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Decarbonize Your Hearth with an Electric Fireplace
CategoriesSustainable News Zero Energy Homes

Decarbonize Your Hearth with an Electric Fireplace

By Zarkon Group,

Humans have a primal attraction to a crackling flame and the ambience of a cozy fireplace. Architect Frank Lloyd Wright called the hearth the “the psychological center of the home,” and designed all his residences around a central fireplace.

For the majority of humans who now live in urban areas, a traditional wood-burning fireplace is not a practical or healthy option (for reasons we explain below). This reality has made gas fireplaces popular because they pair the beauty of fire with the convenience of a switch and without the hassle of chopping wood and lighting a flame. But because elimination of gas is a fundamental tenet of decarbonized living, and we all love a cozy fire, we need alternative decarbonized hearth options. Enter the electric fireplace.

The State of American Fireplaces

First, a little context on the hearths in American homes. Many new homes in the US have a fireplace, yet the traditional wood-burning one is disappearing. New homes with fireplaces of any kind declined by almost two-thirds from 1978 to 2017, possibly because fireplaces are plagued with problems like heat loss through the chimney, indoor air pollution, and risk of fire spreading. However, according to the National Association of Home Builders’ What Home Buyers Really Want, 55% and 48% of home buyers rate gas- and wood-burning fireplaces, respectively, as desirable or essential, and this share has been increasing since 2003.

Why Fireplaces Matter

Research consistently finds that traditional wood-burning and gas stoves are bad for indoor and outdoor air quality and create serious issues for human health and the environment. Burning wood releases harmful gas and particulate matter that leads to respiratory issues for people living in the home and around it. It’s one of the biggest sources of air pollution in the county where we live. Natural gas also pollutes indoors through combustion and leaks and releases significant outdoor pollution, including NOx and carbon dioxide. Air quality districts in California are beginning to phase out any natural gas combustion in the home because the air pollution exceeds that of gas power plants. Other countries have similar issues. In the UK, for example, fireplaces and stoves are now the largest single source of primary particle pollution, greater than traffic and industry!

Fortunately there is a great way to create a clean, healthy, low-carbon ambience with the feel of old school flames: the electric fireplace is the future home hearth. Because electricity is getting dramatically cleaner every year, with the rise of renewables and the demise of coal, electric fireplaces offer a cozy vibe without any of the negative health or environmental impacts.

Until recently, fireplaces were synonymous with combustion, and the words “electricity” and “fire” were rarely paired together in a positive way. When we think of electric heat, many of us imagine the glowing red, inefficient electric resistance coils that are hardly associated with a comforting fireplace. But like so many new, clean electric home technologies, the electric fireplace has undergone rapid, and appealing, changes over the past 10 years.

Mid-closeup of electric fireplace shows no-pollution "coals and flames" - photo

Benefits of Electric Fireplaces

The electric fireplace is a radically improved, often overlooked technology that has a lot going for it:

  • Ambience: You may be surprised to know that electric fireplaces can provide a great-looking flame. Thanks to LEDs and a mirror element that rolls and reflects light, many electric flames look pretty realistic. You can enjoy them around the clock and any time of year because most models allow you to use the flame without the heat. Some models offer an option to change the color below the flame, which is our kids’ favorite party trick. Some varieties come with a material that sits in front of or below the flame to anchor it like a real fire. Since there’s not a real flame, you can use whatever material you want, including wood or stone to give it a natural look.
  • Safety: Unlike combustion fireplaces, the electric varieties have no risk from open flames or sparks that could lead to an uncontrolled fire. They are cool to the touch, making them great for homes with kids and pets. They safely operate near other appliances, including below TVs, which is a common set up.
  • Cost: Electric fireplaces are, by far, the most inexpensive type of fireplace to buy and install. The unit itself averages $1000, but you can find models as low as $200, compared to $1500 to $3500 for a gas fireplace insert. They are also much cheaper to install than gas or wood stoves, which typically run $2,000 to $10,000, because they require no outdoor venting or permitting. They simply plug into an outlet.
  • Improved Air Quality and Health: As discussed above, burning wood and gas creates significant amounts of indoor and outdoor air pollution. 
  • Carbon-Free: Of course, for us, committed to decarbonizing our lives, the number one benefit is the ability to remove natural gas from your home and run a fireplace on clean, emissions-free electricity.

