Tag Archives: Sustainability

Michelin debuts inflatable sail system to decarbonize the global maritime industry, providing freight ships with clean wind energy!

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Michelin Group, the multinational French tire manufacturing company, has its tread pointed towards becoming a leader in sustainable mobility. Veering away from tire manufacturing, Michelin is making strides on the ocean. Revealing a sustainability project aimed at the high seas, the global tire manufacturing group presented WISAMO, a wind-powered Wing Sail Mobility project, during this month’s Movin’ On global sustainability summit.

In a collaboration between Michelin R&D and a couple of Swiss inventors, WISAMO was designed in part as a contribution to their long-term goal of cutting global maritime transport emissions by more than half by 2050, Michelin’s WISAMO project provides inflatable sails to increase efficiency across all kinds of freight and cargo ships. The Wing Sail Mobility project was conceived to decarbonize the maritime industry at large, prompting Michelin to construct a wind sail system that fits most commercial cargo ships by enacting a plug-and-socket installment system.

Designed as a supplementary power source for freight and cargo ships, the inflatable sails would work in addition to the ships’ engines, propelling the ships forward with help from harnessed wind energy. WISAMO is an automated, retractable, and inflatable wind sail system that folds over the ship’s deck when not in use. The sails’ foldable design allows cargo and freight to pass under bridges or sail through storms without the worry of damage to the actual sails. Relying on a telescopic folding system, WISAMO’s sails unfurl via an automated system that uses an air compressor for inflation.

Offering his own technical and experiential knowledge, world-renowned french sailor Michel Desjoyeaux collaborated with the team at Michelin to help develop WISAMO. During its debut at the 2021 ‘Movin’ On’ global sustainability summit, Desjoyeaux cited the project’s environmental charge, “the advantage of wind propulsion is that wind energy is clean, free, universal, and totally non-controversial. It offers a very promising avenue to improving the environmental impact of merchant ships.”

Designer: Michelin Group

Relying on a retractable and inflatable sail system, WISAMO can be installed on most commercial cargo ships.

WISAMO was designed to hybridize freight ships, propelling their engine-driven speed further with wind power.

The inflatable sail systems can fit on most merchant and leisure ships.

With the insight gained from experienced French sailor Michel Desjoyeaux, Michelin built WISAMO to garner optimal wind energy.

WISAMO retracts over the ship’s deck when not in use.

The telescopic folding design allows ships to still sail beneath bridges and through storms.

The automated folding system works with an air compression unit that’s activated with the push of a button.

This flat-packed pasta morphs into a 3D shape when cooked, promoting sustainable food packaging!

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When we buy pasta sold in plastic bags or boxes, 60% of its packaging space is reserved for air. The packaging used to contain food items like pasta is a major contributor to landfills in the United States. As we slowly make attempts toward a more sustainable future, understanding the waste that food packaging produces provides a viable starting point. Inevitably, the ways we consume food and package food will become more sustainable and a team of researchers in collaboration with Carnegie Mellon University and Syracuse University turned to flat-packing authentic Italian pasta to find out the ways to do it.

Inspired by the flat-packing of furniture in efforts to save packaging space and reduce the overall carbon footprint produced during the transportation of goods, a team of researchers decided to see if they could do the same for pasta. When we purchase dry pasta, the shape of the pasta we see in the store is typically the same shape we eat at home, only hopefully cooked. The team behind flat-packed pasta has developed a groove-based shape morphing technique using low-cost manufacturing methods to stamp, mold, or cast the pasta which then transforms into the predetermined shape once cooked. Before curling into its predetermined shape, the pasta, made from semolina flour and water, is stamped with grooves that indicate the direction by which the pasta will curl and bend into shape.

