and TV presenter, as well as founder and CEO of Dutch company Biobased Creations.
Biobased Creations is leading the way in using biomaterials in its installations and events spaces. Noteworthy projects by the studio include a pavilion constructed with panels grown from mushroom mycelium and a show home built using 100 different plant-based or natural materials including seaweed, vegetable fibres and sewage.
In a 2021 interview with Dezeen, De Man laid out his belief that buildings could “definitely” soon be made exclusively from plant-based products.
Find out more about Biobased Creations ›
Marco Vermeulen, founder of Studio Marco Vermeulen
Marco Vermeulen is a Dutch architect and founder of his namesake design office Studio Marco Vermeulen. Vermeulen is known for his use of timber and raw materials to create sustainable buildings as well as his research into sustainable forestry and how it can be used to form a circular approach to construction.
Studio Marco Vermeulen has created many works that address sustainability issues and demonstrate the potential of timber in architecture, including a timber pavilion for Dutch Design Week 2019 and a design for a pair of cross-laminated timber skyscrapers.
Find out more about Studio Marco Vermeulen ›
Marie and Annica Eklund, co-founders of Bolon
Sisters Marie and Annica Eklund have headed Swedish flooring company Bolon since 2003. The family firm has been recycling vinyl and textile offcuts into woven rag rugs for over 70 years, but under their stewardship it has transformed into a global brand.
Describing their company as championing circularity, the pair have invested in a vinyl recycling plant for its factory in Sweden.
In 2017, Dezeen ran an exclusive video series with the Eklund sisters exploring Bolon’s history of sustainable design and technology.
Find out more about Bolon ›
Marie Cudennec Carlisle, CEO and co-founder of Goldfinger
Marie Cudennec Carlisle accredits her affection for nature to her upbringing in rural Hong Kong. She co-founded her studio, Goldfinger, in 2017 alongside Oliver Waddington-Ball and continues to lead the firm as CEO.
Goldfinger is a social enterprise that makes furniture using only recycled wood – but rather than a “shabby chic” aesthetic it intends for its pieces to be high-end and long-lasting.
“It’s about creating beautiful objects that don’t look recycled,” Cudennec Carlisle told Dezeen in an interview. “I want someone to say, ‘I want that table’, even if they are not interested in people or planet. By buying it, they are supporting the social and environmental benefits.”
Marina Tabassum, founder of Marina Tabassum Architects
Marina Tabassum is a Bangladeshi architect who works exclusively in her home country, specialising in buildings constructed from local materials and designed to improve the lives of low-income communities.
Her Khudi Bari modular houses are an eminent example of climate-resilient architecture, able to be easily moved to escape flooding and with elevated sleeping space to avoid the water.
She was recently awarded the Soane Medeal for architecture, with the jury remarking: “All her work is underpinned by a focus on sustainability and Tabassum is truly leading the conversation about the ways in which architecture, people and planet interact.”
Find out more about Marina Tabassum ›
Marjan van Aubel, designer
Marjan van Aubel earned a place on this list through her innovative work proving the varied potential of solar power.
The young Dutch designer has developed ingenious small products like a table with a solar panel in its surface for charging gadgets, as well as large installations like the vast solar panel skylight created for the Netherlands pavilion at the 2020 Dubai Expo, intended to show that solar can be beautiful.
Van Aubel is also the co-founder of The Solar Biennale, which will take place for the first time this year in Rotterdam.
Find out more about Marjan van Aubel ›
Michael Green, founder of Michael Green Architecture
His eponymous studio designed T3, which was the largest mass timber building in the United States when it was completed in 2016. It is now working on a timber office building in New Jersey nearly twice the size of T3.
Find out more about Michael Green Architecture ›
Michael Pawlyn, co-founder of Architects Declare
Michael Pawlyn is an architect who specialises in the concepts of biomimicry and regenerative design that is beneficial for the planet, humans and other species.
He carries out much of his work with Exploration Architecture, the studio that he founded in 2007. One of its most notable projects is The Sahara Forest Project in Qatar – a seawater-cooled greenhouse that replicates the physiology of a beetle to create freshwater and grow crops within the hostile landscape.
In 2019, Pawlyn also co-initiated Architects Declare, a network of architecture studios that has pledged to help tackle the climate and biodiversity crises.