Our Electric Hearth

Our 1987 ranch home didn’t have any kind of fireplace when we bought it in 2012. In 2015 we moved a pellet stove from our former house into an addition we built (we’ll cover the pros and cons of pellet stoves in a future article). In 2020, after hunkering down at home during the peak of the pandemic, we decided to invest in some home hygge and create a hearth to define our main living area, hide an unsightly electrical panel, and provide some storage. This simple, affordable project improved our home’s beauty, functionality, and carbon impact.

After much online research, we went to a local Portland electric fireplace store to check out the electric flames in person. We opted for a Dimplex because of the size (20 by 34 inches), which was the right proportion for our design, and realistic flame. We designed a hearth, mantle, and built-in cabinets and hired a local handy-person to put it all together over a long weekend when we were out of town.

The fireplace unit cost $700 and we spent close to $2500 on labor, lumber, drywall, and minor electrical work to build the hearth. This cost includes the plywood cabinets on either side.

The fireplace wonderfully defines our living room, which previously felt a bit anchorless in our open plan living area. It also provides heat, though we don’t turn on the heating element very often because it’s electric resistance, and our ductless heat pump is on the same wall. It came with unappealing plastic jewel-like rocks that sit on an interior shelf below the flame, and we replaced them with real rocks from the Oregon coast.

Options for Your Electric Hearth

While we went for the built-in model because of our other project goals, there are lots of options for standalone electric fireplaces. Our product selection was based on the dimensions that best fit our design and had the most realistic looking flame. Depending on your goals, and the configuration of your home, you may consider one of the following:

  • Wall mounted can be hung right on your wall, like a piece of art or flat-screen TV.
  • Built-ins fit into a custom structure so they are flush with the wall, like our fireplace.
  • Inserts are well suited for homes with existing wood burning fireplaces and can sit in the existing opening.
  • Standalone models allow you to plug a fireplace into any outlet and create great ambience in any room. A great option for renters.
  • Water Vapor is even an option! These can be filled manually or connected to a water line to create vapor resembling smoke.

While you can find electric fireplaces that cost thousands of dollars (typically the long narrow, built-in variety), all of the models shown here are only a few hundred.

For more on electric fireplaces, check out this fireplace guide from Modern Blaze and this Electrify Now video.

This article is part of a series by Naomi Cole and Joe Wachunas, first published in CleanTechnica. Through “Decarbonize Your Life,” they share their experience, lessons learned, and recommendations for how to reduce household emissions, building a decarbonization roadmap for individuals.

The authors:

Joe Wachunas and Naomi Cole both work professionally to address climate change—Naomi in urban sustainability and energy efficiency and Joe in the electrification of buildings and transportation. A passion for debarbonization, and their commitment to walk the walk, has led them to ductless heat pumps, heat pump water heaters, induction cooking, solar in multiple forms, hang-drying laundry (including cloth diapers), no cars to electric cars and charging without a garage or driveway, a reforestation grant from the US Department of Agriculture, and more. They live in Portland, OR, with two young children.

 

Our team researches products, companies, studies, and techniques to bring you the best of zero building. Zero Energy Project does not independently verify the accuracy of all claims regarding featured products, manufacturers, or linked articles. Additionally, product and brand mentions on Zero Energy Project do not imply endorsement or sponsorship unless specified otherwise.

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Electric cookers make homes healthier in Africa
CategoriesSustainable News

Electric cookers make homes healthier in Africa

By Zarkon Group,

Spotted: The World Health Organization estimates that 3.2 million people died from indoor air pollution in 2020, largely from cooking over open fires. Expanding the availability of clean fuels and cooking technologies is essential to reduce that figure and protect inhabitants from being exposed to dangerous indoor air pollution.

