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Atmospheric water generator

A Tunisian tech start-up developed a generator that produces drinking water from thin air.  

The Kumulus technology replicates the dew effect and condensation of water from the air.  

The solar-powered machine draws humid air from the atmosphere and gets filtered from pollutants.  It then goes through a cooling process that causes droplets of water to appear in the collector.  The collected water gets filtered multiple times to prevent any particles or bacteria.  It then gets mineralized and saved in the water reservoir, ready to be consumed.

Producing 20 to 30 liters of water daily, the technology can be a solution to places with problems accessing safe drinking water.  It even has the potential to become a more sustainable and economical alternative to the current water sources.

Will we be seeing this water-generating machine around the world soon?  Share with us your thoughts by commenting below.    

4D printing allows products to change shape over time

A new printing technology, the 4-D printer, transforms the printing world by allowing products to change shape over time.  

The 4-D printing technology is like 3-D printing with a fourth dimension that allows the product to be programmed to open up, grow, or change shape, instead of being rigid.  Imagine pipes that expand under high-water pressure, shoes that respond to your foot’s movement, and tubes inserted into the human body that open once in the right location.

The printer is flexible and very efficient, producing zero waste.  It can also use more sustainable material options like natural and recycled materials.  Using the 4-D printer can also mean building anything, from life-saving medical supplies to bridges, without plastic.

The technology is still in its infancy, yet the possibilities are endless.  What other innovative products do you think 4-D printers can create?  Please drop a comment below. 

Organic, fair-trade vegan sneakers

Campo is a vegan sneaker that brings together organic, fair trade, environment and social reintegration in a single product.

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What is it?

Campo is a revolutionary vegan sneaker with a larger sole and a sharp design.

What makes it responsible?

C.W.L. The upper of the shoes and panels are made of material called C.W.L. This bio-sourced and biodegradable material, developed in Italy, is basically a cotton canvas coated with polyurethane and a resin made from corn waste. The result is a leather-substitute that looks and feels like real leather.

Cotton. The organic-certified cotton is sourced directly from farmer associations in Brazil and Peru, who have adopted agro-ecological methods. By not using chemical fertilizers or pesticides and by combining cotton cultivation with corn, sesame and beans, the farmers naturally enrich the soil and also grow food for their families, at the same time.

The price of the cotton is set in advance, in agreement with the state government and producer associations. Since the price is completely decorrelated from the market and its fluctuations, the farmers enjoy great financial security and, in fact, know how much they are going to earn from the cotton before they even plant it. For reference, in 2017, VEJA paid on average twice the market rate for all cotton purchased.

Rubber. The rubber making up the soles of the sneaker is harvested in the wild by local seringueiros, rubber tappers. The seringueiros also process the harvested liquid rubber into rubber paste and then into sheets of about 1 m x 1 m x 2 cm. This innovative process allows the rubber to reach a higher purity.

Allowing the processing to take place locally, the arrangement also generates more revenues for the local rubber producers and reduces the financial incentives of deforestation. VEJA estimates, they helped to save 120,000 hectares of native Amazon forest since 2004.

Polyester. The lining is entirely made of recycled polyester.

Chemicals. Every year, VEJA randomly tests the chemical safety of their sneakers to make sure they don’t contain any noxious, toxic or polluting elements. The shoes are taken apart and each component is crushed into powder with a grinder. The powders are then tested for 298 prohibited or regulated chemical compounds.

B Corp. VEJA is also B Corp certified, which means they had to undergo a detailed scrutiny of approximately 300 items, including for example the wages, the suppliers, the team, the environment, the workplace or the governance. The entire process took almost one year and a number of changes had to be made to how the company operates.

No tax havens. Additionally, whenever possible, VEJA uses banks that don’t have branches in tax havens.

No ads. Because the raw materials are environmentally friendly and purchased according to fair trade principles, because the sneakers are produced in factories with high social standards, the sneakers cost 5-7 times more to produce than a comparable product from major brands.

Yet, Campo sells for roughly the same price. How come?

