The document discusses sustainability innovations that are helping to address environmental issues and improve everyday life. Major companies are transforming their business models to be more sustainable while individuals are also recognizing the need for change. The issue profiles several startups developing smart technologies like sensors for waste bins, solar panels on roads, and devices to help coexist with wildlife. Overall, the document promotes the message that small, affordable innovations can help drive meaningful change towards a more sustainable future.

1. Re-inventing life
on planet earth [2.0]
REWIR TREND
REVIEW #07YOUR BRAND AND BUSINESS UPDATE
SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2015

2. Is our planet spinning out of control?
Environmental, societal and cultural
fractions are bubbling everywhere and
the issues with our everyday life seem
more troublesome than ever before.
Major brands like Tesla, Google and H&M
are re-writing the map of sustainability and
many others follow suit. Products, services,
business models and mindsets are about
to change into something new. On grass-
root level, people recognise the need of
adjusting, adapting and changing in order
to secure our everyday lives and the lives of
future generations. But is there hope?
Yes, there is. In this issue of Trend Review
we invite you on a journey to see innovative
projects and meet inspiring people who truly
care about the sustainability of our planet
and the well being of its inhabitants. Time to
reinvent the way we live on planet earth!
THE SCENE
Photo: shutterstock

3. TOMORROWLAND
Frankly, the world we live in today is not the
same place we grew up in. We have a hard time
adapting to new patterns, behaviors and
possibilities. And it seems the planet we live
on is heading in another direction, with rapidly
changing conditions that affect every day life.
Change fosters new ideas. Funding hub
Kickstarter reports that the fourth most funded
category is technology, with a majority of
projects aimed to improve everyday life
– in areas such as health, environment,
sustainability and distribution of wealth.
Keeping the same pace as this change is crucial
for brands and people – observing, analyzing,
understanding and adapting to the new
conditions. The biggest impact on the world is
universal access to all human knowledge. The
smartest person might be stuck in a tractor in
Vietnam or out of Kentucky. Enabling that person
and millions like him or her will have a profound
impact on the development of the human race.
Cheap mobile devices are available worldwide
and online educational tools are too. This will
have a huge impact on literacy and numeracy and
will lead to a more informed and more educated
world population in just a few years of time.
Photo: shutterstock
YOU ARE HERE

4. WE ARE
THE ROBOTS
What if your toaster texted you telling it
was unhappy and wanted to leave?
Interaction designer Simone Rebaudengo
created a series of connected toasters in
order to make the owners more aware of
their responsibility of ownership. By giving
the toaster a bit of personality, maybe the
owners got more aware that they weren’t
really using all the gadgets surrounding
them in their homes. If not being used, why
not give your toaster (or bike) to someone
else? Australia based Credit Card founder
has developed iBag. A smart solution that
is a location enabled purse which has built-
in mechanisms to stop shoppers from
overspending. The app warns users by
using GPS when they’re getting too close
to a favorite shop. The bag sends off a text
message to a trusted person to let them
know that the user might be spending
money they shouldn’t.
Photo: shutterstock
ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE

5. TIMING IS EVERYTHING
What if your trash could tell you when
it was full? Well, now it can. Finnish startup
Enevo thought of making waste manage-
ment smarter and more efficient by
creating intelligent waste containers that
know when to be emptied. A small device
inside the waste container provides
real-time data to local waste handling
companies, telling them about waste filling
levels, service predictions and also notifying
them about temperatures causing
different kind of development. With this
tiny yet smart innovation, the waste
management industry can save money and
time, while limiting the footprint of carbon
oxide by having fewer trucks on the streets.
http://www.enevo.com/
CONNECTED EVERYTHING

6. ON AND ON
Swedish fashion brand H&M launched a
new service in their shops. 95% of all the
clothes being thrown away could be recy-
cled. This could have a serious impact on
the environment and by installing recycling
bins in-store, H&M hopes to make the shop
visitors more aware of how they look at
clothes. By three golden rules – rewear,
reuse and recycle – H&M states that these
are the only rules in fashion of today!
Photo: http://annesage.com/2013/03/14/long-live-fashion-un-haul-your-closet-for-hm/
WEARABLES

7. SMARTY PLANTS
What if the plants could talk? Well, now
they pretty much can. Fieldview use
sensor technology to limit wasted water,
fertilizer and crops by streamline the
seasonal flow of harvests. The sensors
also track the health of the land with a
plant growth algorithm that use over 30
years of weather data to predict weather
changes as well as alerting farmers for
what dates to have in mind, several weeks
before they occur.
Photo: shutterstcok
ECO

