Urban billboard ad repurposed as rain catcher in community garden

Natural beauty company Burt’s Bees recently donated an old billboard ad to a school for reuse as a rain catcher.

 9th April 2013 in Eco & Sustainability.

We’ve seen billboard ads repurposed for other uses, and we’ve seen a billboard that captures drinking water. Now combining a bit of both concepts, natural beauty company Burt’s Bees recently donated an old billboard ad to a school for reuse as a rain catcher.

Last year Burt’s Bees created an interactive billboard featuring thousands of tear-off product coupons to promote a new line of hydration cream. Originally placed in Minneapolis, the billboard has since been donated to the urban gardening students at Durham School of the Arts in North Carolina. Repurposed as a rain catching system, the billboard captures more than 6,300 gallons of rain water each year for use in the school’s community garden. The video below explains the premise in more detail:

Innovations involving reduce, reuse and recycle seem to be coming thick and fast. Eco-minded entrepreneurs around the globe: how could you enable something similar?

Website: www.burtsbees.com
Contact: www.burtsbees.com/c/footernav/need-help/contact-us.html

Spotted by: Murray Orange

Na vrouwen hotel en cafe nu ook een vrouwen rest house in Japan.

As well as lunch and wifi, the Qusca Sleeping Café offers space for women to rest and refresh during their working day.

 20th February 2013 in Lifestyle & Leisure.

Women who are looking for beauty treatment and with little time to spare in their work schedule have already been offered convenient 15-minute in-office manicures courtesy of Manicube. Now the Qusca Sleeping Caféaims to provide a space for women to rest and refresh, as well as get lunch and keep up with work.

Located in the Akasaka district of Tokyo, the café was set up specifically to offer working women a private and relaxing area where they can relieve some of the day’s stress. Visitors pay JPY 150 per ten minutes to take advantage of the café’s facilities. The cost covers use of a sleeping room perfumed with a ‘healing’ aroma, a make-up space that includes free cosmetics and hair styling supplies, and mobile device-charging stations. The café also provides wifi and has a menu of free snacks and drinks available each day. Those wanting a more substantial meal can also pay JPY 600 for Qusca’s ‘healthy deli lunch’, designed to recharge workers’ batteries.

Although services offering spaces for short naps – such as the UK’s Podtime – have been seen before on Springwise, Qusca provides an entirely new kind of space dedicated to female professionals, with the aim of boosting their productivity. Could this work in your part of the world?

Hydrophic

Compact hydroponic eenheid kan 10,000 groente opleveren jaarlijks

Japanese homebuilding firm Daiwa House Industry has developed the Agri-Cube, a unit that fits inside a standard parking space and can produce around 30 vegetables a day.

 14th August 2012 in Eco & Sustainability, Food & Beverage.

In recent times, Springwise has come across a number of startups aiming to aid urban crop growth with innovative hydroponic solutions, from the NASA-inspired Green Wheel indoor rotary garden to Efficient City Farming’s rooftop aquaponic farm. Now Japanese homebuilding firm Daiwa House Industry has developed the Agri-Cube, a unit that fits inside a standard parking space and can produce 10,000 vegetables a year.

The Agri-Cube utilises variable fluorescent lighting, temperature control and a fertilizer circulation and drainage system to give urban farmers flexibility with their crops, which grow on stacked shelves inside the unit. Trials have shown best results with leafy vegetables such as lettuce and other salad greens, although a total of 23 varieties have been sustained using the system, including small root vegetables like radishes and turnips. Lettuce heads can be grown within 42 days and the creators claim that the Agri-Cube has a yield of 10,000 heads per year. It is expected that the device could be used by city restaurants, hotels and grocers, due to its small footprint, which could also cut fuel usage and emissions involved in transporting farmed goods across the country. The following video from DigInfo has more information about the product:

There are two versions of Agri-Cube available, priced at JPY 5,500,000 for the standard package and JPY 8,500,000 for additional air conditioning and rooftop solar panels, while the cost of running the machine is around JPY 35 per vegetable. For urban businesses that can’t afford to buy their own land off site, this innovation could prove especially useful.

Website: www.daiwahouse.co.jp
Contact: www.daiwahouse.co.jp/qa/qa.asp?type=2

Mobiele popup hotel

Alles wordt mobiel ook in hotels. 

Mobile hotel offers guests a surprise location

Sleeping Around has turned four shipping containers into a temporary hotel that pops up at a different location for each guest.

The Olympic Games last summer saw one London taxi driver turn his black cab into a makeshift mobile hotelfor tourists who needed flexible sleeping quarters. Now Belgium-based Sleeping Around has turned shipping containers into a temporary hotel that pops up at a different location for each guest.

