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A new method helps make the most of mushrooms
CategoriesSustainable News

A new method helps make the most of mushrooms

By Zarkon Group,
A new method helps make the most of mushrooms

Spotted: Every year, the world generates two billion metric tonnes of municipal solid waste (MSW), with thousands of tonnes of that rubbish sent to landfills every day. A significant proportion of this is plastic or petroleum-based products that take hundreds of years to decompose, leaching harmful chemicals and shedding toxic microplastics into the environment as they break down. 

Shifting to natural materials that can biodegrade safely is crucial in tackling our waste problem – an increasingly popular option being those made from mycelium (fungi). The problem is that when mycelial fibres are extracted from the fungi, either mechanically or chemically, the process often results in discolouration, or the delicate fibrous structures becoming damaging, which can compromise their beneficial properties. 

Researchers at Shinshu University in Japan have now developed a novel method for collecting mycelial pulp that retains the physical structures of the mycelium. The team, led by Assistant Professor Satomi Tagawa, began by treating reishi and enoki mushrooms with sodium hydroxide and hydrogen peroxide, before bleaching them using sunlight. Then, the researchers defibrillated the material using ultrasonic treatments. The result was a pulp containing micrometre-sized mycelium fibres that still had their fibrous mycelial structures intact. 

Now, the research team is exploring other mushrooms that could be utilised to produce even higher quality materials, or create materials with different properties. They hope to take advantage of Japan’s position as one of the world’s largest mushroom producers, including through the creation of the Mycomaterial Technology Consortium – an initiative that focuses on maximising the utility of mushrooms.  

New and more sustainable materials are being developed every day. Springwise has also spotted the use of this plant as a plastic alternative in straws as well as this company that is upcycling cardboard into foam packaging. 

Written By: Archie Cox 

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AI helps clinicians navigate research overload
CategoriesSustainable News

AI helps clinicians navigate research overload

By Zarkon Group,
AI helps clinicians navigate research overload

Spotted: In the past 10 years, the number of academic journals has grown by more than 28 per cent, at an average of more than 2.5 per cent every year. By 2022, that growth brought the global number of academic journals to more than 46,700. Such rapid increases create overwhelming amounts of information for researchers to review at every stage of their career, from students to experienced professionals.  

With first-hand experience of that overload, a team of Canadian clinicians and scientists created a digital platform designed to lessen the burden of staying informed on the latest clinical studies and academic articles. Called Pathway, the platform is free to use for clinicians anywhere in the world. 

Combining artificial intelligence-powered (AI) assistance with physician authors and editors, the platform summarises the latest in clinical guidelines and trials. It also provides diagnostic support tools such as a clinical calculator. All the articles and summaries include easy-to-access links to original references and adhere to the company’s robust assessment process. Information is available on 33 specialities in adult medicine, including endocrinology, geriatrics, neurosurgery, primary care, cardiology, and more.  

As well as the free-to-access option, there is a paid-for service for clinicians seeking to earn continuing medical education credits. And, the company recently introduced Pathway AI for real-time AI-generated answers to clinical queries. The tool is available in beta to clinicians in the United States. 

Having recently closed a $5 million (around €4.6 million) round of seed funding, Pathway is continuing to strengthen the volume and quality of content available as well as respond to user feedback. The company also plans to expand access to Pathway AI to clinicians in other countries and further develop the tool’s capability. 

Technology is helping reduce the care burden on overworked healthcare professionals around the world. Examples highlighted in Springwise’s database include a platform connecting temporary doctors with practices and an AI imaging analysis tool that helps prioritise patients needing the most urgent care. 

Written By: Keely Khoury

Reference

Precision fishing technology helps fishing crews catch their target species
CategoriesSustainable News

Precision fishing technology helps fishing crews catch their target species

By Zarkon Group,
Precision fishing technology helps fishing crews catch their target species

Spotted: Fish bycatch – when commercial fishers unintentionally catch fish and other marine animals that they cannot use – has a significant negative impact on the marine environment. According to the World Wildlife Foundation, around 38 million tonnes of sea creatures are unintentionally caught each year, representing around 40 per cent of worldwide catches. Most of this bycatch ends up dead.