Find out more about Michael Pawlyn ›
Nick Shute and Stefan Dodds, co-founders of Dodds & Shute
Nick Shute and Stefan Dodds are co-founders of London design consultancy and procurement firm Dodds & Shute, which has a track record in convincing clients to go for sustainable options.
Together, they have made the firm a case study for positive change in the furniture industry, developing a method of calculating the carbon footprint of every Dodds & Shute project and then mitigating for this impact.
Dodds & Shute also devised and conducted an environmental audit of furniture brands, warning that the sector is “turning a blind eye” to climate issues.
A young Dutch designer who is leading in the use of biomaterials and changing perspectives on environmental problems in the textile industry, Nienke Hoogvliet founded her studio for material research and design in 2013.
Hoogvliet’s projects include bowls and tables made from waste toilet paper and a furniture collection made from seaweed and algae.
In 2019, she appeared on a panel at the Dezeen Day conference where she urged an end to the production of plastics.
Find out more about Nienke Hoogvliet ›
Nina-Marie Lister, professor of Urban & Regional Planning at Ryerson University
Nina-Marie Lister is an ecological designer and planner and an academic at Ryerson University in Toronto, where she founded the Ecological Design Lab.
In 2021, she was awarded the Margolese National Design for Living Prize for her work, which focuses on how urban landscapes can be reimagined to foster biodiversity and climate resilience as well as prioritising human wellbeing. In November, she took part in a Dezeen talk on the relationship between design and activism.
Pierre Paslier and Rodrigo Garcia Gonzalez, founders of Notpla
Pierre Paslier and Rodrigo Garcia Gonzalez founded Notpla in 2014 while studying Innovation Design Engineering – a master’s programme run jointly by the Royal College of Art and Imperial College London.
Notpla is a shortening of “not plastic”, and it develops materials designed “to make packaging disappear”.
The Dezeen Award-nominated studio creates biodegradable substances from seaweed and plants, including edible sachets that can hold condiments and paper made with seaweed by-products.
Find out more about Notpla ›
Richard Hutten, designer
Richard Hutten is an influential designer from the Netherlands who creates furniture, products and interiors and is known for his playful, colourful style.
He is also a major proponent of circular design, warning in 2019 that brands that fail to embrace the circular economy will go out of business and describing plastic as “the cancer of our planet”.
Hutten’s recent projects include the creation of 27,000 airport chairs for Amsterdam’s Schiphol airport made entirely from recycled, recyclable or biodegradable materials, which he claimed reduced their carbon impact by 95 per cent relative to comparable products.
Find out more about Richard Hutten ›
Sarah Broadstock, architect at Studio Bark
Sarah Broadstock is one of seven architects who make up Studio Bark, a young London studio pioneering environmentally-conscious architecture.
With the studio, she has designed a biodegradable building made with cork and a modular construction system that encourages people to self-build and has been used as “protest architecture” by Extinction Rebellion.
While practising as an architect, Broadstock is also on the RIBA Guerilla Tactics steering group and is an active member of the Architects Climate Action Network.
Find out more about Studio Bark ›
Sebastian Cox, furniture designer
British furniture designer Sebastian Cox is a leader in using locally grown timber to make his products, as well as eliminating the carbon footprint of his business.
In a 2021 interview with Dezeen, he declared that his workshop is “already carbon negative by some long stretch” thanks to sourcing wood from a forest that is never cut down faster than it regenerates.
Cox has also urged designers to understand how the carbon cycle could be used as a resource to help improve sustainability.
Find out more about Sebastian Cox ›
Smith Mordak, director of sustainability at Buro Happold
As the director of sustainability at engineering firm Buro Happold and founder of award-winning architecture practices Interrobang and Studio Weave, Smith Mordak works across disciplines to decarbonise the built environment.
They engage directly with policymakers to affect broader systemic changes beyond their own projects, acting as design advocate to London mayor Sadiq Khan as well as editing the landmark Built for the Environment Report released by RIBA and Architects Declare ahead of the COP 26 climate conference last year.
In their personal life, Mordak declared themselves carbon neutral in 2020 after slashing their footprint by giving up air travel and becoming vegan.
Find out more about Smith Mordak ›
Sophie Thomas, partner at Thomas.Matthews
Sophie Thomas is a British designer and environmentalist, who co-founded the London sustainable communication-design studio Thomas.Matthews.
Through various projects and initiatives, such as The Great Recovery, a pioneering project that explored the circular potential of different materials, Thomas has become a leading voice in the discussion about how organisations can reduce their carbon impacts and the role for designers.
