Joob Activewear

Check out Joob Activewear, a new eco-friendly activewear brand

Joob Activewear is a very young brand, launched only in mid-July this year, but it’s already very serious about its sustainability-related partnerships and initiatives. Joob’s headquarters is solar powered, and many of the company’s products are made from sustainable fabrics such as merino, umorfil, lyocell, and recycled polyester, and they promise to look for better alternatives for those products that aren’t yet made with more environmentally friendly fabric.

The company also supports the work of the Huron River Watershed Council, investing 1% of its revenues to go toward local environmental initiatives. Joob is also enlisting the help of South Pole to determine their end-to-end supply chain’s carbon footprint and figure out how to offset their carbon emissions.

For now, the company is carrying mainly men’s activewear, but will soon expand to include a line for women.

Summersalt

Summersalt is going to be your new favorite swimwear brand

No matter what size you are, swimwear shopping is always going to be a bit difficult, and it’s even harder if you’re looking for eco-friendly swimwear. But that could change with Summersalt, an emerging swimwear that was created with the aim to provide a wide range of amazing swimwear for women of different sizes. Their swimwear size ranges from size 2 to 24, so there’s bound to be something for everybody, and they were able to make sure their products look great on everyone by taking 1.5 million measurements from 10,000 women.

Check out an interview with co-founder Reshma Chattaram Chamberlin on Cheddar.com to learn more.

They do everything possible to keep their prices low. In an interview with Forbes, Chamberlin said,

“We did our best to deliver our suits under $100. Every detail of our swimwear is similar to the $300 designer swimsuits and we can offer this type of quality because of (founder and CEO) Lori’s ten years of R&D experience”.

Forbes.com

The company wants to be as inclusive as possible, featuring diverse models in its ads, and it also makes an effort to be eco-friendly; they use recycled materials to manufacture their swimsuits and their packaging.

2020 Tokyo Olympics medals

The 2020 Tokyo Olympics medals are finally out

In 2017, we posted about about the organizers of the 2020 Tokyo Olympics putting out a call for people to donate their old mobile phones, the materials of which were to be used to make medals. It looks like they really did hit their target, because the medals are now out and they look great!

According to the event’s official website,

The medals resemble rough stones that have been polished and which now shine, with “light” and “brilliance” their overall themes. The medals collect and reflect myriad patterns of light, symbolising the energy of the athletes and those who support them; their design is intended to symbolise diversity and represent a world where people who compete in sports and work hard are honoured. The brilliance of the medals’ reflections signifies the warm glow of friendship depicted by people all over the world holding hands.

Read more.

The gold medals contain more than 6 grams of gold plating on pure silver, while the silver medals are made from pure silver. The bronze medals, meanwhile, are made of red brass composed of 95% copper and 5% zinc.

The medals’ designs were chosen from a competition that was open to professional designers and design students, with more than 400 entries submitted. The ribbons, which use traditional Japanese design motifs, are made of chemically recycled polyester fibers that were produced with less CO2 emissions.

Saorsa 1875

Saorsa 1875, Scotland’s first vegan hotel, is now open

Make that the UK’s first 100% vegan hotel. Saorsa 1875, the project of co-founders Jack McLaren-Stewart and his mother Sandra McLaren-Stewart, officially opened on June 15. This boutique hotel in the Scottish Highlands breathes new life into a Victorian gothic baronial house built in 1875 and promises a luxurious stay within its stylish 11 rooms and carefully crafted vegan dishes by chef Luca Sordi.

Every effort was made to ensure that the establishment is truly vegan, with beddings using fabrics such as linen, cotton, and manmade fibers, and a totally plant-based menu, which includes a vegan take on haggis and locally sourced ingredients. Even the toiletries are vegan, showing that the hotel is committed to its goal of ethical luxury. Moreover, Saorsa 1875 runs on green power with the help of Ecotricity.

Another plus: Saorsa 1875 is a pet-friendly establishment, so feel free to take your pets along with you if you’re planning to holiday in the area.

