sustainability
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Nike's Joyride shoes use tiny beads to make your runs more comfortable
Nike has developed a new shoe technology for both casual and every-day runners. Today, the sportswear giant is taking the wraps off of Joyride, a responsive cushioning system designed to adapt to individual foot strikes and offer high levels of impact absorption as your feet hit whatever surface you're running on. Nike says the idea with Joyride is to "make running easy" and give you more personalized comfort, which is made possible by thousands of tiny, energy-packed beads that form the shoe's midsole. You can get a great look at them in the Joyride Run Flyknit pictured above, the first Nike sneakers to feature the visible and colorful beads.
Volvo Trucks’ autonomous vehicle is hauling goods in Sweden
Volvo Trucks' autonomous vehicle Vera is ready to hit the road. In collaboration with ferry and logistics company DFDS, Vera will begin transporting goods between a logistics center and a port terminal in Gothenburg, Sweden. The vehicle will haul shipping containers along a predefined route, including a stretch of public roads.
Adidas made a running shoe that's fully recyclable
As part of its recent pledge to only use recycled plastics by 2024, Adidas has revealed a new running shoe that is made from 100 percent recyclable materials. The Futurecraft Loop was designed using nothing but thermoplastic polyurethane (TPU), a plastic material that dons the entire sneaker, including the tongue, laces, upper and the midsole with Boost cushioning technology. Adidas says it has been working on this project for the past six years, and the goal with it is to do its part in generating less plastic waste.
The reality of pollution kills your dream of a flying car
You might want to forget about fantasies of taking your own flying car to work, at least for now. The University of Michigan and Ford have published a study indicating that electric flying cars wouldn't be as environmentally sustainable as cars for commutes less than 22 miles. While the vehicles themselves would be clean, the high amounts of electricity needed to run those vehicles would have to come from power plants -- and many of those plants currently emit greenhouse gases.
The North Face teases its most breathable waterproof gear yet
As great as waterproof apparel is to keep you protected from bad weather, most jackets, pants and other gear tend to be too bulky or uncomfortable. That's a problem The North Face is well aware of, and it has come up with a new material that it believes will fix this: Futurelight, which the company is calling "the most advanced breathable waterproof outerwear technology." According to The North Face, Futurelight is its most comfortable waterproof gear yet, thanks to a design that lets air move through fabric more easily and provide "more venting than ever before.'
Fairphone's ethical smartphone gets Android 7
Nearly three years after ethical smartphone company Fairphone launched its Fairphone 2 handset, the Dutch social enterprise has announced it's now compatible with Android 7.1.2, aka Nougat. This might seem like old news, given that most smartphones are now munching on Android Pie, but the time and money spent upgrading the phone to even this level is indicative of the sustainability challenges still prevalent in the smartphone market.
Uber's 'sustainable mobility' plan includes e-bike charging stations
Uber made a handful of announcements today centered on sustainable mobility, including a new fund, partnerships that support data sharing and charging docks for its Jump bikes. CEO Dara Khosrowshahi said in a post today that as more people use Uber's platform as a means for transportation, the company's technology becomes an increasingly important part of the cities in which it's used. "With that comes a responsibility: we recognize we need to step up and support cities that take bold steps to solve their transportation problems," he said. "We are in a unique position to have a meaningful and positive impact on the communities we serve across the globe -- a responsibility we don't take lightly."
Lab-grown meat is not meat, Missouri state rules
What's the definition of "meat"? Once upon a time that would have been an easy enough question to answer, but the advent of meat-substitute products such as the Impossible Burger and the arrival of cultured meat -- aka lab-grown meat -- has given regulators in Missouri pause for thought. On Tuesday, it became the first state in the US to enact a law stating that the word "meat" cannot be used to sell anything that "is not derived from harvested production livestock or poultry."
Airbnb just opened an 'Office of Healthy Tourism'
In a bid to counteract tourist saturation in major cities around the world, Airbnb is opening a new global Office of Healthy Tourism. The move is designed to bring the economic benefits of tourism to small businesses and local residents in destinations off the beaten track, while lessening the burden on popular holiday hotspots.
Giugiaro's supercar concept EV gives back to the power grid
The Giugiaro Sybilla is a bonkers concept EV with a fighter jet-like sliding canopy, gull-wing doors and screens everywhere, including the doors. But the vehicle from GFG Style, penned by auto design legend Giorgetto Giugiaro, is actually meant as a showcase for sustainable grid technology, believe it or not. It was built for Chinese windmill manufacturer Envision Group to illustrate how electric cars can connect intelligently to homes, businesses and charging stations so they don't overwhelm future electrical grid systems.
Banana fiber sanitary pads can solve big problems in India
With its sanitary pads for the Indian market, startup company Saathi solves two problems at once. Just 16 percent of women in India use them due to poverty and other reasons, which causes health and social issues. At the same time, manufacturing them wastes millions of gallons of water, and two million tons of pads end up in landfills every year. To help with all that, Saathi's pads are affordable, made from discarded banana tree fibers, manufactured in a sustainable way and 100 percent biodegradable.