In response, Ugandan cleantech startup PowerUP has built a smart-metered electric pressure cooker to help families – and particularly the women and girls who do most of the cooking – eliminate the health risks they face as they prepare food.

PowerUP designed the cookers to accommodate a wide range of cooking styles and food types used across the continent. The built-in energy meter allows users to track costs, and PowerUP digitally tracks usage as part of the company’s development of a carbon credit market.

The stoves are pay-as-you-go, which allows users to budget specifically for cooking energy costs. And, if desired, users can tweak the time of their usage to take advantage of the cheapest energy rates. Pressure cooking reduces the amount of time it takes to prepare a meal, which further helps keep costs down. As well as managing payments and tracking energy costs, the digital interface includes access to recipes.

More than 40,000 homes across Ghana, Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda, and Zambia are already using PowerUP stoves, and the company recently closed its seed round of funding. PowerUP plans to use the funds raised to improve its data collection and platform, expand and strengthen distribution networks, and launch a carbon credit programme.

Other innovations in Springwise’s library focused on decarbonising cooking include biogas digesters that produce fuel and fertiliser and a solar-powered induction cooker for people without access to the grid.

Written By: Keely Khoury

Reference

Next-gen electric radiators powered by waste heat
CategoriesSustainable News

Next-gen electric radiators powered by waste heat

By Zarkon Group,

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.

Written By: Keely Khoury and Matthew Hempstead

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electric staircase and expandable platform modify meditation duplex in hong kong
CategoriesArchitecture

electric staircase and expandable platform modify meditation duplex in hong kong

By Zarkon Group,

Sim-Plex composes adaptable Meditation Duplex living space

 

The Meditation Duplex by Sim-Plex explores the integration of meditation spaces within compact urban living in Hong Kong. Addressing the desire for tranquility amidst hectic urban life, the project utilizes a transformable electric staircase and a detachable, expandable platform to create a flexible living and meditation space. The design accommodates various scenarios, allowing for a seamless transition between living and meditation modes. The concept particularly focuses on optimizing space and circulation in micro-unit living, often prevalent in densely populated areas. The clients, a young couple with specific lifestyle needs, influenced the project’s direction. Notably, the utilization of high ceilings for creating spacious areas and maintaining privacy became a central design consideration.

foldable electric staircase and expandable platform modify meditation duplex in hong kong
all images courtesy of Patrick Lam

 

 

Green Plants and Eco-Friendly Materials optimize living setting

 

The duplex incorporates smart technology for remote home management, enhancing energy conservation. The inclusion of green planting, environmentally friendly materials, and natural ventilation adds a touch of nature to the living environment. The detachable and expandable platform, made from E0 grade fine-grained plywood, ensures sustainability and facilitates easy relocation without waste. The design prioritizes high-capacity storage and diverse functionalities to prevent clutter in the open layout. Sim-Plex Studio also integrates sensory control and comprehensive voice control into the smart home features, providing a holistic approach to technology.

foldable electric staircase and expandable platform modify meditation duplex in hong kong
transformable space achieves a balance between urban life and tranquil atmosphere

foldable electric staircase and expandable platform modify meditation duplex in hong kong
the project addresses the limitations of micro-units in Hong Kong

foldable electric staircase and expandable platform modify meditation duplex in hong kong
flexible design utilizes smart technology for a versatile living experience

foldable electric staircase and expandable platform modify meditation duplex in hong kong
the design integrates meditation zones for contemplation in compact living spaces

foldable electric staircase and expandable platform modify meditation duplex in hong kong
floating resting area accommodates private spaces within a limited footprint

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Australian student invents affordable electric car conversion kit
CategoriesSustainable News

Australian student invents affordable electric car conversion kit

By Zarkon Group,

Australian design student Alexander Burton has developed a prototype kit for cheaply converting petrol or diesel cars to hybrid electric, winning the country’s national James Dyson Award in the process.