Parametric surface grooving essentially brings on temporary asynchronous swelling or deswelling that transforms flat objects into their preferred three-dimensional shape. The groove-based shape morphing technique allows edible items like pasta to be flat-packed and then change shape when cooked. The process really can be explained when understood through furniture flat-packing. In the same way that flat-packed furniture changes shape after assembly, flat-packed pasta transforms into edible, shapely pasta after cooking.

Designers: Carnegie Mellon University

After being stamped with parametric surface grooves, the pasta can be packed tightly into a container and then morph into shape when cooked.

The grooves work as a preset for each piece of pasta to shape into.

 

The parametric surface grooving works on an array of differently shaped pasta.

Whether it has a radial or more geometric shape, the surface grooving works to create cubic or round pasta.

The team of researchers explains the cooking process of pasta, “pasta expands and softens as it is boiled due to water diffusion, the relaxation of the macromolecular matrix, and starch gelatinization.”

The shape of food doesn’t only directly impact sustainability in regard to packaging, but it impacts the overall food experience, from taste to consistency.

“Further, the shape of food will also impact the carbon footprint during the cooking process. For example, in Italy, 0.7% to 1% of greenhouse gas emissions are due to cooking pasta, and these emissions could be reduced by half if the shape and cooking processes could be optimized.”

“Flat pasta with surface texture has a larger surface area to volume ratio and can be cooked faster than the ones with an inner cavity (e.g., macaroni).”

Flat-packed pasta could also come in handy for minimal baggage trips like hiking and camping, where storage availability might be limited.

Each piece of pasta is stamped with parametric surface grooving in preparation for packing and cooking.

The grooves on each piece of pasta are either manually stamped or made through an automated machine-stamping process.

This prefab modular home includes an open floor plan + arched ceiling with curved pinewood walls!

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Modular homes have been on the rise. Even if we’re only dreaming, each one of us is searching high and low for our own prefabricated getaway somewhere far away in the woods and modular homes offer a feasible means to create our own dream cabin in the woods. Whether we’d like one for work-related retreats or for family holidays, Woonpioniers, an Amsterdam-based architecture, and design studio has created Indigo, a modular building system that designs homes to replicate one of your dreams.

Depending on the home you’d like to build with Woonpioniers, Indigo’s structure and shape may vary. Recently, Lia Harmsen collaborated with Woonpioniers to design her live-in workspace for sculpting. The finished custom two-floor home measures 861-square-feet and features fixed-end moment building practices that produce a beautiful, curved interior leading from the wall to the ceiling. The fixed-end moment frame of the home offers an open-air floor plan, giving complete access for the building’s interior layout to take shape, leaving behind the spatial restriction of support beams and partitions.

Inside, the topmost section of the pinewood sheets that make up the home’s wall curves and connects to the ceiling, producing beam-like support for the building’s structural forces without the physical need of additional beams. Woonpioniers built the bendable wooden sheets themselves, making small incisions in the wooden sheets until they curved to the desired shape. Below, pigmented concrete fills Indigo’s ground floor while the stairs and the upstairs bedroom is lined with ProFi flooring from solid timber and given a transparent coating for a finished look.

From the outside, Harmsen’s dark-as-night Indigo live-in workspace features floor-to-ceiling windows that cover the whole of the structure’s front and back facades. The abundance of natural light showcases the home’s floorplan, which features a small kitchenette, dining area, living room, and bathroom located below a staircase with integrated storage options that leads to the home’s loft bedroom.

Designer: Woonpioniers

From the exterior, Indigo appears to have a traditional frame, but a closer look showcases curving interior walls.

Indigo’s exterior facades are paneled with pinewood and connect to a metal roof.

The curved walls provide the loft with a cozy frame and an organic placement for the built-in skylight.

From both ends of the loft, Indigo features a triangular floor-to-ceiling window.

The materials used to build Indigo were chosen for their self-regulating properties were responsibly sourced for an overall minimal environmental impact.

The first floor of Harmsen’s Indigo features a small kitchenette and dining area on one side, and a woodfire oven delineates the kitchenette from the rest of the floor plan.