The reason: VEJA doesn’t advertise. You see, approximately 70% of the cost of a normal big sneaker brand is advertising. Since VEJA eliminated advertising, the sneaker can be sold in stores for the same price as competing big brands.

As a result, when you buy Campo sneakers, you can be sure that raw material producers were justly compensated, social and environmental impacts were optimized, and the sneakers were manufactured in conditions where everyone gets the respect they deserve.

Do-it-yourself solar system

Legion Solar installs in minutes, delivers instant results, and pays for itself 3x faster than traditional systems.

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What is it?

Legion Solar is an advanced solar system designed specifically for the do-it-yourself market (DIY). It comes complete with high-efficiency photovoltaic panels that are specifically manufactured to be lightweight enough for one person to handle with ease.

The system works with Net Meters, Bi-Directional Meters and Single Direction meters. Also, it comes in both 110VAC and 230VAC variants, and is compatible with overhead and underground utility lines.

It can support a system size as small as 200W, all the way up to 6.4kW. It can be easily scaled up anytime by simply daisy-chaining additional expansion sets.

The solar panels come with a 10-year warranty, 10-year 90% performance guarantee, and 25-year 80% performance guarantee. Inverters come with a 10-year warranty and other electronics such as monitoring hardware 5-year warranty.

Legion Solar takes advantage of the existing wiring that you already have in your home. This means you do not even need to upgrade your electrical panel.

What makes it responsible?

Legion Solar is probably the most affordable solar system on the market. It also gives you a great degree of freedom and helps you cover your electricity needs from the best renewable resource ever.

What makes it better than competition?

Unlike traditional contractor-installed solar systems that hinge on utility company permission because you are back feeding (generating power) to their grid, Legion Solar employs a ground-breaking technology that contains generated energy behind your meter where the utility company does not own, and does not feed back to the power grid.

As a result, you avoid having to pay for costs normally associated with traditional solar systems such as resellers’ markups, professional installation, sales rep overhead, workers comp insurance, permits, regulatory and other fees.

This, combined with the fact system is designed to be plug and play and optimized for the do-it-yourselfer where virtually anybody of any skill level can easily perform the installation, makes Legion Solar up to 300% more affordable than tradition solar systems.

Store days’ worth of solar energy

Powerwall 2 stores excess solar energy and makes it available on demand, any time of the day.

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What is it?

Tesla Powerwall 2 is a fully-integrated AC battery system for residential or light commercial use. Its rechargeable lithium-ion battery pack provides energy storage for solar self-consumption, time-based control, and backup.

It can be used for a variety of applications, including:

Self-powering your home – store your the excess solar energy and use it at night. Doing so will roughly double the amount of solar energy that directly powers your home. If necessary, you can even run your home from solar and Powerwall 2 indefinitely.

Backup power – in case of outage, automatically and seamlessly restore power to your home. If you have solar, it will continue to power your home and recharge Powerwall 2 during an outage.

Time-based control – If your electricity prices vary during the day, Powerwall 2 can help you maximize the value of your solar and energy usage by smartly charging and discharging based on the time and price of energy.

Powerwall 2 needs an Internet connection (over wired Ethernet or your home Wi-Fi) or a cellular connection to receive software updates and to communicate with the Tesla mobile app for energy monitoring. A reliable connection is required to provide new product features over time. Powerwall 2 can continue to operate with its most recent settings in case of connection loss, but it should not be installed in a location without Internet or cellular service.

As long as Powerwall 2 is connected to the Internet, you can use the Tesla mobile app to monitor your home energy system in real time and view your energy usage history.

What makes it responsible?

Powerwall 2 is one of the most advanced energy storing solutions for residential homes. Also, it is made specifically to work with solar panels.

Technical Specifications

The first-ever electric pickup truck

Rivian R1T delivers unmatched performance and utility in a market dominated by low fuel efficiency.

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What is it?

Rivian R1T is the world’s first fully-electric pickup truck. In terms of utility, efficiency, capability and performance, it can beat even Ford F-Series — currently, the best-selling car in the US.