A UK company – SafetyNet Technologies – has now developed technology aimed at reducing bycatch. The company designs and builds ‘precision fishing’ devices to increase the selectivity of commercial fishing practices, making the industry more sustainable.

The flagship product, called Pisces, is designed to improve the selectivity of fishing gear. It uses coloured LED lights to attract the target species while deterring unwanted bycatch, helping fishing crews to save time sorting fish.

SafetyNet has also developed an affordable underwater camera and sensor that attach to fishing gear and help fishing crews gather data. This allows them to increase efficiency, reduce bycatch, and measure the effects of climate change on fisheries. Together, SafetyNet says these technologies help both fishers and fish.

The company has recently secured £1.8 million (around €2 million) in new funding to accelerate the development of its precision fishing technology.

According to the Food and Agriculture Organization, the percentage of stocks fished at biologically unsustainable levels reached 35.4 per cent in 2019. Luckily, Springwise is also spotting innovations aimed at protecting marine life, ranging from next-generation quiet boat propellers to turning harmful algae into sustainable products.

Written By: Lisa Magloff

Reference

A platform helps producers track and collect post-consumer products
CategoriesSustainable News

A platform helps producers track and collect post-consumer products

By Zarkon Group,
A platform helps producers track and collect post-consumer products

Spotted: According to the World Bank, each year 4.9 million tons of plastic waste in Indonesia is goes uncollected, is left in open dumpsites, or is leaked from inadequately managed landfills. This ‘wasted waste’ blights neighbourhoods, damages wildlife, and leaches chemicals into the water. To find a solution, Jakarta-based startup Octopus has developed a circular economy platform to collect and dispose of waste. 

Octopus offers two main kinds of service. In one, consumers download an app and book a time slot for waste pickers – called pelestari – to collect their trash. The rubbish is then sold on to recycling businesses.  

The role of waste picker already exists in Indonesia. However, by taking waste directly from consumers instead of sifting through landfills, the pelestari can work in a safer way and earn higher prices. And, because the app formalises their labour, the pickers can build a verifiable employment history, making it easier to open bank accounts and gain access to credit. Octopus also provides a training programme through its app.  

The other part of Octopus’ business model is to provide data on waste collection and recycling to fast-moving consumer goods (FMCG) brands that help them meet their Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) targets. Octopus also runs a deposit refund system for larger producers and brands. The startup already has more than 150,000 users and raised $5 million (around €4.7 million) last year, in a funding round led by Openspace and SOSV. 

Plastic waste is a huge concern, so it is no surprise that Springwise has spotted a lot of energy being put towards developing innovative solutions. These range from recycling tyres into green roof panels to using fungi to break down hard-to-recycle plastics.

Written By: Lisa Magloff

Reference

A robotic glove helps rehabilitate stroke patients
CategoriesSustainable News

A robotic glove helps rehabilitate stroke patients

By Zarkon Group,
A robotic glove helps rehabilitate stroke patients

Spotted: Strokes are the world’s third-leading cause of death and disability combined, and costs more than $721 billion (around €658 billion) annually. The World Stroke Organization reports that the global burden of disability-adjusted life-years lost “increased substantially” from 1990 to 2019 and calls for ‘urgent measures’ to improve post-stroke health outcomes. One method making it easier for providers to see patients sooner is telehealth, which, when combined with robotics technology, brings a range of new methods of care into the home. 

The LifeGlov robotic glove brings grip strength and hand mobility rehabilitation services directly to the patient. Created and built by Scottish healthtech company Bioliberty, the LifeGlov reduces travel and wait times for patients while supporting personalisation in care from providers.

The glove is connected to a digital therapy platform to provide exercises tailored to each individual’s capability and strength at the time most convenient for them, and the platform also reminds patients to use their weaker hand and arm in everyday tasks. Healthcare professionals use the platform to monitor rehabilitation programme effectiveness and make quick adjustments to exercises when needed based on a patient’s ability. 