She previously wrote a list of 10 steps for designers seeking to reduce the emissions caused by their products for Dezeen, as well as auditing the carbon impact of our Dezeen Day conference in 2019.
Find out more about Sophie Thomas ›
Stefano Boeri, founder of Stefano Boeri Architetti
Stefano Boeri is an Italian architect known for spearheading Vertical Forests – a building concept where the facades of towers are covered with plants to encourage biodiversity in urban areas.
Boeri has masterminded Vertical Forests all over the world, including Antwerp’s Palazzo Verde, a social housing tower with 10,000 plants in Eindhoven and an apartment complex in China.
The architect is also responsible for Milan’s Forestami project, which plans to plant “one tree for every inhabitant” in the city, and has recently authored a book called “Green Obsession: Trees Towards Cities, Humans Towards Forests”, launched with a talk for Dezeen.
Find out more about Stefano Boeri ›
Stella McCartney, fashion designer
Stella McCartney is a British fashion designer and founder of her eponymous luxury fashion house, which centres on sustainable design and an ethical approach to fashion.
Under McCartney’s direction the house has pioneered use of sustainable material alternatives, developing clothing from mycelium and a vegan, spiderweb-like silk. In 2021, McCartney joined world leaders as the fashion industry’s representative at the G7 summit.
In a 2018 interview with Dezeen, she called for “new laws on designers” to force them to take responsibility for the sustainability of their products.
Find out more about Stella McCartney ›
Sumayya Vally, founder of Counterspace
Sumayya Vally is a South African architect whose work as the head of the Johannesburg-based studio Counterspace is strongly focused on supporting communities and explores issues such as education, migration and ethnicity as well as sustainability.
Counterspace designed last year’s Serpentine Pavilion out of timber and other biomaterials. Construction consultant AECOM declared the structure carbon negative, claiming it removed 31 tonnes of carbon from the atmosphere.
Find out more about Sumayya Vally ›
Photo is by Jaap Vork
Thomas Rau, founder of RAU Architects
Through his Amsterdam-based studio RAU Architects, Thomas Rau is an industry leader in reversible architecture. This involves designing buildings to be taken apart at the end of their lives so their materials can be reused.
Examples include an office building for Triodos Bank with a timber structure that the practice claims is “the first large-scale 100 per cent wooden, remountable office building”.
Find out more about RAU Architects ›
Valdís Steinarsdóttir, designer
Independent Icelandic designer Valdís Steinarsdóttir creates provocative products intended to show how recycled organic materials could replace synthetics to reduce waste and emissions.
Her projects include vest tops made from moulded jelly and dissolvable food packaging crafted from animal skin taken as meat industry by-products.
Find out more about Valdís Steinarsdóttir ›
Yasmeen Lari, architect and founder of the Heritage Foundation of Pakistan
After abandoning a career designing glitzy commercial buildings, architect Yasmeen Lari has devoted her life to creating socially and environmentally sustainable architecture that benefits disadvantaged people.
She is also the founder of the non-profit organisation Heritage Foundation of Pakistan, through which she has built thousands of low-cost homes with low-carbon materials.
In her contribution to Dezeen 15, Lari, who was the first Pakistani woman to qualify as an architect, explained her philosophy of “barefoot social architecture”, which treads lightly on the planet by prioritising traditional construction techniques and materials such as mud and bamboo.
Find out more about Yasmeen Lari ›
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Spotted: Rotating electrical contactors are integral components of many devices, including utility-scale direct-drive wind turbines. These magnets help to transmit electrical current along an ultra-low-resistance path, but they can be expensive to produce. In order to reduce the cost of these magnets, researchers at Sandia National Laboratories have developed a new type of rotary electrical contactor called Twistact.
Twistact uses a pure-rolling-contact device to transmit electrical current, which eliminates the need for rare-earth magnets. The technology has been proven to be beneficial in lowering costs, improving sustainability, and reducing maintenance. With the help of this new technology, wind turbines can become more affordable and more efficient.
Twistact is also designed to address two physical degradation processes that are common in certain types of wind turbine component. These processes, known as sliding contact and electrical arcing, can reduce performance and lead to short operating lifetimes. The Twistact system, by contrast, has been proven capable of operating over the full 30-year service time of a multi-megawatt turbine without maintenance.