The electric drive delivers 147 kW of power to each wheel independently. This independence gives the truck a precise torque control, which enables active torque vectoring and maximized performance in every situation, from high-speed cornering to low-speed rock crawling, regardless of weather conditions.

The sheer power of having 200 horsepower available at each wheel also gives the R1T 3500 Nm of grounded torque per wheel, which translates into a tow rating of more than 11,000 pounds. And, it enables the truck to accelerate from zero to 60 in three seconds flat, and reach 100 mph in under seven seconds. That’s supercar-level acceleration… in a pickup truck!

Initially the vehicle will come with two battery options. The higher-cost 180-kWh option will offer more than 400 miles of range on a single charge. The lower-cost 135-kWh battery will provide a 300-plus-mile range. Both batteries are designed for fast-charging of up to 160 kW, which can add as much as 200 miles of range in just 30 minutes.

The truck also has Level 3 self-driving capabilities (hands-off wheel and eyes-off road) and machine learning functionality. This allows the R1T to track how and where they are driven and adjust their performance for added efficiency on and off road. That data is uploaded to the cloud for processing and management, allowing the vehicles to tune performance on the fly based on conditions.

Who is it for?

R1T is built to compete with any high-end pickup truck out there. In terms of the target demographic, the average potential buyers will likely come from amongst middle-aged white males with an above-average income.

What problem does it solve?

If successful, R1T can push out the gas-guzzling road monsters that pollute our cities out of business.

What makes it responsible?

R1T is a fully-electric car and it is currently the only electric pickup truck on the market. When supplied by power from renewable resources, there isn’t much more that can make it more responsible (other than not buying a pickup truck, that is).

Plant-based burger for meat lovers

Beyond Burger is the world’s first plant-based burger that looks, cooks, and tastes like a fresh beef burger.

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What is it?

The Beyond Burger is a plant-based alternative to meat designed to look and taste just like a real beef burger. The only difference: it’s not made from animal meat.

The premise behind Beyond Burger was that meat’s core parts — amino acids, lipids, trace elements, carbs and minerals — are not exclusive to animals, but all have plant equivalents. The challenge that took more than 7 years to overcome, was to find these equivalents and assemble them to recreate the architecture of meat.

Beyond Burger’s primary source of protein comes from peas. Each burger packs 20g of protein and has no GMOs, soy or gluten. Every effort was made to ensure the burger looks, cooks and tastes just like the real thing. To the point that beets were used to mimic the red color of the meat and the “bleeding” effect that happens when you cook a beef burger.

As a result, the Beyond Burger has all the juicy, meat deliciousness of a traditional burger, but comes with all the upsides of a plant-based meal.

Who is it for?

Interestingly, Beyond Burger is not aimed at vegetarians. Instead, the company wants to reach flexitarians and, generally, people who love meat. By giving them a juicy alternative, they consume less meat, which in turn helps improve their health, sustainability, and animal welfare worldwide.

What makes it responsible?

The Beyond Burger allows you to enjoy the full mouth-watering, juicy, and delicious experience of beef but without the health, environmental, and animal welfare downsides of traditional animal-based meat.

What makes it better than competition?

The Beyond Burger comes a ready-to-cook “raw” patty that you just throw on the stovetop, griddle, or grill. Designed in cooperation with Brendan Brazier, a Canadian former endurance athlete, author, and vegan diet advocate, the burger has a healthy dose of protein and a slew of vitamins, minerals, antioxidants, and omegas to help support performance and recovery for especially active folks.

Drinking water from thin air

SOURCE is an off-grid, self-contained system that creates clean drinking water from just sunlight and air.

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Product Details

What is it?

The system consists of two panels: one primary and one additional. Each panel is 4 feet x 8 feet (1.2m x 2.4m) and holds 30 liters in a reservoir where it is mineralized with calcium and magnesium, and kept clean for optimal taste and health.

The standard 2-panel system has 60 liters of water storage capacity and can produce 4-10 liters of clean, drinking water per day. That’s the equivalent of 8-20 16.9oz water bottles, every day. If you need more water, the system can be easily scaled up by adding more panels.