Titled REVR (Rapid Electric Vehicle Retrofits), the kit is meant to provide a cheaper, easier alternative to current electric car conversion services, which Burton estimates cost AU$50,000 (£26,400) on average and so are often reserved for valuable, classic vehicles.

Usually, the process would involve removing the internal combustion engine and all its associated hardware, like the gearbox and hydraulic brakes, to replace them with batteries and electric motors.

Close-up photo of designer Alex Burton fitting the REVR prototype onto a car's rear disc brakes
REVR is designed to convert almost any combustion engine car to hybrid electric

With REVR, those components are left untouched. Instead, a flat, compact, power-dense axial flux motor would be mounted between the car’s rear wheels and disc brakes, and a battery and controller system placed in the spare wheel well or boot.

Some additional off-the-shelf systems – brake and steering boosters, as well as e-heating and air conditioning – would also be added under the hood.

By taking this approach, Burton believes he’ll be able to offer the product for around AU$5,000 (£2,640) and make it compatible with virtually any car.

Burton is a bachelor’s student in industrial design and sustainable systems engineering at RMIT University in Melbourne but has worked on REVR largely outside of his course.

Photo of designer Alexander Burton tinkering with two disc-shaped prototypes that form his REVR invention
Alexander Burton designed REVR to make electric car conversion more accessible

The spark for the project came a few years ago when he and his dad started thinking about converting the family car, a 2001 Toyota that Burton describes as well-built and reliable.

“But it’s just not really something you can do get done,” he told Dezeen. “It’s super expensive and it’s not really accessible.”

Burton wanted to find an affordable solution for others in his position while helping to reduce the emissions associated with burning petrol as well as manufacturing new electric vehicles, which are estimated to be even higher than for traditional cars.

Photo of engineering student Alexander Burton tinkering with his REVR motor prototype
Burton was motivated by the desire to reduce carbon emissions

With REVR, people should be able to get several more years of life out of their existing cars.

The kit would transform the vehicle into a hybrid rather than a fully electric vehicle, with a small battery giving the car 100 kilometres of electric range before the driver has to switch to the internal combustion engine.

However, in Burton’s view, this is where people can get “the most bang for their buck” with few changes to the car but major emissions reductions.

“You can’t fit a huge battery in a wheel well but we wager you won’t need one,” said Burton. “While people drive a lot, especially here in Australia, on average they drive 35 kilometres a day and it’s mostly commuting.”

“This distance would require only a five-kilowatt-hour battery, and we can put three times that in the wheel well.”

Burton used the motor modelling packages FEMM and MOTORXP to develop the design of his motor, which sees the spinning part, called the rotor, placed between a vehicle’s disc brakes.

The stationary part, or stator, is fixed to existing mounting points on the brake hub.

Photo of James Dyson Award Australia winner Alexander Burton working with modelling software on a computer
Burton used the FEMM and MOTORXP software packages to model the motor

Borrowing a trick from existing hybrid vehicles, the kit uses a sensor to detect the position of the accelerator pedal to control both acceleration and braking.

That means no changes have to be made to the car’s hydraulic braking system, which Burton says “you don’t want to have to interrupt”.

While the design is in its early stages, the concept was advanced enough for the jury of the James Dyson Award for exceptional student design to pick the project as the national winner in Australia.

The international prize winner from the 30 included countries will be announced on October 18.

Burton plans to use the AU$8,800 winnings from the national award to buy a small CNC machine and the specialist materials that are required to build a working prototype, building on a previous non-working prototype made in RMIT’s workshop.

Photo of part from the REVR axial flux motor displayed on a work desk covered with design sketches
Burton made a prototype of the device in the RMIT workshop

He says he has “a stretch goal” of converting a million cars with REVR and is interested in working with partners in the automotive industry. But he is also critical of its lack of investment in retrofitting to date.