The polished concrete flooring is only found on the first floor and bathroom interiors.

Equipped with integrated staircase storage, Woonpioniers made clever use of the 861-square-feet on which Indigo rests.

The kitchenette’s countertop was built by Lia Harmsen herself.

Across the room from the kitchen, Indigo also features a small living area.

The sustainable alternative to LEGO are these building blocks entirely carved from timber

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Classic toys like LEGO building blocks never go out of style. A quick Google search even proves that there’s a whole web of online stores devoted to selling and buying rare, collectible pieces. There’s one standard 2×4 LEGO brick on the market, entirely made from gold, with a firm asking price of just under $15,000 – to each their own. Then, there’s Mokulock, an alternative type of building block. Carved entirely from sustainably sourced timber and not compatible with plastic building blocks, Mokulock works in the same way as LEGO bricks but is a couple of steps ahead on the road towards sustainable toy production.

Coming from a love for trees and the natural world, the designer behind Mokulock recognized the waste that manifests with forest thinning and decided to make use of the smaller trees that are too thin for architectural purposes or furniture-making. Prioritizing simplicity and organic structure over shiny paint jobs, the Mokulock building blocks maintain their original tree’s finish, without additional finishing oil, chemical paint, or glue. While the different timber species used to create the building blocks of Mokulock vary, a sanded finish that promises a soft feel and splinter-free play is guaranteed. Currently, Mokulock uses timber from Japanese Cherry, Japanese Zelkova, Japanese Bigleaf Magnolia, Birch, Hornbeam, and Maple trees to produce their building blocks, which provide different textures and shades of wood for either smooth gradient or color block building projects.

Mokulock was initially created as a means for preservation and sustainability, but the timber used in producing these building blocks offers some mental benefits for the user as well. In addition to supporting an endeavor that provides a sustainable alternative to a worldwide beloved toy, Mokulock utilizes the soft feel of wood to help enhance creativity, stabilize the autonomic nerves by lowering the blood pressure, regulate an otherwise abnormal pulse, and generally calm the nerves. Then again, we don’t need research to remind us of the comfort that comes when we immerse ourselves in nature and notice the solidity of its surrounding trees, the soothing scent of freshly cut timber, and the warm feel of tree bark.

Designer: Mokulock

Due to the tree’s natural coloring, Mokulock offers a wide array of shades for its building blocks.

A natural camouflage color scheme is achieved through the varying natural gradient of Mokulock’s building blocks.

Just like LEGO building blocks, Mokulock bricks can be used to create large-scale 3D scenes or smaller designs like automobiles or miniature pyramids.

Mokulock stays away from using any finishing oil, chemical paint, or glue in the making of their building blocks to maintain an organic finish.

Some of Mokulock’s building blocks come engraved with quirky scenes and characters for children to integrate into their buildings.

 

Constructed like LEGO, these modular shoes are made entirely from compostable materials!

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You either already own a lot of shoes or you regularly buy a lot of new pairs of shoes. I fall in the latter category. I probably hold onto my shoes longer than recommended, maybe purchasing a new casual pair of shoes to wear every day, every year and a half. In the United States alone, around 300 million pairs of shoes are thrown away each year and end up in landfills where they take up to 40 years to decompose. That means by the time I turn 64, my pair of Adidas sneakers will finally be broken down. Noticing the environmental impact that shoe waste has on the earth, Laura Muth created ‘Shoes with an Expiration Date,’ a prototype of modular sneakers made entirely from compostable material.

Generally, fast-fashion uses carbon-intensive, nonrenewable resources like petrochemical textiles to construct items like shoes, making the industry one of the largest contributors to greenhouse gas emissions in circulation today. While Muth’s ‘Shoes with an Expiration Date’ prototype is not market-ready and still in the mock-up phase, the designer aims to create a pair of shoes whose expiration date is far shorter than that of the shoes made from nonrenewable resources like plastic currently on the market. Ditching toxic glue for an isolable, modular structure, the individual parts of ‘Shoes with an Expiration Date’ are tied together with a compostable shoestring.