Overall, Saorsa 1875 offers something different but probably overdue for vegans who want more than just a handful of options available to them. And from the looks of the hotel, even non-vegans may find themselves falling in love with its setting and its offerings.

Saorsa 1875
2 East Moulin Road
Pitlochry, Perthshire, PH16 5DW
Contact: info@saorsahotel.com | +44 (0)1796 475217 | FB: Saorsa 1875 | IG: @saorsa1875
www.saorsahotel.com

Kaffeeform cups

Berlin company Kaffeeform is turning coffee grounds into coffee cups

Berlin-based company Kaffeeform has figured out what to do with all the coffee grounds produced by the city’s numerous coffee shops. Instead of simply disposing of them, they’ve teamed up with Crow Cycle Collective, who bike around Berlin to collect coffee grounds and then drop them off at Kaffeeform’s workshop, where the grounds are then cleaned. The grounds are then transferred to another location for processing—from drying to blending with other eco-friendly materials. They are then shaped into cups and saucers.

These cups are dishwasher-safe and are sturdy enough to survive falls on hard surfaces, according to their FAQ.

The biodegradable cups are now being used in coffee shops in Berlin and are also sold across Europe. Kaffeeform is even making these cups available for wholesale purchases within the European Union.

The Olympics headquarters is one of the greenest buildings in the world

The International Olympic Committee’s (IOC) 500 employees will now be housed in a new building in Lausanne, Switzerland–and it just might be the most sustainable building in the world at present.

So what makes this building eco-friendly?

  • a green roof
  • 95% of the building materials are reused or recycled
  • a rainwater collection system
  • solar panels
  • self-shading, meaning it’s designed in a way that reduces the need for air conditioning while still allowing daylight in

Construction on the building, which was designed by Danish firm 3XN and built in collaboration with IttenBrechbühl, began in May 2016 and cost $147 million. 3XN provides more details about their idea for the IOC’s headquarters on their website.

Photo by Adam MØRK/IOC

Footprint's eco-friendly six-pack holder

Footprint comes up with an eco-friendly six-pack ring

We’ve all seen how terribly plastic pollution is affecting the world’s oceans. For example, plastic six-pack rings have been found around the necks of turtles, which is why we’ve all been told to snap off the rings so no animal would ever get caught in them. But there has to be other, better ways of doing things, and US company Footprint has come up with a fiber-based six-pack ring that is made of recycled materials.

The Denver, Colorado, company’s new product promises to be as sturdy as plastic rings, having been subjected to extensive testing, and is recyclable and compostable. In an interview with Recycling Today, Jeff Bassett, vice president of marketing at Footprint, says,

“Our goal is always to find the best ways to eliminate the need for plastic in common-use products. With the introduction of Footprint’s six-pack ring, we are changing the game for beverage packaging and distribution by delivering a plastic-free solution that is applied in high volume and performs.”

This is not the first attempt at making eco-friendly six-pack rings. E6PR claims to be the first in this field, and Corona announced in late 2018 that it will be piloting plastic-free six-pack rings of its own. We say the more companies try to find ways to make going plastic-free easier for all of us, the better.

Eco-friendly Legos

Lego breaks out its eco-friendly pieces

They said it couldn’t be done, even though Lego promised a few years ago to phase out acrylonitrile-butadiene-styrene (ABS, derived from petroleum) bricks by 2030. But yesterday, the Danish company announced a breakthrough, sharing that their botanical elements, such as leaves, bushes, and trees, will be made from plant-based plastic sourced from sugarcane and will be available later this year.

“At the LEGO Group we want to make a positive impact on the world around us, and are working hard to make great play products for children using sustainable materials. We are proud that the first LEGO elements made from sustainably sourced plastic are in production and will be in LEGO boxes this year. This is a great first step in our ambitious commitment of making all LEGO bricks using sustainable materials,” said Tim Brooks, Vice President, Environmental Responsibility at the LEGO Group.

The company joined a World Wildlife Fund (WWF) program to ensure that its sources are sustainable. Let’s hope that we’ll be seeing the company’s entire range of products turn green someday.