“It’s like with repairability, industry is so against that,” Burton told Dezeen. “They love the whole planned obsolescence thing.”

“Ultimately, to retrofit goes against their profit margin because it extends the usefulness and the lifetime of their products. I think that’s why there’s retrofitting companies out there but they’re still largely reserved to classic cars. It’s just so expensive to do.”

Previous winners of the James Dyson Award include an infection-sensing wound dressing created by students from the Warsaw University of Technology and a fish-waste bioplastic by British designer Lucy Hughes.

Reference

Electric Bowery arranges steel and wood cabins for Hudson Valley hotel
CategoriesArchitecture

Electric Bowery arranges steel and wood cabins for Hudson Valley hotel

By Zarkon Group,

California studio Electric Bowery has arrayed a series of wood or Corten steel-clad cabins in Upstate New York that are nestled among meadows and woodland.

Electric Bowery was responsible for the architectural design of Wildflower Farms, a rural retreat in the Hudson Valley operated by the Auberge Resorts group, while interiors were completed by New York studio Ward + Gray.

Row of wooden buildings with off-set gabled roofs
The buildings at Wildflower Farms are based on vernacular farmhouses and barns, but with modern European influences

Intended as an escape for reconnecting with nature, the site of the former Rosedale tree farm was transformed into a luxury getaway with hiking trails and a working farm with produce and animals.

The masterplan for the 140-acre site revolves around a central meadow, through which the winding paths connect various clusters of guest cabins with the communal buildings.

Restaurant dining room with high ceiling, exposed beams and warm colour palette
Interiors for the resort were completed by Ward + Gray, which chose a warm and textured palette for spaces including the restaurant

Views of the Shawangunk Ridge are framed through the Great Porch, a covered open-air lounge organised around a central fire pit.

To one side is the resort’s restaurant, Clay which uses many ingredients grown or produced on-site.

Framed pressed botanicals hang on a wall above earth-toned furniture
In the shop, curated by Gardenheir, pressed botanicals are framed on a wall above earth-toned furniture

The dining room interior features warm, textural earth tones, wood-framed furniture and large indoor trees, while outdoor tables overlook the meadow and mountains beyond.

The other side of the Great Porch houses the reception area and a store curated by Gardenheir that sells a variety of garden-themed products.

Indoor swimming pool with exposed timber trusses and slate floors
The indoor swimming pool sits below exposed timber trusses and features slate floors

The Thistle spa and an indoor pool are accessed beyond, decorated in a palette of buffed biscuit, mottled green and slate grey that complement the exposed beams.

Together, this row of large, timber-clad gabled structures anchors the resort, while the various guest accommodations are spread out around it.

Cottages with reclaimed oak cladding and offset gabled roofs
Guest cottages also feature offset gabled roofs, and are clad in reclaimed oak

“With a more modern take on the vernacular building typologies of farmhouse and barn, inspired by modern European architects such as Peter Zumthor, the buildings were designed to frame the surrounding mountains, nestled harmoniously into the site,” said the studio.

Other amenities across the resort include an outdoor swimming pool and lounge area and a building dedicated to fitness that houses a gym and a yoga studio facing a pond.

Guest bedroom with earthy colour palette
The guest bedrooms are cosy yet modern, with a colour palette borrowed from the natural surroundings

For the design of the 65 cabins and cottages, Electric Bowery co-founders Cayley Lambur and Lucia Bartholomew looked to several references including the lifestyle of their native state, and architects like Mickey Muennig.

“It was particularly important to convey the indoor-outdoor living experience that was borrowed from and inspired by west coast Californian architecture, using tall storefront glass in several locations with naturally weathered and repurposed wood-clad ceilings and fin walls visually extending from the interior to exterior,” said the architecture studio.

Guest room lounge with sliding glass doors that open onto porch
Sliding glass doors open the guest rooms to private porches

The oak-clad Ridge and Meadow cottages all have an offset gabled form, while the double-gable structures house the two-bedroom suites.