‘Shoes with an Expiration Date’ are handmade by Laura Muth from locally sourced, compostable materials. The sole of the shoe is molded with comfort and support in mind from latex extract derived from dandelion root, straw, sawdust, and natural dyes. The string and side support that holds the shoe together are made from cellulose felt and woven hemp. As the shoes are currently constructed, the bottom sole is soft and supportive but does not seem as long-lasting and heavy-duty as the plastic ones currently available on the market. As ‘Shoes with an Expiration Date’ is still in the prototype phase, rest assured that fine-tuning in shape, structure, and support is on the way.

Designer: Laura Muth

The shoestrings are made from woven hemp, while the frame is made from cellulose felt, and the shoe’s sole from dandelion root extract.

Coming in three different parts, the prototype is isolable.

Constructed using a building blocks method, the sole’s imprint leaves a layer for the cellulose felt support to rest atop.

During initial mock-up phases, Muth aimed to reduce the shoe to its essential elements.

Muth used an old sneaker and plastering to form the shape of the prototype’s sole.

With future development, Muth hopes to bridge sustainability with aesthetics and support.

Inspired by the building method of LEGOS, Muth designed isolable, modular shoes constructed from compostable materials.

This vertical farming system was designed to build up community and accommodate the urban lifestyle!

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Urban farming takes different shapes in different cities. Some cities can accommodate thriving backyard gardens for produce, some take to hydroponics for growing plants, and then some might keep their gardens on rooftops. In Malmö, small-scale farming initiatives are growing in size and Jacob Alm Andersson has designed his own vertical farming system called Nivå, directly inspired by his community and the local narratives of Malmö’s urban farmers.

Through interviews, Andersson learned that most farmers in Malmö began farming after feeling inspired by their neighbors, who also grew their own produce. Noticing the cyclical nature of community farming, Andersson set out to create a more focused space where that cyclical inspiration could flourish and where younger generations could learn about city farming along with the importance of sustainability.

Speaking more to this, Andersson notes, “People need to feel able and motivated to grow food. A communal solution where neighbors can share ideas, inspire and help one another is one way to introduce spaces that will create long-lasting motivation to grow food.”

Since most cities have limited space available, Andersson had to get creative in designing his small-scale urban farming system in Malmö. He found that for an urban farm to be successful in Malmö, the design had to be adaptable and operable on a vertical plane– it all came down to the build of Nivå.

Inspired by the local architecture of Malmö, Andersson constructed each system by stacking steel beams together to create shelves and then reinforced those with wooden beams, providing plenty of stability. Deciding against the use of screws, Nivå’s deep, heat-treated pine planters latch onto the steel beams using a hook and latch method. Ultimately, Nivå’s final form is a type of urban farming workstation, even including a center workbench ideal for activities like chopping produce or pruning crops.

Designer: Jacob Alm Andersson

Following interviews with local residents, Andersson set out to create a farming system that works for the city’s green-thumb community.

Taking inspiration from community gardens and the local residents’ needs, Andersson found communal inspiration in Malmö.

Backyard and patio gardens are popular options for those living in cities who’d still like to have their very own gardening space.

Noticing the cyclical nature of community farms, Andersson knew that would be the crux of his design.

Following multiple ideations, Nivå ultimately assumes the form of a farming workstation.

Deep, voluminous soil pots provide plenty of room for growth and the high shelves allow vertical growing methods to persist.

Circling back to the community’s initial narrative, Nivå is a farming workstation solution that allows communities’ residents to farm together.

Using banana peels as a sustainable building material, you can now make everything from eyeglasses to watch straps!