Twistact is still in the early stages of development, but Sandia is already exploring opportunities to partner with generator manufacturers and others in the renewable energy industry to assist with the development of next-generation direct-drive wind turbines. The potential applications for Twistact are not limited to wind turbines, however. Sandia is also open to partnering for applications such as electric vehicles or doubly-fed induction generators. With its unique capabilities, Twistact has the potential to make a significant impact in a number of industries.
As the world continues to transition to more sustainable forms of energy, Springwise has spotted numerous innovations in wind generation. For example, one company has developed floating vertical axis wind turbines while researchers are looking at how wind turbine bioplastic can be recycled into gummy bears.
Designers need to stop feeling guilty about making products and start using their creativity to become part of the climate solution, writes Katie Treggiden.
Eighty per cent of the environmental impact of an object is determined at design stage. This statistic, which is usually credited to the Ellen MacArthur Foundation, often gets bandied about in discussions about sustainability, and it is absolutely true. From material choices to end-of-life considerations, by the time an object goes into production its fate is largely sealed from a sustainability point of view.
But when designers hear that statistic, what they often hear is: “80 per cent of this mess is my fault.” And it really isn’t.
By the time an object goes into production its fate is largely sealed from a sustainability point of view
A report published in 2017 found that 71 per cent of industrial greenhouse gas emissions since 1988 could be attributed to 100 fossil fuel producers. Much like the tobacco industry before it, the energy industry has not only contributed to the problem but worked hard to curb regulations and undermine public understanding.
Oil and gas giant Exxon conducted cutting-edge climate research decades ago, and then pivoted to “work at the forefront of climate denial, manufacturing doubt about the scientific consensus that its own scientists had confirmed”, a 2015 investigation by Inside Climate News found.
In 1989, then British prime minister Margaret Thatcher gave a powerful speech at the UN. “It is mankind and his activities that are changing the environment of our planet in damaging and dangerous ways,” she warned. “Every country will be affected and no-one can opt out. Those countries who are industrialised must contribute more to help those who are not.”
These arguments were not new, even then, but coming from her they gained traction and environmentalism went mainstream.
However, Thatcher’s position was short-lived. In her autobiography, Statecraft, she writes: “By the end of my time as prime minister I was also becoming seriously concerned about the anti-capitalist arguments which the campaigners against global warming were deploying.”
And so, in a perceived trade-off between planet and profit, she chose profit.
The climate crisis might have been resolved before many of today’s designers were even born
Her policies in the UK led to urban sprawl that threatens biodiversity, to prioritising investment in roads over rail and bus services that could help us all reduce our carbon footprints, and to the privatisation of water companies that results in polluted rivers and oceans to this day.
But her influence in the Global South was even more profound. Under her leadership, Britain, together with the US, led World Bank, International Monetary Fund and World Trade Organisation moves that forced more than 100 indebted countries to undertake now widely discredited “structural adjustment” programmes. These programmes pushed for deregulation and privatisation that paved the way for transnational farming, mining and forestry companies to exploit natural resources on a global scale.
In her autobiography she credits books by Julian Morris, Richard Lindzen and Fred Singer for her dramatic U-turn. All three authors were members of free-market think tanks receiving funding from the fossil fuel industry.
Had Exxon acted ethically on the results of its own research, had Margaret Thatcher stuck to her guns instead of being lured by the temptations of free-market economics, and had the momentum she galvanised continued, the climate crisis might have been resolved before many of today’s designers were even born.
If we’re looking to apportion blame, let’s look to enterprises making excessive profits while caring for neither people nor planet
It might well be their fault. It is certainly not yours.
But what about that statistic? If 80 per cent of the environmental impact of an object is determined at design stage, doesn’t telling designers that it’s not their fault let them off the hook? Quite the opposite.
Think about the last time you had a brilliant idea, solved a problem, or came up with an innovative solution. How were you feeling at the time? Guilty? Overwhelmed? Hopeless? I’m guessing not, because those feelings are not the soil in which creativity thrives. I’m guessing you were feeling curious, optimistic and collaborative – all the impulses that draw designers to our industry in the first place.
To design is to solve problems and this is the biggest problem humanity has ever faced
We need designers to stop feeling guilty, so they can reconnect with those feelings, tap into their creativity and become part of the solution.
The climate crisis is a “wicked problem” – a term coined by design theorist Horst Rittel to describe social or cultural problems that seem unsolvable because of their complexity, their interconnectedness, their lack of clarity, and because they are subject to real-world constraints that thwart attempts to find and test solutions.
