Spotted: The World Bank estimates that the cost of health damages associated with air pollution exposure worldwide is $8.1 trillion (around €7.7 trillion) – equal to 6.1 per cent of global GDP. Indonesia has some of the world’s most polluted air, a public health challenge that led clean air technology experts Nafas to set up networks of local air sensors to help communities better manage their health.
The Nafas app is free to use and provides real-time data on the current quality of the air. Users set their preferred locations and can sign up for alerts when conditions change. Using a green, yellow, and orange colour-coding system, Nafas makes it easy for families to decide when to travel or spend time outside. For users interested in more detail, the platform also provides in-depth articles by experts covering the latest air quality news and research.
Nafas combines its proprietary technology with Airly air sensors to build its network. Airly sensors are designed for outdoor use and are robust enough to withstand high temperatures and significant quantities of rain. Nafas experts calibrate each sensor for its particular location, and the company invites businesses and other organisations to financially support and physically host a sensor.
From schools and transport to retail and hospitality, all industries are affected by the health of their employees and customers. With more than 180 sensors already installed in Jabodetabek, Nafas is well on its way to providing hyperlocal air quality information for neighbourhoods and families. The company plans to continue expanding its network to increase the density of its coverage and its ability to map changes across some of the country’s most populous cities.
Air quality has become so poor that innovators are creating cleaning products for every area of life. Examples in Springwise’s database include light-sensitive concrete that cleans the air in road tunnels and a lampshade coating that combines with pollutants to transform them into harmless compounds.
Spotted: Nitrogen oxides – or ‘NOx’ – is a collective term for a group of gassy compounds that contain nitrogen and oxygen atoms. Within this group, the most significant gases are nitric oxide (NO), nitrogen dioxide (NO2), and nitrous oxide (N2O). NO and NO2 are produced during combustion and have negative impacts for human health (NO2 in particular). Nitrous oxide meanwhile is a potent greenhouse gas, produced by agriculture and fossil fuel use, that has 273 times the global warming potential of CO2 over a 100-year period.
Now, startup Crop Intellect has developed technology that breaks down harmful NOx into nitrate – a form of nitrogen that can be absorbed by plants as feed. The product, called R-Leaf, consists of photocatalytic particles suspended in a liquid that can be sprayed onto crops using standard equipment.
Light ‘charges’ the surface of the R-Leaf particles producing negatively charged electrons and positively charged ‘holes’ – spaces in the material where an electron could be but isn’t. The electrons capture oxygen from the air to form anion superoxides, while the holes capture water molecules to form hydroxyl radicals. These, in turn, break down NOx into nitrate, water, and CO2. The nitrate is then dissolved in dew and rainwater and taken up by the plant, which uses it to create more biomass. Crucially, unlike other photocatalysts which require high-intensity light, R-leaf works with ordinary daylight.
Once applied to the leaves of crops, R-Leaf continuously supplies the plants with nitrogen in a form they can use, reducing the need for bulk spraying of synthetic nitrogen fertiliser.
The company is currently exploring the possibility of awarding carbon credits to farmers who use R-Leaf thanks to the reduction in the use of carbon-intensive fertiliser it could entail.
Other solutions aiming to reduce the impact of fertiliser include a more efficient phosphorous fertiliser, a fertiliser that delivers nutrients to plants when they are most needed, and a solution that turns methane into organic fertiliser through microbes.
Local studio Light and Air has introduced a light-filled void at the centre of a Brooklyn townhouse as part of a major reconfiguration and extension project.
The home in the leafy Clinton Hill neighbourhood was bought by a family of four with roots in India and required a complete gut renovation to open up the spaces to the outside.
The overhaul of Z House involved a significant rear extension, comprising cube volumes clad in pale brick
“They wanted a house that exhibited a strong connection to nature, featuring a more seamless integration between inside and out,” said Light and Air.
The project involved extending the building one level vertically, bringing its total number of storeys to four, as well as pushing it out significantly at the back.
The brick continues into the kitchen and dining area on the lower floor
While the historic front facade was carefully restored, the rear elevation now presents as a contemporary stack of pale-brick cube volumes.
The interior was completely reorganized to allow sightlines between the original spaces, the new extensions and the outdoors.
Oak millwork in the kitchen continues through the minimal interiors
The most dramatic change involved swapping the stacked staircase with a switchback configuration – a similar approach taken by the studio at another Brooklyn townhouse in 2018.
This arrangement allows for improved visual connections between the levels and gave the project its name, Z House.