The metal containers have been transformed into a fashionably-designed hotel space using sustainably-resourced materials, with a bathroom and space for dining. Rather than remaining at one particular location, the boxes are transported around Antwerp and guests booking a night in the hotel are treated to a surprise. After confirming their stay, they are alerted to the location of the hotel via GPS directions. Sleeping Around has currently placed the hotel on the Scheldt riverfront but aims to select a new location soon. Stays cost around EUR 149 per night.

Sleeping Around provide a unique experience for the traveler, alongside the thrill of not knowing where exactly they will be staying. How else can businesses target audiences with a flexible attitude to service?

Eerste low-water ter wereld, lage-energie verticale boerderij opent in Singapore

Singapore Sky Greens verticale boerderij is een compacte oplossing voor low-impact voedselproductie.

 09 november 2012 in Eco & Duurzaamheid , Food & Beverage .

Met een steeds groeiende wereldbevolking en de steeds afnemende natuurlijke rijkdommen, kunnen oplossingen voor koolstofarme compacte landbouw blijken van vitaal belang in de toekomst. Japans bedrijf Daiwa House Industry heeft al aangeboden de Agri-Cube hydrocultuur eenheid, en nu de Sky Groenenverticale boerderij in Singapore is 's werelds eerste low-water, lage-energie-stedelijke voedselproductie ruimte.

In de hoop om de afhankelijkheid van buitenlandse voedingsmiddelen te verminderen, kan de tuin produceren 500 kg groenten per dag in de 120 negen meter aluminium torens die deel uitmaken van de boerderij. Het systeem wordt aangedreven door hydrauliek, waarbij de planken draaien om te besparen op het land, waarvan er een schaarste in de meeste stedelijke Singapore. De gehele boerderij is gelegen in een kas, waarin de voorwaarden voor groenten het hele jaar door te groeien in stand houdt. Hoewel de producten komt op een iets hogere prijs voor de consument, de methode is een duurzame manier om voedsel voor de lokale bevolking, die momenteel op de invoer afhankelijk zijn voor 93 procent van hun groenten te creëren, aldus het bedrijf. De boerderij is in staat om bladgroenten, zoals Chinese kool, sla, spinazie, nai bai en bayam produceren.

Voor veel locaties, stadslandbouw projecten zoals Sky Groenen bieden stedelingen met verse producten die geen tot halverwege rond de wereld reizen voordat het aankomt op de consument platen. Met de huidige technologie te kunnen produceren alleen greens, kunnen meer geavanceerde systemen aan te pakken andere soorten groenten in de toekomst?

Website: www.skygreens.com
Contact: info@skygreens.com

The Greenhouse at Henry Ford West Bloomfield
Info	:	Het Henry Ford West Bloomfield Ziekenhuis in Michigan heeft een eigen kas gebouwd en in gebruik genomen. Hierin worden verschillende groenten en fruitsoorten gekweekt die in het café en de maaltijden van patiënten worden verwerkt. Tevens biedt het ziekenhuis een educatiecentrum, kookdemonstraties, rondleidingen, yogalessen en cursussen om consumenten de genezende kracht van voeding bij te brengen.

LOKAAL ETEN UITWISSELEN

Service offers the tastes of another city through subscription

GothamBox is sending out monthly packages of location-inspired foods, enabling those living elsewhere to enjoy the cuisine of a particular city.

 13th August 2012 in Food & Beverage.

Delivered-to-the-door subscription services are a popular way for consumers to try out a curated selection of products they might not otherwise have come across, and we’ev already seen this model is especially prevalent in the food industry – with startups offering gourmet food for men, organic baby food and high quality coffee on demand. Offering a new twist on the concept, GothamBox is sending out location-inspired foods enabling those living elsewhere to enjoy the cuisine of a particular city.

As part of a monthly ritual to help her son feel at home after moving from the West to the East Coast, the mother of co-founder Jonathan Chim sent a parcel of food to remind him of his hometown. Based on this idea, the aim of GothamBox is to provide people who have moved away from a location to carry on enjoying its unique culinary treats, or for those who have never been to get a first taste. Subscribers to the service can sign up to receive a monthly parcel of assorted foods – from coffee and biscuits to ingredients for entire meals. GothamBox has teamed up with small brands from each location – currently New York and San Francisco – to offer a sample of products unavailable elsewhere. A subscription costs USD 20 per month and the company offers free shipping. What’s more, for each member who joins the service, GothamBox donates a meal to hunger relief charities operating in their city of choice.

It seems the subscription model is still going strong across multiple industries and formats. Are there any areas left untouched?

Website: www.gothambox.com
Contact: info@gothambox.com

Spotted by: Murray Orange