In other words: there are no magic bullets. Previous generations might have kicked the can down the road hoping that future technology would save us, but we no longer have that luxury.
So, if you’re a designer, none of this is your fault, but it is your responsibility. To design is to solve problems and this is the biggest problem humanity has ever faced. It is not something the design industry can solve alone. Of course we need politicians and big corporations to get on board, but we can lead the way by demonstrating the power of creativity and innovation.
We have a unique, and perhaps the final, opportunity to tackle this issue head on and do something definitive. But we can’t do that mired in guilt.
To overcome the climate crisis, we need to design, not from a position of pessimism and shame, but in the mode in which we all do our best work: when we are driven by curiosity and excited about a future that, together, we can help create.
Katie Treggiden is an author, journalist, podcaster and keynote speaker championing a circular approach to design. She is the founder and director of Making Design Circular, a membership community for designer-makers who want to become more sustainable. She is also a Dezeen Awards judge.
Spotted: Pesticides are widely used in agriculture in order to protect crops from pests and diseases. However, even at levels deemed safe by regulators, pesticides can have a negative impact on the environment. Studies have shown that pesticides can cause a loss of biodiversity, including reduced numbers of beneficial insects, as well as birds, and amphibians. In addition, pesticides can contaminate soil and water, and may also pose a risk to human health. As a result, there is an increasing focus on finding ways to reduce the use of pesticides in agriculture. One promising approach is the use of robotics, as they can be used to target pests more accurately, which in turn reduces the amount of pesticide required. Among the companies working on this is Solinftec, a company that recently developed a robot that can provide autonomous and sustainable spot-spray applications on growers’ fields.
Solinftec partnered with McKinney Corporation to introduce the new Solix Sprayer robot. This technology has the potential to help producers reduce chemical inputs and deliver a lower carbon footprint. In addition, the robot provides reports on crop populations, weed densities, disease and insect identification, nutrient deficiency identification as well as other layers of data maps for analysis. And best of all, all of this activity is powered by four solar panels.
“Weed detection is a leading issue in fields across the North America and the Solix Sprayer is designed to not only monitor and scan fields like the original scouting version, but detect and manage weeds with technology which allows the device to spot-spray into the plant instead of from above, eliminating drift and soil compaction caused by larger machines and help lower environmental impact,” explains Leonardo Carvalho, Solinftec’s director of operations.
Solix is currently piloting the robot in North America in partnership with the agricultural co-operative GROWMARK and Purdue University in the US, and Stone Farms and University of Saskatchewan in Canada. The technology is simulated to become commercially available to the entire agricultural market in 2023.
As the world population continues to grow, it is essential that we find ways to sustainably increase food production. Other similar innovations spotted by Springwise include a new way to produce sustainable fertiliser on site and a biohacking method that protects crops against fungal attack.
Architects and designers have a key role to play in reducing carbon emissions, pollution and waste.
In celebration of Earth Day, which falls on 22 April every year, we compiled a list of 50 individuals and studios that are doing pioneering work – from architects exploring timber construction to designers thinking radically about circularity.
Norman Foster “to assemble the best minds” to rebuild Ukrainian city of Kharkiv
Other stories in this week’s newsletter include Norman Foster’s plan for the “rehabilitation” of Kharkiv, Thomas Heatherwick’s tree-covered sculpture design for Buckingham Palace and an exclusive interview with British artist duo Langlands & Bell.
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Spotted: The world is increasingly looking for new sustainable sources of energy. Solar, wind. and water power are all environmentally friendly energy sources that don’t produce harmful emissions. However, renewable energy solutions can be costly, and it’s important to find cost-effective ways to implement them.
In light of this, researchers at the University of Oulu in Finland have developed a new way to generate renewable hydrogen fuel that is both cost-effective and environmentally friendly. Their new nickel-based catalyst uses sunlight to split water into its constituent atoms: oxygen and hydrogen. The hydrogen can then be harnessed as a clean and renewable source of fuel.
As the world looks for cleaner and more sustainable sources of energy, hydrogen has emerged as a leading contender. Hydrogen fuel cells are highly efficient and emit no pollutants at point of use, making them an appealing option for the future of energy production. However, one major obstacle to widespread adoption of hydrogen fuel cells is their cost. Precious metals such as platinum and palladium are often used in the electrodes, making production expensive. Some researchers are exploring alternatives to precious metals, with nickel emerging as a promising option.