Reconfiguring the house involved swapping the stacked staircase for a switchback arrangement from the parlour level to the top floor
In addition, an angled skylight was added above the staircase void, bringing in light all the way down to the parlour 40 feet (12 metres) below.
“Filled by light and air, the stair’s drama is heightened by the placement of large windows punctuating the rear facade, allowing the vertical space to open to the exterior,” said the studio.
A skylight over the staircase void brings light down into the home
Of the home’s four storeys, the lower levels are occupied by the public spaces including the kitchen, dining, living and media rooms.
The top two levels are reserved for the children’s rooms and the primary suite respectively. The uppermost floor also accommodates a home office and provides access to a roof terrace created by the rear extension.
“This private, elevated, exterior space offers a unique domestic experience not typically found in most Brooklyn rowhouses,” Light and Air said.
Interiors throughout are clean and minimal, with white walls and custom oak millwork, built-ins and furniture.
The primary bedroom on the top floor features a custom oak bed and built-ins
The pale brick of the rear facade is also expressed inside the double-height kitchen and dining area, which is open to the back patio.
“Located above the garden level addition is a green roof that buffers sightlines from the parlor floor, creating the effect of a floating garden beyond,” said Light and Air.
The historic street facade of the Clinton Hill townhouse was also restored as part of the renovation
Founded by Shane Neufeld in 2017, the studio has completed a variety of interior design projects across New York City.
These include a Brooklyn apartment retrofitted with ample custom cabinetry and a spiral staircase and a Financial District loft where partitions were removed to create an open, inviting space.
Spotted: Water plays many vital roles in our body and the environment and is needed for basic sanitation, but there are many places in the world where clean water is not readily available. While multiple factors like inadequate or damaged infrastructure, poor resource management, and pollution are contributing to low water supply, it is clear that climate change is also playing a part.
This is where NovNat Tech comes in. With its technology, NovNat aims to improve water security and boost climate change resilience. This Birmingham-based company has developed a novel ‘atmospheric water harvester’ powered by waste heat from industrial operations, to help provide reliable and consistent water access by extracting water from the air at scale. NovNat’s proprietary porous materials act as a nano-scale selective sponge to soak atmospheric humidity and convert it into water.
Having been rigorously tested, the harvester’s materials have demonstrated breakthrough performance in capturing and releasing water from the air – much faster and with less energy required than pre-existing atmospheric water generation (AWG) systems. The company is currently developing a prototype AWG system, funded by Innovate UK, designed to deliver water on the go for rescue and military vehicles.
The air is filled with many valuable resources, and many innovations are looking to harness these for good use. In the archive, Springwise has also spotted a team that’s made a massive step towards providing hydrogen fuel from the air and a solar-powered panel that captures water vapour from the atmosphere.
Spotted: Many bacteria use hydrogen from the atmosphere as an energy source in nutrient-poor environments. And now, Australian researchers have demonstrated that an enzyme, called Huc, can turn hydrogen gas into an electrical current.
The research team, led by Dr Rhys Grinter, PhD student Ashleigh Kropp, and Professor Chris Greening from the Monash University Biomedicine Discovery Institute in Melbourne, Australia, isolated the Huc enzyme from a common soil bacterium, Mycobacterium smegmatis. They also found that the enzyme can generate electricity at hydrogen concentrations well below atmospheric levels — as low as 0.00005 per cent of the air we breathe.
To make their discovery, the researchers used advanced microscopy to reveal the enzyme’s structure and electrical pathways, and electrochemistry techniques to prove that the enzyme created electricity even with minimal amounts of hydrogen. Molecular modelling and simulations were also used in the research.
Additional work demonstrated that purified Huc is very stable and can be stored for long periods. In nature, the enzyme helps bacteria to survive in the most extreme environments. This means it can be frozen or heated to 80 degrees Celsius, and still retain its power to generate energy.
The energy-producing bacteria join a host of recent innovations spotted in the Springwise archive that involve microbes. These include cold-loving microbes that can digest plastic and microbes that can produce food-grade proteins.
Spotted: The International Energy Agency (IEA) says that in the net zero by 2050 scenario, direct air capture (DAC) needs to reach almost 60 megatonnes of CO2 every year by 2030. Currently, the 18 direct air capture plants in operation around the world are only sequestering 0.01 megatonnes of CO2. While experts consider 60 megatonnes of CO2 captured per year to be an attainable amount, additional large-scale plants are needed to reach that volume.