The SOURCE technology is optimized for a wide range of conditions and can even produce water in low to medium sun and humidity. It is currently used in more than 15 countries on 5 continents & exceeds the water quality standards in each place.

SOURCE Hydropanels has a 15-year life span and requires maintenance, just like any standard appliance. This includes the annual air filter and polishing cartridge change and the replacement of the mineral cartridge once every 5 years.

This is how SOURCE Hydropanels work: First, ambient air is drawn into the panels via fans. There, water vapor in the air is adsorbed onto a special hygroscopic material and passed through a condenser. The resulting liquid water flows into the onboard reservoir, where it is collected, mineralized for optimal health/taste and treated (with Ozone) to maintain optimal water quality over time. Finally, the collected water is pumped through a polishing cartridge prior to being dispensed to the customer.

What makes it responsible?

SOURCE Hydropanels harness the power of the sun to create a drinking water solution free from infrastructure, lengthy supply chains or transportation risk. SOURCE ensures everybody’s right to clean water by providing the first-ever path to complete drinking-water ownership.

What makes it better than competition?

Probably, the closest technology to SOURCE are dehumidifiers.

However, dehumidifiers connect to the electric grid and most often rely on active condensation using cooling coils or a refrigerant to extract moisture from the air. This process is energy-intensive and results in water that is not safe to consume.

SOURCE, on the other hand, is off-grid, using solar energy to raise the dewpoint inside the Hydropanels, driving passive condensation resulting in high-quality water that is pure and similar to distilled.

While both technologies make water from moisture in the air, SOURCE Hydropanels make high-quality drinking water without connecting to external power.

Healthy perfume for everyday use

Empower is a sporty and refreshing unisex fragrance that is certified natural, healthy and environmentally-friendly.

If you are looking for an everyday go-to citrus scent that is not only sporty, invigorating and refreshing, but also certified natural, healthy and environmentally-friendly, look no further than Empower Natural Perfume from Pour Le Monde.

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Product Details

What is it?

Empower is an intriguing mixture of citruses and herbs, which quietens down into the base of a little smoky-woodiness.

The citruses include lemon, lime, bergamot, grapefruit, orange, mandarin. Among the herbs are spearmint, cassis, basil, orange flower and lemongrass. The bases is provided by cedar wood, naturally-derived benzoin and a drop of patchouli.

Who is it for?

Empower is a sporty, energizing and clean fragrance that is ideal for both women and men.

Most people use Empower as their everyday go-to fragrance and rave about how pleasantly it smells, without being overpowering and how the fresh, citrus scent remains present even hours after spraying.

What makes it responsible?

Empower is probably one of the healthiest and most environmentally-friendly fragrances on the market today.

The company behind Empower, Pour le Monde is currently the only B Corp-certified fragrance company and has to meet rigorous standards of social and environmental performance, accountability, and transparency.

It is also the only fragrance company to be certified with the NPA Natural Seal — the only natural certification in the United States. This means Empower must contain at least 95 percent natural ingredients or ingredients from natural sources, avoid ingredients with health risks and not use animal testing. It also requires biodegradable or recycled packaging and 100% natural fragrances and colorants.

Empower also carries the PETA’s cruelty-free logo, meaning it was produced without testing on animals and vegan since it does not contain any animal ingredients.

If that’s not enough, Pour le Monde is also part of the One Percent for the Planet organization, whose members contribute at least one percent of their annual sales to environmental causes.

Bamboo underwear for sensitive skin

Boody Men’s Boxers are made from a chemically untreated, naturally shooth bamboo fabric that doesn’t irritate the skin.

Boody Men’s Boxers are undies made from a bamboo fabric that keeps you cool and comfortable with seam-free stretch. Because the bamboo fibers are not chemically treated, the fabric is naturally smooth and round with no sharp spurs to irritate skin.

The unique feel and stretch allows for full movement. Boody’s fans are raving about how comfortable this underwear is and Boody is so confident you’ll love the comfort and fit of their underwear, they will refund the price of your first pair within 30 days if you’re not 100% satisfied.