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In 2002 each person in the UK generated 167kg of packaging waste per year – a lot of it is glass. In 2001 2.5 million tons of this material was taken to landfill. Currently 752,000 tons of glass are being recycled annually in the UK. Every ton of glass recycled into new items saves 315 additional kilograms of carbon dioxide from being released into the atmosphere during the creation of new glass. Glass is a material which is virtually infinitely recyclable and it can be turned into new packaging or find new applications such as surfaces and worktops.
Back in 2000 the innovative material Resilica was launched by Eight Inch and the company has been quietly establishing a growing market for recycled glass surfaces during which time the wider demand for sustainable products has changed beyond recognition.
Resilica is made using up to 100% recycled glass. Millions of tiny fragments are mixed with specially formulated solvent-free resins, cured, then diamond polished to reveal a high-gloss surface that has incredible depth and lustre. Each piece of Resilica is made to order. This allows them to create a bespoke colour recipe for individual clients.
Resilica remains at the forefront of the market gaining a reputation for quality, consistency and performance and the company is pleased to have undertaken projects for some of the UK’s best known organisations including The Department of Health, The National Trust, Costa Coffee and London Zoo. Companies who are now appreciating the value in using sustainable materials in their built environments.
Originally known as ‘Ttura’ Eight Inch have recently renamed and rebranded their product and as part of the rebrand their new website is now live and features a comprehensive colour archive and images of surfaces they have created for the domestic and commercial market.
For more information, please visit www.resilica.com.
M.HAUS 2010
Wallpaper is made from a number of different materials and built up in layers. The top layer is normally printed or structured. About 50 per cent of all wallpapers are made from paper or recycled paper, the other 50 per cent is made from fleece and other synthetic materials. The materials used define the quality of the wallpaper.
The production of paper impacts the environment on several levels such as the use of wood, fresh water, the use of energy, waste water and the management of the paper ‘waste’. In Germany 70 per cent of all paper produced is recycled and recycled paper is also used widely in the production of wallpaper. In Germany alone 80 million roles of wall paper are produced every year.
The use of recycled paper reduces the consumption of primary wood fibres and protects forests and wildlife habitat. It also reduces the use of primary fossil energy as the key driver of climate change.
The primary wood fibres used in the production process should come from sustainable sources. Two labels indicate the use of sustainable woods: FSC and PEFC. The Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) and Programme for the Endorsement of Forest Certification Schemes (PEFC) were both founded in the 1990s and they not only guarantee social responsibility in manufacturing but also the minimisation of the negative impact on climate and biodiversity.
High quality wallpapers with long lifecycles make ecological sense as they can be redecorated when faded or the colour is out of fashion. It reduces the use of new wallpaper, saves resources and avoids ‘waste’.
MissPrint launched its Dandelion wallpaper at 100% Design in London last year. All MissPrint products are produced in the most environmentally friendly way wherever possible. The complete wallpaper range is PEFC certified, it is printed with organic pigment inks, which are non-toxic, free of heavy metals and classed as non-carcinogenic. In addition to being beautifully designed, each of the products sold by MissPrint also helps preserve the planet.
www.missprint.co.uk
For sustainable wood sources please see www.fsc-uk.org and www.pefc.co.uk .
The cylinder in the office chair recently broke, which means it can no longer be adjusted and seat has sunk to its lowest level. The result is a very uncomfortable sitting position, which is not good for posture and health. What to do? Buy a new chair?
Obsolescence is designed into most of our products: flat screens, electric toothbrushes, CD players, MP3 players, toys, games, mobile phones. They all go down a one way street into landfill, incinerators and down-cycling. None of them can be repaired or upgraded. The new iPhone will last us two years and we are already looking forward to the next and more exciting model.
Sure – the electronic products will go into recycling. The regulations are now strict and we are good citizens. Some of the design icons we might even keep as they are beautiful and they evoke wonderful memories, but they will become dead items on a shelf or in a drawer though the material will last for much longer.
Longevity has been designed out of most of our products. They are for the day and the season and move along with the fashion.
Charles Eames designed thhise task chair in 1958. It still looks contemporary and appropriate for our spaces. Some people might even think it is a little bit too modern and progressive. Our model is 15 years old and has acquired a patina, which makes it even nicer. The cylinder can be replaced for £50 and there is at least another 15 years left in the chair.
© 2010 M.HAUS, all rights reserved.
Maize Cob Boards
Organic materials are gaining more relevance in the production of bio-plastics. Rather than growing plants solely for the production of materials, more and more waste products generated in agricultural and food production processes are used for light weight components such as structural panels. One example is Maize Cob Board, which is currently being developed and tested. It is a wood based material with an interlayer of maize cobs .
