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Sustainable footprints: from ocean plastic to chic shoes
CategoriesSustainable News

Sustainable footprints: from ocean plastic to chic shoes

By Zarkon Group,

Spotted: The World Economic Forum’s (WEF) Global Plastic Action Partnership (GPAP) brings together more than 400 member organisations to build a circular economy and replace single-use plastics. With time running out for us to make the necessary changes to our damaging reliance on plastics, advocates for change continue to emphasise the multi-faceted approach needed to build a solution. Organisations in every sector must work creatively and quickly to reduce their use of virgin, and any, plastic.  

In Australia, fashion brand Aciae works to the Circle to Zero principle that strives to eliminate waste from every step of its production processes and contribute to the overall reduction of global plastic pollution. The company’s name is Latin for thread and refers to its practice of turning single-use plastic waste into the thread that’s used to create its machine-washable, waterproof, recyclable shoes. Gathered plastics are cleaned, shredded, and then melted down for extrusion. The extruded fibres are then spun into thread, completing the transformation of trash into fabric.  

Aciae works with a number of organisations to source its plastic-based threads, including Repreve Our Ocean, for a line of designs that uses ocean-bound plastics. Aciae’s shoes come in a range of styles and colours, all of which are machine-washable and fully recyclable at the end of their life. That circularity helps Aciae close its production loop and make strides towards its goal of achieving zero carbon emissions by 2030.  

As well as providing the fashion industry with an example of ways of working that reduce waste, Aciae also turns a global scourge into something useful while lessening reliance on virgin materials. The brand highlights design for durability, repair, and disassembly by making recycling at a product’s end-of-life an integral part of the initial creation of each pair of shoes. As part of the Australian Fashion Council, Aciae is helping guide the Council’s Seamless Stewardship programme, which seeks to reduce the country’s volume of clothing waste.  

Springwise’s library also showcases other methods of using recycled plastics for new products such as home construction materials and eyewear.

Written By: Keely Khoury

Reference

Identifying and offsetting carbon footprints across restaurants and hospitality
CategoriesSustainable News

Identifying and offsetting carbon footprints across restaurants and hospitality

By Zarkon Group,

Spotted: The UK’s hospitality sector is responsible for around 15 per cent of the country’s greenhouse gas emissions. One company tackling this issue is Skoot, a multi-faceted platform with a variety of solutions that help businesses, communities, and individuals cut their carbon footprintsm by enabling them to identify, offset, and avoid carbon emissions. The company’s Eco-Contribution tool focuses on restaurants and hospitality businesses.

Video source Skoot

With Skoot, businesses can first calculate their own net emissions. Then, the Eco-Contribution solution allows restaurants and venues to counteract the emissions generated from every meal or bill – taking into account food miles and other contributors – by planting trees. The company estimates that each tree can remove 6 kilogrammes of CO2 per diner and, over the course of its lifetime, could trap up to 1 tonne of CO2. 

Not only does Skoot’s hospitality tool help to reduce an establishment’s overall carbon footprint, at no additional cost to the business, but it also empowers customers to be greener when they’re eating out. Upon receiving a bill, diners can choose to pay the optional Eco-Contribution – as set by the restaurant – and offset emissions from the meal. Depending on the restaurant’s preference, this Eco-Contribution can either be applied per table or per person.

The tool can be easily integrated across any existing till system, and to make it even easier to implement, Oracle Simphony and Micros users are able to download the Eco-Contribution app directly from the Oracle marketplace onto their POS (point of sale) system and integrate the solution remotely. 

Skoot has now planted over 800,000 trees, and countered over 4,000 tonnes of CO2. The company’s aim is to expand the environmental support it offers, broaden its collection of sustainability projects, and grow operations to new countries – having already confirmed its first clients in America and South Africa. 

Springwise has also spotted other innovations in the archive that help offset carbon footprints, like one platform that helps employees make tangible company-wide eco-friendly changes or another that makes it easier to track and manage carbon offsets.

Written By: Archie Cox

Reference

The Future of Architecture: Stylish Home Furnishings With Lighter Ecological Footprints
CategoriesArchitecture

The Future of Architecture: Stylish Home Furnishings With Lighter Ecological Footprints

By Zarkon Group,

 The A+Product Awards is open for entries, with a Main Entry Deadline of June 24th. Get started on your submission today! 