As well as building new plants, retrofitting old structures could be another way of reducing global emissions. German company NeoCarbon has built a system that integrates with existing cooling towers to capture carbon dioxide from the circulating air. As well as being ten times less expensive than a new carbon capture plant, NeoCarbon’s design could remove several billion tonnes of CO2 if it was applied to Europe’s current industrial manufacturing infrastructure.
NeoCarbon works with businesses to set up the carbon capture system and requires no upfront costs. Carbon dioxide is removed from the air as it circulates throughout the cooling towers, reducing companies’ emissions footprint without requiring any additional building expenses.
NeoCarbon transforms captured emissions into newly usable formats, including industrial chemicals and food-grade materials. Brands can buy removal credits as well as the captured carbon dioxide for use in their plants, and the NeoCarbon team says that their technology is mass market ready.
Sequestering carbon is an exciting area of growth, with Springwise spotting innovations improving ways emissions are captured, as well as expanding the uses of the waste carbon. In the fashion industry, one company is replacing traditional polyester fabrics with a net-positive version made from carbon dioxide. And another organisation is using geothermal energy to sustainably power its direct air capture systems.
Spotted: As the United Nations (UN) highlights, on the whole, commitments made by governments to cut emissions haven’t been fulfilled, meaning we are falling short of net-zero goals for 2050. And, energy consumption and corresponding carbon emissions are only set to rise with the growing global population. Changes to existing energy-heavy practices are unlikely to be enough to stop or significantly slow climate change, which is where carbon capture comes in. However, direct air capture (DAC) technologies – where CO2 is extracted from the ambient air – often rely on energy sources like fossil fuels to work, making them unsustainable long term. Enter Fervo Energy.
The US-based company is already a leader in the next generation of geothermal power, and earlier this year announced plans for a fully integrated geothermal and DAC facility with financial support from the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative (CZI).
In DAC facilities, large fans are used to blow ambient air over carbon-dioxide-capturing materials. The sequestered CO2 is then heated, refined, and generally stored deep underground using a pump. In Fervo’s proposed designs, all of these processes would be fueled by geothermal power, in which heat from the Earth’s core is used to produce clean and renewable electricity. This makes it possible to clean our atmosphere of carbon without emitting any further pollution. As well as being a renewable source that is available 24/7, the company also emphasises that the use of geothermal power would allow DAC technologies to be operated at lower costs.
The recent grant from CZI will help make Fervo’s designs a reality, allowing the company to explore local geothermal reservoirs for underground carbon sequestration projects. Fervo aims to have a pilot facility up and running in three to five years, according to reports in the Washington Post.
Other innovations in the geothermal industry spotted by Springwise include a new ultra-deep drilling technique, and heating and cooling system designed for use by homeowners.
The Department of Energy released the residential segment of theU.S. Building Stock Characterization Study to give decisionmakers a science-based tool to identify technologies and solutions to drive the US housing stock toward zero carbon operation. The National Renewable Energy Laboratory, with input from the Advanced Building Construction Collaborative led by the Rocky Mountain Institute, developed the benchmark survey and accompanying dashboard. Typology studies like this have valued precedents in other countries, particularly in Europe, but this is the first-ever, national-level study of the US housing stock.
Updated in 2022 to include commercial buildings, the analysis segmented the US housing stock into 165 subgroups based on climate zone, wall structure, housing type, and year of construction. For each segment, thermal energy use (i.e., energy used for HVAC and water heating) was analyzed by end-use and segment. This gives policymakers and business owners insight to prioritize specific regions, housing segments, and target technologies for efficiency and electrification upgrades.
Primary high-level takeaways
Single-family detached homes
Not surprisingly, most residential thermal energy use is in single-family detached homes, which constitute the majority of residential buildings in the US. Single-family detached homes also have the highest thermal energy end-use per square foot (energy intensity); plus the largest square footage per home. This one-two punch means that any zero-carbon strategy must address this sector and its complex ownership structures, small individual building sizes, and diverse architectures.
Air leakage
Air leakage (infiltration) is the primary driver for heating loads in every climate region studied. For example, in multifamily buildings in cold climates, air leakage is nearly double all other envelope heat transfer component loads combined. This prioritizes insulation and other air-sealing strategies—especially those that limit disruptions for occupants during renovations. More research is needed on panelized walls, drill-and-fill insulation, and window retrofits to prove their effectiveness. Reducing air leakage, combined with mechanical ventilation, could also provide additional, non-monetary benefits for occupants, such as better thermal comfort, reduced moisture, and improved indoor air quality.