The central part of a maize cob consists of a foam like structure with high insulating qualities and(!) until now the cobs have never been used in an industrial process. They have a low density (180 to 200kg/ m³ and resist high pressure in an axial direction. Maize cobs are considered a ‘waste’ product and they are available in large quantities and at a low price. Maize Cob Boards have a similar performance to chip boards and they can be used to build furniture, doors and interiors. They are, however, 50 per cent lighter than conventional wood based panels. The density of the Maize Cob Board is between 250 to 300gk/ m³.
First prototypes are currently being tested and their areas of mass application are being researched. If the performance tests lead to positive results the Maize Cob Boards will be launched as an alternative to traditional wood based products. The material not only has high insulation qualities, it is also expected that it will absorb sound very well.
It will be an exciting organic material innovation and resource for furniture and interior designers.
www.fabrikderzukunft.at/results.html/id5516
Text supplied by Dr. Sascha Peters, haute innovation Berlin, www.saschapeters.com , ©2010 all rights reserved
Every year the sun delivers 15,000 times more energy to the earth than is consumed by the human population. Short to midterm a lot of the solar energy is locked up in land surface, plant material and bodies of water. Solar collectors allow us to copy the principles of nature and to generate hot water for our homes.
Solar collectors transform solar radiation into heat and transfer the heat into water, solar fluid or air. The solar heat can be used for heating water for bathrooms, kitchens, swimming pools or heating the house.
At the heart of a solar collector is an absorber, which is normally made of several narrow metal strips painted black. The black paint absorbs the short wave solar radiation, the absorber heats up and transmits the accumulated solar energy in the form of longwave heat rays to a fluid inside the absorber.
Basic absorbers are often used in outdoor swimming pools. The water is pumped through the absorber and water temperatures up to 20⁰C higher than outside temperatures can be achieved.
Glazed collectors achieve higher temperatures. In flat plate collectors absorber plates are connected to a pipe work system and fitted into a well insulated housing with a glass cover. A heat transfer medium such as a water-glycol mixture, to protect against frost, is pumped through the pipe work. This medium then gives off the heat to the water you can use in your bathroom, kitchen or central heating. Flat plate collectors can achieve temperatures of about 50⁰C and efficiencies of up to 60%.
Vacuum tube collectors offer improved efficiency and higher temperatures. They are made from evacuated glass tubes containing absorber strips. The vacuum provides ideal thermal separation and keeps convection heat losses at a minimum. Vacuum tube collectors can achieve temperatures of up to 70⁰C above the outside temperature and they are suitable to support your heating.
When using renewable energy systems, make sure that you introduce energy efficiency measures such as insulation first. This will prevent you from over sizing your systems and save on investment as well as running costs.
© M.HAUS 2009, all right reserved
Salamander Industrie Produkte GmbH (SIP) is based in Bavaria, Germany and in its 90 year history the company has always been keen to innovate and adjust to market requirements. Locally the company is still remembered as a shoe manufacturing brand, although the core business is now the production of window profiles and base materials for leather which is used in books, furniture and fashion. Based on a consulting project in energy efficiency, the company is planning to reduce energy consumption by a quarter.
‘We cannot offer products which allow for maximum energy savings such as our window profiles and at the same time waste energy in our factories, says CEO Michael Glaw who heads up manufacturing and innovation. The management team at SIP believed that they were well ahead of the game when it came to energy efficiency until a team energy consultants proved them wrong.
SIP employs around 1000 staff and in 2008 generated a turn-over of around € 200 million. In a painstakingly diligent process the energy consulting team spent almost one year analysing the three production plants on site. The current energy costs are € 5.2 million per year and the indentified potential for savings is around € 2 million. The findings were compiled in a 650 page report covering the 13 key areas which the business will have to address. ‘With this red book we gave SIP energy management and energy efficiency guidelines and tools for the next decade’, says Matthias Voigtmann who advices the company.
Michael Glaw believes that the energy consulting project has seriously sharpened their awareness in energy matters. Manfred Knoll, the Technical Director of SIP, adds: ‘With the project we made a leap from energy administration to energy efficiency.’
The management team fully supports all energy efficiency measures. Investments with a payback period of less than two years such as low energy lighting and motion detectors have already been implemented. SIP is now moving to long-term investments and will also start to integrate their suppliers into the initiatives. The plan is to cause a ripple effect across the supply chain and the wider community.