Environmental ethics has been increasingly the concern of the built environment industry. When constructing buildings and styling interiors, more and more attention is paid to sustainably sourcing and recycling materials. Eco-friendly design does not limit products to just a few looks, nor does it compromise their functionality. These four beautiful A+Awards winning products will add tasteful texture to your designs while lessening the environmental impact of your project.

The Embossed Acoustic Panel Series from Woven Image, distributed in the USA by Kirei
Winner, 2021 A+Product Awards, Acoustics

Acoustic panels are useful not only for workplaces and auditoriums but in domestic scenarios as well. Whether in a home office or a family theater, acoustic panels make sounds and voices sharper by reducing undesirable reflections on hard surfaces. They also insulate your room from external noises.

The Embossed Acoustic Panel Series by Woven Image offers high-quality acoustics together with a range of choices for styling. There are three types of patterns to choose from: the linear, simplistic ZEN, the rhythmic GEM, and the origami-inspired ION, each comes in 12 colors.

The panels are made from over 60% recycled PET and fiber while manufactured in a carbon-neutral production facility that utilized solar energy. The product has a low VOC emission rate of 0.023mg/m²/hr and a good Noise Reduction Coefficient of 0.75. It is also easy to trim that a utility knife can cut it through. The subtle light and shadow created by the 3D patterns make the panels an addition to interior styling.

Silestone® Sunlit Days by Cosentino Group
Winner, 2021 A+Product Awards, Hard Surfacing, Tiles and Stone

Quartz surfaces are popular in home designs for their stone-like appearance, high versatility, durability and accessibility, especially when compared to natural stones like granite and marble. They are cast from a mixture including small pieces of quartz, resins, pigments, etc. Bonded by resins, the finished surface comes sealed and flat, making them easy to clean. The mixture is made in a way that allows it to be colored as needed, ensuring that owners will not have to make compromises on home styling. AT present, Quartz surfaces from the Silestone® Sunlit Days series are available in white, light grey and red, blue, and green in low saturation. The soothing colors and clean shapes give interiors a modern looking.

Quartz surfaces have the appearance of stones but are more eco-friendly than natural stones. The Sunlit Days series provide carbon-neutral quartz surfaces that incorporate extra strategies to cut the material’s carbon footprint. The production uses 99% reused water, 100% renewable electric energy and a minimum of 20% recycled raw materials in its composition. Furthermore, the brand has committed to offsetting GHG emissions through the Voluntary Carbon Market. Being environmentally aware does not limit our choice of furnishing and surface texturing to synthetic materials that comprise recycled resources. Instead, natural materials can also be consumed sustainably.

Brace by Davis Furniture
Winner, 2021 A+Product Awards, Contract Furniture

Brace from Davis Furniture is one of this kind. Each Brace table is made from a tree at the end of its lifecycle, leaving plenty of time for the material to store carbon during its growth. Furthermore, the brand has committed to planting two saplings for each tree they harvest. In this way, the sourcing is sustainable and the European forest is never overly exploited by the product’s production.

The solid wood table comes in various sizes and shapes to accommodate a range of events. For example, a long, rectangular table can be perfect as a home office desk while a small, round one can serve an intimate meal for two people, etc. The sleek table top is supported by the iconic legs. Each leg splits into two as it goes up, creating a slim triangular space within itself. More than 50 types of selectable coatings on each Brace table allow the table different colors and textures that best suit the home design. The design celebrates the uniqueness of the natural material with the technological precision of modern design.

Koroi Side Table by MAJA
Winner, 2021 A+Product Awards, Residential Furniture

The Koroi Side Table also embraces the characteristics of natural materials. Each Koroi Side Table is handcrafted from solid wood by artisans in Bangladesh with a resource-efficient approach. Burls, deep cracks and other features of the tree remain visible from the smoothened surfaces. Comprising two geometric forms, the design of Koroi sets a subtle balance between fragile and sturdy. Althought the connection between the two parts looks delicate — precarious, perhaps — the piece’s solidity is guaranteed by the thick wood. The two parts are cut at opposing grains, giving them contrasting textures and different reflectiveness.

 The A+Product Awards is open for entries, with a Main Entry Deadline of June 24th. Get started on your submission today! 

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