To understand the effectiveness of the design, the University of Oulu team analysed the materials they used for their catalyst at the University of Saskatchewan (USask). Findings have now been published in the journal Applied Energy.
This breakthrough provides hope that we can develop cost-effective renewable energy solutions that will help us to reduce our reliance on fossil fuels. On this topic, Springwise has spotted an off-grid hydrogen generation technology for on-demand power and a way to power the planet through ultra-deep geothermal energy.
Düsseldorf studio Urselmann Interior has renovated its own office interiors using biodegradable, recycled or upcycled materials, including glueless joinery and a cellulose-based wall cladding.
The interior design studio said that it renovated its self-described “circular” office in the German city to only feature materials that are either recycled, upcycled or biodegradable.
Urselmann Interior’s office is in Düsseldorf
These include existing wooden and terrazzo flooring that was salvaged during the renovation, as well as heaters obtained from resource-efficient building material platform Concular.
Spread over one main workspace, a kitchen and a meeting room, the single-level office features clay paint walls and is designed to be used as both a co-working space and a showroom.
The renovation includes a kitchen
“The office also serves us as a laboratory in that we can [use it to] test new qualities, materials and construction methods,” project manager Liz Theißen told Dezeen.
A solid wooden frame was used to create simple kitchen cabinets, which were constructed without glue so that the structure is fully demountable.
Joinery was created without glue in much of the project
The frame was fitted with panels formed from recycled strips of fabric supplied by textile brand Kvadrat from its Really collection.
For its walls, the studio used Honext wall cladding – a cellulose-based material that is produced using paper sludge and cardboard waste.
Poplar wood from a tree felled in the nearby city of Krefeld was chosen for the ceiling, which was also assembled without glue.
Throughout the office, neutral and minimal colour and material palettes were applied to the interior design, which also includes clusters of carefully arranged potted plants and books.
Second-hand lighting encased in wiggly orange felt from Hey-Sign adds a splash of colour to the otherwise sandy-hued atmosphere.
Wiggly orange lighting adds a splash of colour
Theißen explained that all of the components that Urselmann Interior used for the renovation have been listed in a published “material passport” that can be referred to for future projects.
“We want to develop a new design language for ourselves, in which we smartly combine high-quality materials such as solid wood with ecological building materials as well as reusable components [to achieve] a positive footprint in the construction industry,” she said.
“Our design principles follow the school of thought of ‘cradle to cradle’, which is the safe and potentially infinite circulation of materials and nutrients in cycles.”
“All constituents are chemically harmless and recyclable. We aim to eliminate the design flaw of waste in our processes,” concluded Theißen.
Honext panels line the clay paint walls
Urselmann Interior is a Düsseldorf-based interiors studio founded by Sven Urselmann.
Similar projects to the studio’s office renovation include a Madrid restaurant by Lucas Muñoz with furniture formed from site construction waste and a bar made out of recycled stereos, bottle crates and fridges by Michael Marriott.
Spotted: The development of meat alternatives is moving forward at a rapid clip. From plant-based and cell-based meats to 3D-printed food, the market for animal-free meat alternatives is expected to grow rapidly in the coming years. Now, startup Arkeon Biotechnologies is adding a new method to this mix. The company uses a single-step fermentation process that turns ancient micro-organisms and captured carbon dioxide into the building blocks for food.
Arkeon has pioneered the use of Archaea, ancient organisms that evolved to survive in extreme settings, such as around underwater vents. The company uses a strain of Archaea that can makes all 20 essential amino acids and has developed a process to harness this ability in order to produce alternative protein products. The micro-organisms are fermented in bioreactors using CO2 captured from breweries. The process produces carbon negative ingredients that are then used to create meat-free foods.
Currently, many plant-based foods use proteins, such as pea protein, that are produced through purification and processing to remove unwanted flavour and add taste. Arkeon’s amino acid products, by contrast, require no purification or additives. The amino acids can then be combined to create tailored ingredients and products, such as meatless meats, or used to add nutrition to products such as infant formula.
Arkeon was founded by ‘company builder’ EVIG, which works with scientists to develop biotechnology startups in the food sector. EVIG brought together three scientists— Gregor Tegl, Simon Rittman, and Guenther Bochmann—to create Arkeon.
Other alternative protein innovations spotted by Springwise include artificial intelligence that helps to build animal-free proteins, and a foodtech startup that uses plant cells to create dairy proteins.