Initiatives to save 25% of energy are in the pipeline. Michael Glaw and his team at every project holistically. Energy savings cannot have negative side effects such as lowering productivity. The goal is to grow the business whilst lowering energy use and consumption. SIP is well on the way to achieve this goal.
If you want to learn more about SIP, please visit www.sip.de
The energy consultants advising SIP are www.energy-consulting-allgaeu.de
M.HAUS 2009
The sale is still on … New year, New you. Out goes last season’s collection, in comes the latest fashion. Trousers have to be skinny, the length of the skirts goes up, primary colours are so this year, black stays the new black and the heels are even higher this season. Shopping, shopping, shopping. We want change and renewal in our lives, but is shopping creative?
Maybe we should talk about style rather than fashion. Your style will reflect your personal story. Style is about being inventive, innovative, independent and creative. You might love a garment for a long part of your life and it might grow and change with you. Quality, longevity and adjustability become far more important.
Fashion dictates, style allows you to re-invent, re-create and repair. Style is more creative, more satisfying and more responsible. Style builds on ideas and does not discard them. Swap the buttons and suddenly this five year old coat it super cool. You created your own coat, your own design and story.
If you need a car, a well maintained old car is much greener than a new car. Most of the energy a car uses in its lifecycle is embedded in the materials and the manufacturing processes. The quality of most cars is very good. Why not look after it for a long time?
High quality furniture can last you a live time as many of the design classics have proven over the years. Pieces can be repaired and well designed products sit well with a new colour on the walls or a new blanket you have found for your sofa.
Style allows for searching out, swapping, bartering, inventing, making, changing, producing, showing – all rewarding and creative skills.
Suddenly fashion seems rather old fashion.
M.HAUS 2010
Over the last decade we have seen an increasing number of automatic water taps in offices, public places such as airports, and also private homes. They help to save water as their sensor technology stops the water flow as soon as the hands are removed. The water temperature can be regulated and the waste of hot water can be avoided. At the same time automatic taps are much more hygienic, because we need not touch the taps when opening them.
Automatic taps have one disadvantage however: the integrated sensors need electric power and very often this power is provided by batteries, which needs servicing and are difficult to recycle.
The Japanese bathroom brand Toto has solved this problem: Their Self Power product range incorporates two technologies for public facilities. They work together to ensure optimum power- and water-saving performance.
The first is an automatic micro-sensor – one of the world’s smallest – positioned at the tip of the spout. Accurate hand detection means only the minimum necessary amount of water is used. Located inside the unit is the second technology, a generator that harnesses the energy from water flowing through the tap to make the micro-sensor energy-self-sufficient. External power supply is therefore cut out.
The high design quality of the Toto product speaks for itself.
www.eu.toto.com
The dark, long and cold winter nights have a negative impact on our wellbeing as the lack of light weakens our immune system. Health experts recommend a daily walk of a minimum of 15 minutes outdoors during winter months. Ideally our hands and face should be uncovered to be able to catch the UV light we need. The wayfinding systems designed for Walking Cities make it easy to explore your city on foot and to achieve your daily UV intake and stay fit.
In the United Kingdom, walking has declined by 1% (from 322 km to 317 km per person per year) and cycling by 16% (from 69 km to 58 km per person per year) between 2002 and 2005, although cycling in London has been on a steady increase. Overall European citizens make, on average, 500 trips per year that are shorter than 5 km. The majority of these trips are done by car. Walking could be a realistic alternative for many of these trips.
Getting around cities can be very confusing. 109 journeys between neighbouring central London Underground stations are actually quicker on foot than the Tube. Street signs for pedestrians are hard to read, confusing or non-existent.
Over the past years the designers at Applied Information Group (AIG) have been working onWalking Cities projects. The team has been designing multi-media systems for cities, which combine on-street signs, paper and digital mapping. The main purpose of the projects is to engage people with the city, make walking easy and reduce dependence on the car and public transport.
The mapping designed by AIG takes an entirely pedestrian-centric approach. It incorporates graphics of recognisable landmarks and well known retail outlets. It also includes colour coding to indicate direct routes on foot. Custom designed digital mapping is accessible on the Internet – now also accessible on many mobile devices.
AIG have been working on wayfinding systems for Brighton & Hove and Legible London, which includes the three pilot areas Richmond and Twickenham, the South Bank and Bankside as well as Bloomsbury, Covent Garden and Holborn. The first prototype was tested in the West End. Londoners and visitors love the scheme and 85% find it easy to use.
Start the year 2010 walking – it is good for you and the environment.
www.legiblelondon.info
www.visitbrighton.com
www.appliedinformationgroup.com
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