Spider silk and stem-cell leather are the future of fashion
On Sunday, there were no cars in Paris as the city clamped down on soaring pollution and tried to honor the climate accord that bears its name. With Paris Fashion Week here too, garment makers must face their own part in the planet's despoilment. An incubator called Fashion Tech Labs (FTL) is trying to break the textile pollution cycle with new tech like stem-cell leather, recycled fabrics and ultra-strong spider-silk-based fibers. At Google's Paris Arts & Culture Center, I had a look at some of the tech and talked with FTL and the event's esteemed host, sustainable designer and fashion icon Stella McCartney.
Mazda's engine breakthrough promises big fuel efficiency gains
Mazda has made the announcement car manufacturers have been working towards for years: it's releasing the first commercial compression-ignition gasoline engine. Dubbed SkyActiv-X, the engine will be available in 2019 and promises up to 20-30% more engine efficiency than the current SkyActiv-G, and up to 45% more than Mazda's 2008 petrol engine. Current gasoline engines rely on a spark plug to ignite their air-fuel mix. The SkyActiv-X will ignite the air-fuel mix spark-free through compression, like a diesel engine. This, according to the Japanese manufacturer, combines the advantages of petrol and diesel engines to achieve "outstanding" environmental and power performance.
Microsoft will offer its AI smarts to benefit the environment
Microsoft just announced a new initiative called AI for Earth. Headed by Microsoft's chief environmental scientist Lucas Joppa, the program will help researchers and organizations use AI to solve the major environmental issues we face today. Leaders of projects focusing on water, agriculture, biodiversity and climate change can apply for access to Microsoft's cloud and AI computing resources and it's putting down $2 million towards the initiative this year.
A bus powered by formic acid could hit the road this year
Creating sustainable vehicle fuel is rife with challenges, not least in finding the balance between developing a viable solution and putting forward ideas that have mainstream appeal: poo-powered cars sound great in theory, but, y'know... However, students from the Eindhoven University of Technology, Team FAST, are now throwing their hats into the ring with a design for the first ever system that allows a bus to drive on formic acid. Their system, officially unveiled on 6 July, comprises an electric bus hooked up to a small trailer (nicknamed 'REX', for 'range-extender'), where formic acid is converted into electricity.
Eating a cookie of the future made with recycled bread
There's plenty of food to go around, but most of it is left rotting in the back of our cupboards rather than in the hands of those who need it. Imagine the scenes at a bakery at the end of a slow day, its shelves packed high with bread that's rapidly going stale. It's a problem that French startup Expliceat is hoping to cure with its plan to turn spare loaves into cookies, muffins and pancakes.
Adidas will sell more shoes partially made with ocean trash
In honor of tomorrow's Earth Day celebrations, Adidas is unveiling yet another collaboration with Parley, an organization that focuses on protecting oceans from being polluted. This includes three new models of its flagship running shoe, the original Ultra Boost, Ultra Boost Uncaged and Ultra Boost X, all of which feature a Primeknit upper made mostly (95 percent) from marine plastic debris. Adidas says about 11 bottles of plastic were used for each shoe, with the set being part of the company's overall commitment to sustainability. All in all, Adidas plans to make at least one million more pairs like these by the end of 2017.
Tokyo's Olympic medals will be crafted from old gadgets
Tokyo's olympic planning committee has a novel idea for crafting new medals: old technology. Instead of relying on mining companies for new gold, silver and bronze, it's turning to the public and its swathes of unwanted, forgotten gadgets. You might not realize it, but your smartphone and household appliances contain small amounts of these precious materials. Starting in April, public offices and more than 2,400 NTT Docomo stores will offer collection boxes in Japan. The initial target is eight tons of metal, which will be whittled down to two tons and then, hopefully, used to produce 5,000 Olympic and Paralympic medals.
Adidas made an ocean-plastic shoe you can actually buy
Late last year, Adidas teamed up with Parley, an organization raising awareness against ocean pollution, to design a partially 3D-printed shoe made from up-cycled marine plastic. Then, in 2016, the two companies took that partnership one step further with the limited-edition Adidas x Parley, a running sneaker that also featured materials created from ocean waste. Ultimately, both of these concepts pave the way for what the sportswear giant is announcing today: the UltraBoost Uncaged Parley.
Researchers are building a robotic Lionfish exterminator
We joke around a lot about bringing about a horrific robot apocalypse, but let's get real: sometimes, building a killer robot is just the right thing to do. Well, at least when those robots are being used to cull invasive species. Researchers at Robots In Service of the Environment (RISE) are developing a robot to fight an invasive population of Lionfish that's threatening ecosystems off the coast of Florida as well as in the Caribbean and Bermuda.