Having recently raised £2.2 million (around €2.5 million) in investment, Bioliberty plans to build rehabilitation clinics for a 2024 North America launch. Longer term development will focus on expanding the glove’s capability and the supporting technology in order to provide rehabilitation for other limbs and parts of the body.  

Springwise has spotted other technology being used to assist stroke patients, including an inflatable glove and an assistive robot.

Written By: Keely Khoury

Reference

An app helps families avoid food waste
CategoriesSustainable News

An app helps families avoid food waste

By Zarkon Group,
An app helps families avoid food waste

Spotted: Around 70 per cent of all food waste in the UK comes from households, which equates to around 6.6 million tonnes a year. To help tackle this, Kitche was launched to help families avoid throwing away food. The company has found that the most effective strategies are preventative, so aims to target food waste at the source.  

Kitche has developed an app that lets users import their food to keep track of what they have at home, and users can also scan supermarket receipts to update their virtual inventory. Based on what is recorded on the app, Kitche will send reminders of when foods need to be eaten or frozen, and lets users move products between “To buy”, “At home” and “Ditch” lists. The app also has recipes to help customers use up all their products efficiently.

Since launching three years ago, Kitche has had nearly 65,000 downloads in the UK and earlier this year, the app had a re-launch with new features. For instance, the new Impact Section allows users to see the results of tracking their food waste, including water, CO2, food, and money savings. To make the app even more convenient, Kitche has also made it possible to add food products to the app by voice or scanning by barcode. Other new features include an Explore Section, which includes a lifestyle magazine-style collection of top tips and recipes, and a Community Section where people can connect and become Kitche Ambassadors to earn unique elements both in and outside the app. 

There are so many innovations out there helping to tackle food waste. Springwise has spotted a startup turning wasted fresh produce into healthy snacks and another transforming broccoli waste into plant protein.

Written By: Anam Alam

Reference

AI helps to decarbonise energy-intensive businesses 
CategoriesSustainable News

AI helps to decarbonise energy-intensive businesses 

By Zarkon Group,
AI helps to decarbonise energy-intensive businesses 

Spotted: Together, heavy industry and transportation produce 40.4 per cent of the world’s annual greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. Each sector has its own particular challenges in reducing pollution, and every manufacturing plant has its own individual machinery and processes. That complexity makes it challenging for businesses in sectors like steel, cement, telecoms, and automotive to identify ways to reduce emissions, implement changes, and track progress against company goals. 

Using a deep understanding of those conditions, a team of industrial engineers worked together to create QiO Technologies to transform the ability of heavy industry to achieve carbon neutrality. Based on artificial intelligence (AI) analyses, the Foresight Sustainability Suite improves production efficiency, tracks the performance of every machine, and provides service and maintenance support. 

QiO provides the three different parts of the Sustainability Suite separately or together, allowing businesses to focus on the areas they most want to improve. Foresight Optima maximises production efficiency. Foresight Maintenance tracks and predicts machine failures to help reduce operating downtime, and Foresight Service helps businesses better plan the timing and order of fixes and upgrades. 

QiO’s latest product, Foresight Optima DC+, is specifically for data centres – themselves a significant contributor to global GHG emissions. With a recently closed series B round of funding that raised $10 million (around €9.4 million), QiO Technologies plans to focus its expansion into this area of work.  

Manufacturing and chemical production process improvements are reducing pollution in several different ways. Springwise has spotted a new way of recycling plastic and hazardous chemical waste, and a new wood-fibre building material that produces almost zero waste.

Written By: Keely Khoury

Reference

An exoskeleton helps to remove pain when working standing up
CategoriesSustainable News

An exoskeleton helps to remove pain when working standing up

By Zarkon Group,
An exoskeleton helps to remove pain when working standing up

Spotted: As anyone who has worked in a job that requires manual labour can tell you, spending all day on your feet is exhausting and hard on the body. In fact, one study found that occupational physical activity is associated with an 18 per cent increased risk of early mortality for men, likely due to the strain put on the cardiovascular system by repetitive movement. On top of this, repetitive manual labour can lead to fatigue and muscle, joint and bone pain, and injuries.