8. ON THE ROAD AGAIN
Driving can be lots of fun and now, also
really productive. By replacing conventional
roads with hard-wearing solar cells, which
help to produce up to three times more
amount of energy than what we consume.
Also, these solar cells warn drivers for an-
imals and have built-in heating cells which
are able to melt snow and ice, making the
roads safer. Right now Solar Roadways is a
project being funded on crowdfunding site
Indiegogo, so this project might see the
light of day within the next year.
http://www.pvbuzz.com/solar-roadways-still-going-strong/
PATH

9. NATURE CALLS
Co-existing with wild animals doesn’t
generally come to mind that often, does it?
In many places it is a real problem and
human-animal conflicts are the results of
the never ending human movement in to
new territories. A new smart collar,
developed in coalition with wildlife rangers
and MIT, can help us humans to under-
stand the animals much better and even
predict behavior. It can also be used on
endangered species in order to track
individuals that need protection, help
and make sure that they stay safe.
The collars provide GPS-tracking, real-
time video feeds, heart rate and body
temperature measurements.
http://www.nature.org/media/elephants/img/habitat/bg.jpg
BEACONS

10. JUST LIKE MAGIC!
New technologies help the environment
– Mexico City’s Manuel Gea Gonzalez
Hospital uses a 2,500 square meter facade
that breaks down air pollutants when
exposed to UV light. The honeycomb
increases the surface area by 200% and
allows the structure to neutralize the same
amount of pollutants in one day that’s
produced by 8,750 cars.
At the same time, the city of Milan is
using a smog-filtering concrete facade to
purify the air. Starting with an air-purifying
structure in front of the Palazzo Italia
– the 9,000 square meter structure will
take about 2,000 tons of air-purifying
concrete to complete. The concrete is
made of 80% recycled materials and works
by breaking down harmful pollutants into
unreactive salt molecules when exposed to
UV light. Inhale – exhale.
Photo: shutterstock
AIR

11. Headlines on social media often talk
about shark attacks on popular beaches
all around the world. Your chances of
being attacked by a shark in the U.S. are
about 15 times less than your chance of
being struck by lightning, scientists of
Princeton university point out. Co-existing
in the natural habitat of sharks can now be
even safer – in May 2014 Australian
telecommunications company Optus
launched a shark detection buoy.
Designed to protect people from attacks
in coastal waters, the smart ocean buoy
is programmed to detect sharks using
sonar technology. Once a shark has been
identified the buoy transmits an instant
message to alert a lifeguard via the Optus
network. Surf’s up mate!
CARE FOR A SWIM?
https://cleverbuoy.com.au/
JAWS

12. BACK TO THE ROOTS
In May 2015, Dutch design firm Weltevree
unveiled Groundfridge: a prefabricated
polyester structure which is placed
underground, using the earth’s insulation
properties to store food at a steady
temperature between 7 and 15º C (44.6 to
59º F). Accessed via a hatch-like door
and steps, the 7.48 ft (2.28 m) diameter
structure has an integrated cabinet and
lighting, and a capacity of 3,000 litres
– equivalent to that of 20 regular
refrigerators. Storing food under ground
is not so cave-man anymore, now is it?
Photo: https://mimiberlinblog.wordpress.com/2015/04/19/fuorisalone-2015-exploring-weltevree/
STORAGE

13. SCHOOLS OUT!
Photo: http://www.repurposeschoolbags.com/
Childhood friends Thato and Rea, two
young women from South Africa – founded
Rethaka, a start-up with the aim to create
an impact on young people and unprivileged
communities. Repurpose Schoolbags is an
environmentally-friendly innovation made
from ‘upcycled’ plastic shopping bags with
built-in solar technology that charges during
the day and transforms into a light at night.
The initiative targets school children in
underprivileged communities and
addresses a number of problems
– letting kids study after dark in homes
without electricity. Also the bags are
designed with reflective material that
makes the children visible to traffic.
LIGHT

14. LET’S BREAK
IT DOWN
For many reasons the imbalance of wealth,
education and health won’t lead the
humans to a prosperous future. Our planet
isn’t doing so well and we need to take
better care of it, starting with the simple
possibilities we have around us, one step
at a time. The climate changes are here
to stay. So is pollution, and unfortunately
even war. However, there is hope.
Simple, smart and affordable innovations
are popping up everywhere which prove
that change doesn’t have to cost a fortune
as long as there is a will to improve and
develop. Sustainability is no longer an
option – it is an obligation. Got it?
CONCLUSION

15. David Lillewarg
Editor-in-Chief
david.lillewarg@rewir.com
Angela Blumen
Distrubution
angela.blumen@rewir.com
BEHIND THIS ISSUE