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Along with apples, bananas are the most popular fruits in the world. More than 100 billion bananas are eaten every year, with most of us consuming about 30 pounds worth of bananas every year– that’s bananas. But what happens to all the banana peels we toss out after eating the fruit? Generally, if thrown outdoors, it can take up to two years for banana peels to biodegrade. Sarah Harbarth, a designer based in Switzerland, saw the potential in turning banana peels into a sustainable source of construction material, calling it KUORI.

Harbarth was able to create four distinct products that are entirely compostable and made from banana peels. Harbarth’s first product shows a pair of eyeglasses that swap out a tortoise-shell frame for a banana speckled marble one. Then, in combining recycled PLA material with banana peels, Harbarth produced a 3D printing filament from which one can print anything they’d like. The third product Harbarth created through KUORI is the shoe sole made entirely from banana peels, solving the problem of micro-plastics rubbing off onto the ground as we walk in our street shoes. By replacing the micro-plastic that forms our shoe soles with banana peels, Harbarth created a sole that not only doesn’t disrupt the soil we walk on but feeds it as well. Lastly, in confronting the harmful practice of making leather goods, Harbarth designed a sustainable, vegan, and recyclable leather alternative, which she showcased in the form of a watch strap.

While the time it takes for decomposition to run its course depends on environmental factors, natural litter can have an adverse effect on critters that take to munching on fruit peels and therefore the environment as a whole. With all the bananas we enjoy every year, that same amount is then turned into waste. In order to lengthen the life cycle of bananas and combat the harmful and wasteful practices of making leather goods from animal skins, Harbarth was able to create goods like phone cases and watch straps entirely from banana peels. Upon recognizing the intricate ways in which we contribute to harming the environment through practices like leather making, 3D printing, and micro-plastic construction, Harbarth looked to using banana peels to produce goods instead.

Designer: Sarah Harbarth

By turning banana peels into an alternative building material, like leather, KUORI is sustainable, vegan, and saves resources.

“The result [of KUORI] is four products that are 100% compostable and made from the banana peel as an original food waste byproduct.”

In creating products out of banana peels like eyeglasses, KUORI feeds nature instead of taking from it.

“Due to the fiber composite of the Banana peel in the material, the resulting product has a higher stability compared to ordinary PLA.”

Most shoe soles are constructed using micro-plastics that rub off on the ground we walk.

“The resulting shoe sole is very elastic and returns to its original position. The material was poured into a mold and then hardened out.”

Confronting harmful practices like bleaching leather hides, KUORI offers a sustainable alternative.

“My concept represents a sustainable, resource-saving, organic and vegan, recyclable alternative to animal leather.”

Coca-Cola, the world’s largest plastic polluter, is testing out the viability of paper bottles

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It seems like the title of the world’s largest plastic polluter (for 4 years in a row) is finally beginning to get on the nerves of the executives at Coca-Cola. After making a statement only last year that they don’t intend on breaking free from plastic, the company’s slowly begun re-evaluating its supply chain and choice of materials.

Thanks to a partnership with Danish company Paboco (Paper Bottle Company), Coca-Cola has now unveiled its first ‘paper bottle’. Available for a limited online trial in Hungary, Coca-Cola is planning a run of 2,000 bottles of the plant-based beverage AdeZ. It’s barely anything to begin with, but it is a start… and it gives Paboco, the company behind the bottle’s design, a much-needed boost.

Paboco’s paper bottle comes with an inner bio-polymer lining to provide a waterproof barrier (so that the paper doesn’t get soggy). The outer layer is made from a Nordic wood-pulp-based paper, and provides the perfect substrate for printing on, eliminating the need for a label. The bottle itself can be molded quite like plastic bottles are, paving the way for the use of forms, textures, and patterns to help the product stand-out… and the necks of the bottle can be threaded too, allowing for the use of a paper cap (with the option of the crimped metal caps too). While the bottle is biodegradable, Coca-Cola hopes to develop a design and supply chain that allows bottles to be recycled just like paper. “Our vision is to create a paper bottle that can be recycled like any other type of paper, and this prototype is the first step on the way to achieving this,” said Stijn Franssen, EMEA R&D Packaging Innovation Manager at Coca-Cola.

