In Germany, sustainability-focused designer Emilie Burfeind has used renewable and waste materials—including dog hair—to create an eccentric sneaker that she hopes will appeal to sneakerheads concerned with the wasteful practices of sneaker culture and fast fashion. Dubbed Sneature, the shoe membrane is made using 3D knitting of dog hair, creating “flexibility, stiffness, and air circulation […]
In California, synthetic biology firm Amyris is launching a haircare brand with beauty influencer Jonathan Van Ness. The partnership aims to “de-gender and revolutionize the haircare industry” by creating a line of hair health products employing Amyris’s hemi-squalane, a biobased and hydrating silicone alternative. “I am more like the anti-transformation beauty expert: I want to […]
In Sweden, popular outdoor brand Fjallraven has introduced a backpack made almost entirely out of renewable materials. Dubbed Tree-Kanken, the backpack is part of the company’s popular Kanken line of tote/commuter bags that Fjallraven calls the “ambassador” of its brand. Like the conventional Kanken, Tree-Kanken has 16-liter capacity and includes a large U-pocket. However, Tree-Kanken […]
In New York, a graduate student in design has invented a biodegradable, single-use dental flosser. Dubbed Carbyn and made from polyhydroxyalkanoates bioplastic and biochar, the flosser also absorbs atmospheric carbon—meaning it sequesters more carbon than it emits as it biodegrades. “Increasingly, our material choices have become moral choices,” inventor Jessica Smith tells Yanko Design. Carbyn […]
In Japan, conglomerate Mitsubishi has partnered with Israeli cultured meat startup Aleph Farms to bring lab-grown beef to the country’s markets and restaurants. Under the terms of the deal, Mitsubishi and Aleph will collaborate to create formulations that appeal to Japanese consumers and meet regulatory requirements. The two will then leverage Mitsubishi’s infrastructure for production […]
In Australia, cultured meat startup Vow has raised $6 million to expand its product pipeline of oddball meats, including kangaroo and alpaca. Led by Australia’s Square Peg Capital, the oversubscribed seed funding will help the company “outperform meat, instead of simply replacing it,” according to a press release issued by the Sydney-based startup. The company, […]
In Japan, Sumitomo Forestry and Kyoto University are designing a satellite made from wood that would completely incinerate upon re-entry in an effort to reduce space junk. If successful, it would be the world’s first functional wood-based satellite. “We are very concerned with the fact that all the satellites which re-enter the Earth’s atmosphere burn […]
In Vancouver, an entrepreneur has transformed over 30 million wood chopsticks from restaurants into everyday items such as dining room tables and staircases. The idea for ChopValue actually came from Felix Böck’s girlfriend—now fiancée—after the PhD student expressed frustration during a sushi dinner that there was little interest in his proposal for repurposing waste wood […]
In Italy, architecture firm LCA Architetti has designed a small country house made from natural and recyclable construction materials. The simple design utilizes a prefab timber structure and straw insulation sourced from local rice farmers. The house’s most striking feature, however, is arguably cork cladding in a “wavy textured finish” that reduces the structure’s energy […]
In Russia and Switzerland, researchers are replicating a nanocoating found in fruit fly eyes with potential applications in medicine, textiles, and nanoelectronics. The team, comprised of scientists from Far Eastern Federal University, University of Geneva, University of Lausanne and the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich, have found the biodegradable coating to have anti-reflective, […]
