Key details
Date
- 1 February 2023
Author
- RCA
Read time
- 2 minutes
How can innovation make strides without exhausting the world's resources?
Through their innovative projects, RCA students consider a sustainable future in which design puts the planet first – see them at the RCA on 3 and 4 February.
Key details
Date
- 1 February 2023
Author
- RCA
Read time
- 2 minutes
1. Biofonic
What can we discover through listening to soil? Biofonic is an eco-acoustic monitoring device that detects key indicators of soil health by measuring soundscapes within it.
Through the chemical and physical interventions of farming, fertile lands are reducing year on year in the UK. The Biofonic team from MA/MSc Innovation Design Engineering believe we need a solution that promotes biodiversity and moves away from chemical testing.
Their soundscape device fosters regenerative soil practices that improve farm production. While at the same time reducing costs, removing damaging chemicals and quantifying the carbon capturing potential of soil.
The Biofonic Team: Zihao Guo, Eve Townsend, Alexandra Park, Jasper Mallinson
2. Ella Campion
Hotels usually replace each set of bed linen after just nine months – leading to roughly 10 million tonnes of luxury linens ending up in landfill each year. Our MA Textiles student, Ella Campion is focusing on how we can transform these discarded materials through her own zero waste techniques.
Ella has been reworking the luxury fabric through pleating, folding and draping techniques – as well as developing natural and sustainable textile dyes from food waste to colour the fabric. She's also currently working in collaboration with start-up Sages London to develop her sustainable dyes.
3. Carbon Cell
The Carbon Cell team from our MA/MSc Innovation Design Engineering want to make Expanded Polystyrene (EPS) waste a thing of the past. By 2024 the world is expected to produce enough to fill 2.5 million semi-trucks annually taking hundreds of years to degrade.
Carbon Cell is a new material that can be made from things as common as waste potatoes or textiles, which aims to replace petrochemical foams with its multiple uses and thermal conductivity. A tonne of Carbon Cell biochar can capture and store up to 3.6
tonnes of CO2 instead of releasing it into the environment – and it's fully biodegradable.
The Carbon Cell Team: Ori Blich, Elizabeth Lee, Eden Harrison, Juan Ignacio Rion
4. EVE
Want to take the pressure out of being an ethical consumer? EVE from our MA Service Design students is a cooperative social enterprise that promotes sustainable practices in the hospitality sector by making better consumer choices visible.
Through the EVE app users can see how a business's green standards have been accredited and how they are taking part in sustainable initiatives. Users can also connect to other individuals concerned by climate change fostering citizen action.
The EVE Team: Angus Bamford, Dayna Booth, Abhipsha Ray, Pratiti Sadani, Yang Ling Chen
5. PulpaTronics
Did you know there are over 12 billion items of clothing with RFID tags? Radio-frequency identification tags are used in retail to catalogue inventory. Most are single use meaning they quickly end up as landfill – leading to a huge build up of silicon and metal waste.
PulpaTronics is a new innovation from our MA/MSc Innovation Design Engineering students. These new tags are recyclable, chipless and carbon-based, therefore completely eliminating the need for metal mining, and simplifying manufacturing and recycling processes. A sustainable innovation that stops harmful practices at the beginning and end of its life cycle.
The PulpaTronics Team: Barna Soma Biro, Jingyan Chen, Chloe So, Rui Ma