Mobile Homes
Mobile homes are extremely energy-intensive. Despite comprising a relatively small share of total housing units in most climate regions (around 4% to 9%), mobile homes typically have much larger thermal energy consumption per square foot than other building types. This inordinate energy intensity increases in older mobile homes in cold or mixed climate regions, where oil and gas heating are common; but is also problematic in hotter climates, where electric heating and cooling dominate.
Retrofitting mobile homes will likely offer an array of benefits for occupants, starting with reduced energy bills. Often, this might entail replacing the unit completely, although there could be significant barriers, such as local codes, taxes and ownership structures, as well as potential equity implications of displacing occupants.
Electrification
Fossil fuel–based space and water heating must be replaced to achieve decarbonization. These are the largest contributors to energy intensity and total loads. Again, electrification is needed across the US, in colder climates where oil and gas space and water heating are most common, and warmer regions with less reliance on fossil fuels. By benchmarking the different segments, the study informs decision-makers on where existing technologies are cost-effective, and where additional incentives or other cost reductions might be needed. (The DSIRE database is a great place to easily search and find a wide variety of state and federal financial incentives for sustainable new construction and renovations.) Some housing segments may also require envelope retrofits, to make electric heating pencil out, such as in the cold Northeast and Mid-Atlantic regions.
Solutions work across segments
The good news is that retrofit and building solutions are largely transferable among different residential segments. For example, energy efficiency packages developed for single-family detached, midcentury wood frame construction (which is the single-family segment with the highest thermal energy use in three of the five climate regions) will likely be applicable to other segments, such as other wood frame single-family detached vintages, as well as low-rise, wood frame multifamily buildings. Similarly, solutions developed for Marine-climate multifamily buildings, where water heating is the largest energy end use, could potentially apply broadly, as water heating retrofits aren’t impacted by the existing envelope.
Next steps to zero carbon
Local policymakers and building professionals should check out the free online dashboard that accompanies this report. Deep dive to explore building characteristics by specific state or county, examine nonthermal energy use, explore detailed HVAC configurations, and more. The online dashboard can serve as a baseline for the development of local efficiency and decarbonization strategies; and inform businesses on local opportunities. The commercial building recommendations and dashboard are also worth exploring.
In addition, this comprehensive, building characterization study will directly support technology and development goals nationwide, and further the work of the Advanced Building Construction Initiative as they explore avenues toward better performance and zero carbon. Beyond the major takeaways above, the ABC Analysis Working Group will identify additional home segments and strategies to prioritize for high decarbonization impact. And then model individual and packaged upgrades appropriate for particular segments.
Australian architecture practice BVN and the University of Technology Sydney have created a low-carbon, 3D-printed system that “breathes” like frog skin.
Named Systems Reef 2, the invention was made of recycled plastic 3D printed into a computationally optimised design that BVN said has 90 per cent less embodied carbon than a standard air-conditioning system.
The system also uses less operational energy because the air flows more easily around the organically shaped, branching tubing, with no corners to get stuck in.
Systems Reef 2 is a reimagined system of air conditioning with an optimised design
The invention was designed to tackle the many deficiencies the architecture studio identified with air conditioning, a technology that BVN co-CEO Ninotschka Titchkosky describes as not having changed much since its invention in the early 1900s and having been “largely designed for manufacturing processes as opposed to human comfort”.
Air conditioning systems are typically made from steel sheets, which the BVN and UTS team’s analysis showed results in high embodied carbon and the use of much more material than is necessary. The systems also waste energy because they are structurally inefficient and difficult to change after installation.
“At the moment, the systems that we have, they’re really inflexible, they’re not particularly great for human comfort, they’re really expensive to change and they really limit the way we want to occupy buildings now in the 21st century, which is much more adaptive and agile,” Titchkosky told Dezeen.
The system is made of recycled plastic that is 3D printed into tubes
A key difference with Systems Reef 2 is that it’s “designed for air”, removing one of the key sources of inefficiency in existing systems: right angles.
These systems’ orthogonal designs, while suiting sheet metal construction, lead to air becoming stuck in corners and needing more energy to force it out.
“The most shocking thing we realised is that existing air conditioning systems basically aren’t aerodynamic and don’t even go through a computational fluid dynamic modelling process most of the time,” said Titchkosky.
The tubing is meant as a replacement for steel air conditioning ducting
Systems Reef 2 instead has an irregular, branching form with no sharp corners, and with a tapering shape so that extra energy isn’t needed to push cool air out of the furthest reaches of the tubing.