Coca-Cola’s limited run should be met with a bit of skepticism (after all, 2000 bottles isn’t enough, is it?) but the challenges faced by the company are understandable. Bottles can easily get crushed or damaged when transported in large volumes, a complication that exponentially increases with CO2-filled pressurized beverage containers. AdeZ, however, seems to be the perfect candidate for this trial run, given that it’s a thick, dairy-free smoothie that contains seeds, fruit juices, and vitamins. If successful, Coca-Cola may look to gradually expand on this approach, helping it achieve the company’s “World Without Waste” sustainable packaging goal of substantially reducing its waste footprint and developing solutions for easily recycling its bottles and cans, and shifting to using only 100% recyclable packaging materials by the year 2030.

Designers: Paboco & Coca-Cola

Images via Coca Cola and Paboco

IKEA lengthens furniture life by providing ‘How To Disassemble’ instructions to attain their sustainability goals!

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Everyone is moving these days. Some are moving abroad to live out their dreams of backpacking across Spain, chucking all of their apartment furniture out in the meantime. Or, some are holding yard sales and moving just down the street into the house they’ve had their eyes on for years. Whatever the case may be, people are moving and furniture is hitting the curb. In order to build on their commitment to sustainability, iconic furniture brand IKEA announced that by 2030, they plan to include Disassembly Instructions with each one of their products as means of encouraging buyers to repurpose their IKEA purchases instead of tossing them to the street.

As part of its latest push for sustainability, a reversed instruction manual will be included with each product purchased from IKEA. This push works to help spread the practice of “circular consumption,” which reinforces IKEA’s building practice’s value of quality over quantity, using fewer materials, components, and energy in the manufacturing of products, big or small. Right now, you can find Disassembly Instructions for some of IKEA’s more popular products: BILLY, MALM, POÄNG, BRIMNES, PAX, and LYCKSELE online in PDF format. Speaking to the imminent inclusion of Disassembly Instruction manuals for each of their products, IKEA points out,

“Extending the life of your furniture with our Disassembly Instructions is one of the ways we’re building on our commitment to sustainability. No matter whether you’re moving home, giving your furniture away, or selling it. Taking it apart correctly reduces the risk of damage, and reduces its impact on the environment. Fortune favors the frugal.”

While the plan to equip each piece of furniture with Disassembly Instructions has been recently announced, IKEA has been committed to sustainability for a long time. Through frugal design practices, IKEA manufactures furniture that can stand the test of time. One such practice is IKEA’s line of modular furniture that grows with its users. For example, IKEA’s line of extendable beds uses steel telescopic tubing to allow each bed frame to lengthen and adapt to a child’s growing height. IKEA also developed the fabric coverings for their collection of sofas so that they can handle over 25,000 wash cycles, and with additional coverings made available online, customers can get a new slipcover at any time for a refreshed look. In addition to modular furniture and durable fabrics, IKEA urges customers to give their furniture a second life through their buy-back and resell service. With so many options, it’s fun to be frugal.

Designer: IKEA

Now that you’ve built your desk, IKEA provides disassembly instructions in preparation for your next move or yard sale.

The disassembly instructions are as easy to follow as their assembly counterpart, offering a step-by-step approach to disassembly.

Some of IKEA’s more popular designs such as LYCKSELE already have disassembly instructions available online.

Following a numbered and visual guide, users will easily be able to deconstruct their IKEA furniture.

In order to promote sustainability through every building stage, IKEA uses minimal hardware and materials when designing their furniture, making it simple for buyers to assemble and ultimately disassemble.

In addition to deconstruction instruction manuals, IKEA leads a Buy-Back & Resell program for customers who choose to sell back their used furniture for store credit.