Sliding glass doors open onto private porches, which are each angled to block views from their neighbours.

Cabin clad in Corten steel surrounded by trees
Nestled into the trees, the Bower Cabins are clad in weathering steel

Interiors are bright and modern, with bold colours borrowed from the natural surroundings and custom furniture paired with locally sourced antiques.

Tucked beneath the tree canopy, the Bower Cabins are a similar shape to the cottages, but clad in weathering steel.

These smaller rooms feature a darker, more intimate palette of dark blue walls and patterned textiles, and details including woven cabinet doors.

“The overall palette of the project is composed of an abundance of natural materials – stacked stone, slate, weathered wood finishes, naturally oxidized Corten steel, to name a few – that blend seamlessly with the landscape and provide warmth through texture and lack of uniformity, but also conform to the modern architectural lines of the buildings,” said the studio.

Bedroom interior with dark blue walls, woven cabinet fronts and patterned textiles
The smaller cabin interiors feature dark blue walls, woven cabinet fronts and patterned textiles

Lambur and Bartholomew founded Electric Bowery in 2013 after working together at Frank Gehry’s office, and now has offices in Los Angeles, Big Sur and New York City.

Their earlier projects include a house in Venice Beach with an off-centre pitched roof, which bears a resemblance to the cabins at Wildflower Farms.

Chairs surrounding a fire pit with cabins and mountain ridge in the distance
Wildflower Farms occupies a 140-acre site and offers a rural escape 90 minutes from New York City

The Hudson Valley is a popular getaway destination for city dwellers craving a dose of nature, and its popularity increased further during the pandemic, when many New York City relocated there temporarily or permanently.

Among the myriad places to stay in the area are the boutique Hotel Kinsley in Kingston, and Troutbeck, a renovated English-style country house.

The photography is courtesy of Wildflower Farms.

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Boosting electric vehicle batteries with seaweed
CategoriesSustainable News

Boosting electric vehicle batteries with seaweed

By Zarkon Group,

Spotted: The more we improve fossil-fuel-free vehicles, the greener the transportation sector will become. And, according to The University of Glasgow’s School of Chemistry, Scottish-grown seaweed may be the unlikely key holder to making electric vehicles (EVs) more enticing for buyers. More specifically, the team is currently testing whether it will help improve the life span and charge time of lithium-ion batteries, used to power EVs. 

A material found in brown seaweed might help develop batteries using silicon instead of graphite. Although graphite is a central component of a lithium-ion battery, it can only store a limited amount of charge and has a restricted lifespan. Replacing it, then, is vital to improving the charging capacity, with silicone being suggested as a viable alternative. The only issue is that when silicon is used on its own, it damages the battery quickly. So, to couple an increased need to store energy with an increased battery lifespan, the team have created a prototype that combines silicone with a material in seaweed. 

“Battery technology is going to play a hugely important role in our transition away from fossil fuels. Electric vehicles, renewable energy production, national grids and other critical elements of a net zero future will depend on having batteries that can store large amounts of energy in the smallest volumes possible and with extended lifetimes,” said Professor Duncan Gregory, chair in Inorganic Materials at the University of Glasgow’s School of Chemistry. 

Using funding from the Industrial Biotechnology Innovation Centre (IBioIC), the team has so far produced a prototype the size of a watch battery, with tests showing promising results. To prove that seaweed can boost charging capacity, the researchers are now looking towards making a larger battery to test the technology at scale. 

Springwise has previously spotted other innovations that aim to improve electric vehicles (EVS), including a 3D-printed prototype that could improve EV engine efficiency and a battery manufacturer that makes EVs less likely to catch on fire.