To help, startup Archelis has developed what it describes as an “exoskeleton assist suit” that enables leg-strain-free standing. The device is attached to the legs and allows the weight of the upper body to be dispersed and supported by the shins and thighs, reducing stress on the feet by as much as 50 per cent. In effect, it acts like a standing chair, but one that moves with the user.

In a demonstration experiment conducted by the Japanese Ministry of Health, Labour, and Welfare, the effect of using the Archelis exoskeleton was to reduce the muscle activity on the spine and calf muscles by up to 41 per cent and reduce the load on the lower back by 33 per cent. This year, the company has released an updated stick which is more flexible, lighter and faster to put on and take off.

The company started out with the intention of reducing the burden on doctors, who must stand on their feet for many hours at a time while conducting surgery. However, Archelis CEO Hideyuki Fujisawa has said that the company’s goal now is to “solve social issues by completely new ideas through technology and design.”

Springwise has also spotted a number of innovations aimed at helping those with mobility issues, including a brain-controlled exoskeleton and a fabric that stiffens and softens to provide both protection and support.

Written By: Lisa Magloff

Reference

A platform helps companies track ESG, CSR, and sustainability in one place 
CategoriesSustainable News

A platform helps companies track ESG, CSR, and sustainability in one place 

By Zarkon Group,
A platform helps companies track ESG, CSR, and sustainability in one place 

Spotted: With research showing that corporate social responsibility (CSR) initiatives are frequently withdrawn during times of economic uncertainty, the full picture of the fallout from the COVID-19 pandemic is still developing. Many environmental advocates hoped that the sudden drop in global emissions would become the new norm, but the opposite happened. The International Energy Agency (IEA) reports that global emissions rebounded to their highest level in history in 2021. Part of that was a rebound in airline travel and a steep increase in transport by car.  

In light of the corporate struggle to do what is best for the planet, Spanish software company APlanet created a single, customisable dashboard for companies to track their environmental, social and governance (ESG) measures in one place. Whatever a business is doing to protect the global health of the planet, and wherever that occurs in the supply chain, the APlanet platform tracks it.

A company sets up the categories that it wants to track, which can include global standards as well as internal, local, or regional measures. APlanet helps identify data inputs and builds a bespoke dashboard. Companies can assign owners to different data sets and, when needed, easily create holistic performance reports for the entire organisation.

The detailed analysis provided by APlanet helps operational managers track efficiencies and a range of measures across multiple locations, including gender equality, emissions, energy usage, recycling, water usage and more.

CSR and ESG are important to consumers, with much brand loyalty pegged to a company’s ethos. As organisations seek ways to bake sustainability into their very foundations, innovators are rising to the challenge with technologies such as a platform that verifies and tracks impact projects and a social media app that raises funding for sustainable brands and causes.  

Written By: Keely Khoury

Reference

An app helps to capture family stories
CategoriesSustainable News

An app helps to capture family stories

By Zarkon Group,
An app helps to capture family stories

Spotted: Stories have always been a part of human culture, but the way we interact with them has changed dramatically in recent years. With the advent of social media, we now consume stories more passively than ever before, scrolling through photos and videos without really connecting with the people behind them. Startup Remento is working to change that. Its storytelling platform encourages users to share personal stories and connect with loved ones on a deeper level. 

The app provides conversation prompts to inspire the sharing of stories from every member of the family. The prompts include questions about a grandparent’s childhood home, to the context of images from wedding photos. The prompts are then selected and customised on the app, after which family conversations can be recorded. An interactive playback allows users to showcase stories from these sessions. These can then be shared and reminisced about at a later time.

The company’s co-founder and CEO Charlie Greene came up with the idea for Remento after recording various interviews with his mother after she was diagnosed with cancer. “The conversations our family recorded after we learned my mother had cancer changed our relationship forever. As she reflected on photos and answered questions about her early years for her grandchildren to one day watch, I learned more about her life than I ever could have imagined,” she explained.

Social media continues to change, and so is the way we interact with it – with growing concerns about its impact on our mental health and relationships. Springwise has spotted several related innovations including social media tools that help the public assess viral posts, and an app teaching people to trust the news again. 

Written By: Katrina Lane

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