With the friction removed from the system, it is also smaller and slimmer, using overall less material.
To increase the comfort level for people sitting under the contraption, the team drew inspiration from frogs, which breath through their skin. Instead of using ducts, they covered Systems Reef 2 in tiny pores that effectively mist cool air into the space below.
The tubing is said to have a beautiful, crystalline appearance
For a low-carbon material solution that is suitable for 3D printing, they chose recycled plastic, on the basis that not only is plastic waste plentiful but it can be easily recycled again and again, making Systems Reef 2 a circular design.
BVN used waste plastic that was obtained from hospitals, crushed into pellets and fed into the 3D-printing robot.
The material gives Systems Reef 2 a translucent, crystalline appearance that BVN says is “very beautiful”. There is also the possibility to print it in colours or illuminate it to personalise an office environment.
The 3D-printing process gives BVN and UTS the ability to precisely control the shape of the ducting
The team’s final goal for Systems Reef 2 was that it be adaptable, which they achieved with a click-and-connect system with standardised fixings and seals to facilitate easy changes.
Because it is so simple and light, BVN estimates that it cuts down on onsite labour by more than 50 per cent — a significant draw given worldwide labour shortages — while being friendlier to the health of the installers.
The team uses generative design to tailor Systems Reef 2 to specific spaces, with an algorithm generating hundreds of iterations based on a given floor plan and the final design being chosen and tweaked through manual review.
BVN installed a prototype Systems Reef 2 at its own studio in Sydney, replacing the existing tertiary ducting and diffusers. It is now exploring more demonstration projects while getting the design ready to launch as a commercial product.
BVN has installed a prototype of Systems Reef 2 at its studio in Sydney
It particularly sees the product as having great potential for retrofitting ageing buildings and says it could theoretically be installed in any office with an open-plan layout.
It is the second Systems Reef project BVN has undertaken, with each dedicated to some aspect of building services.
The team is now aiming to bring their invention to the market
“The reason it’s called Systems Reef is because we were starting to think about all the layers that exist in the ceiling as sort of like a reef — this kind of multi-layered environment where everything plays a part,” said Titchkosky.
“We wanted to move away from the idea of a services infrastructure to a services system that was more holistically interwoven and a lot smarter.”
BVN is an Australian architecture practice with offices in Sydney, Brisbane, London and New York. Its current projects include the Sydney headquarters for technology company Atlassian, which will be one of the world’s tallest hybrid timber towers at 40 storeys in height.
Carbon dioxide is not the only pollutant we need to worry about. Carbon emissions may harm our planet, but emissions of nitrogen oxides, ozone, and particulate matter harm our health. According to the World Health Organization, almost everyone on earth – 99 per cent of the global population to be precise – breathes air that contains high levels of pollutants. And the combined effects of air pollution, both outside and within the home, are associated with 7 million premature deaths each year.
Thankfully, the 2022 finalists of The Earthshot Prize are showing how innovation can help us to clean the air we breathe.
PROVIDING LOW-INCOME FAMILIES WITH CLEAN, SAFE, AND AFFORDABLE COOKSTOVES
Household air pollution is a major threat to public health – particularly in low- and middle-income countries. In total, the World Health Organization reports that one-third of the global population cooks using either open fires or inefficient stoves. This releases pollutants that cause a range of health issues from strokes and heart disease to lung cancer. Mukuru Clean Stoves designs and manufactures safer, cleaner cookstoves for low-income families in East Africa. Read more
REPLACING DIESEL GENERATORS ON CONSTRUCTION SITES
What powers all the cranes, hoists, and welders you see on a construction site? The answer is almost always diesel. Most sites run on noisy, polluting generators – one of the reasons why the construction sector is responsible for 11 per cent of global carbon emissions. These diesel generators also damage the health of local people – particularly in the tightly packed urban areas where most projects take place. Now, one startup has developed a battery energy system that reduces the noise, carbon emissions, and air pollution generated by building projects. Read more
ACCELERATING THE ELECTRIC VEHICLE TRANSITION IN EAST AFRICA
The International Energy Agency estimates that, globally, 13 per cent of new cars sold in 2022 will be electric. But in the transition to electric vehicles (EVs), sub-Saharan Africa faces challenges. These include an unreliable electricity supply, low vehicle affordability, and the dominance of used vehicles. At the same time, transport makes up 10 per cent of Africa’s total greenhouse gas emissions, so there is a need for change. Now, one company is providing electric motorbikes and buses tailored to the needs of the African market. Read more
Written by: Matthew Hempstead
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