Written By: Georgia King

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Electric flying car completes public exhibition flight
CategoriesSustainable News

Electric flying car completes public exhibition flight

By Zarkon Group,

Spotted: Flying cars are becoming a reality. China’s XPENG mobility technology experts recently completed a public flight of the electric flying car XPENG X2 at an event at the Dubai World Trade Centre. The zero-emission vehicle is a two-seater car that uses vertical lift-off and landing to transition from road travel to air. Designed specifically for the complexities of urban driving, the X2 flies at low altitude and can be driven manually or autonomously.

XPILOT is the company’s advanced driver assistance system. It provides guided options specifically for city or highway driving, including intelligent cruise, on- and off-ramp assistance, and speed limit adjustments. The car is made from carbon fibre in order to reduce the weight for flying.

In the future, the XPENG X2 will be suitable for low-altitude city flights, particularly over short distances. Medical transportation and sightseeing are therefore two promising potential applications for the technology.

Supported in its exhibition flight by the Dubai Civil Aviation Authority, the success of the recent trip shines a light on the need for regulatory bodies to keep pace with technological developments. Cities will need to build new air travel codes for high volumes of low-altitude flights.

Other types of autonomous travel that Springwise has spotted include last-mile delivery robots and marine research observation drones.  

Written By: Keely Khoury

Reference

Modular light electric vehicles for urban transport
CategoriesSustainable News

Modular light electric vehicles for urban transport

By Zarkon Group,

Spotted: Having experienced life in a bike seat as a bicycle messenger in Vienna, the founder of GLEAM e-bikes put his on-the-road experience into creating a multi-use vehicle that easily handles the complexities of urban cycling. To create something that can easily compete with the carrying capacity of a car, yet with the freedom that biking provides, GLEAM uses a three-wheeled base to carry a multitude of types of cargo.

Leisure users can carry up to two children as well as bags and other goods. Businesses can choose from two sizes of cargo boxes, as well as an insulated option, and all versions are customisable for branding and advertising. The cargo containers lock, and for other transport needs, there is a further three sizes of covered trailer to choose from.

Dynamic Tilting Technology ensures that passengers and cargo stay level when travelling over uneven surfaces, and the base can be resized as needed depending on what is being carried. The motor is quiet and reaches top speeds of more than 25 kilometres per hour. The company provides a range of manuals and video guides for setting up and using the bike and offers a variety of custom design options. Each order takes four to six weeks to fulfill, and customers only need to mount the front wheel when the bike arrives.

The need to make cycling more accessible in order to combat air pollution is leading to innovations such as zip-on tyre treads for cold weather biking and e-rickshaws that reuse old EV batteries.

Written By: Keely Khoury

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A bio-based electric toothbrush is compostable and recyclable 
CategoriesSustainable News

A bio-based electric toothbrush is compostable and recyclable 

By Zarkon Group,

Spotted: The second largest contributor to plastic pollution after plastic bags, plastic toothbrushes are almost all non-recyclable because of the number of tiny parts they contain. Bamboo brushes have become a common replacement, yet for those who love electric toothbrushes, what can they use instead? UK company SURI has the answer. The name stands for Sustainable Rituals, and the brand’s first product is the Sustainable Sonic Toothbrush. 

A mix of recyclable and compostable components, plus a modular design, gives SURI’s electric toothbrush an extensive life. Replacement brush heads come in packs of three, and the company provides a compostable return mailer with each order for users to send back used brush heads in for recycling.

Most current toothbrushes use nylon bristles, a material that contributes to the inability of waste management facilities to recycle them. SURI, on the other hand, uses castor oil for the bristles and corn starch for the brush head. The handle is easy-to-recycle aluminum. Available accessories include a UVC light self-cleaning and charging travel case, a magnetic mirror mount, and a paper washbag. Most components are recyclable or compostable, and the company provides instructions on its website for deconstructing products if a user is unable to ship them back for recycling.

Toothpaste tubes are also part of the personal hygiene pollution problem, and Springwise has spotted innovations seeking to change this through refillable toothpaste dispensers as well as toothpaste tablets.  

Written By: Keely Khoury

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