The TV presenter and designer reveals his favourite eco-friendly brands and products promoting sustainable living ahead of Grand Designs Live Birmingham.
Image: Eoacoustic
Inspired by his passion for state-of-the-art eco-friendly product design and green building products, Kevin McCloud’s ‘Green Heroes’ will return to Grand Designs Live at the NEC Birmingham from 9th - 13th October 2019.
Each brand and product has been selected and hand-picked by Kevin, showcasing the very best eco-innovations, for home builders, owners and design enthusiasts. With an array of eco friendly initiatives at this year's exhibition, they will sit right at the heart, providing a platform for eco-conscious creators to present their latest innovative designs.
Here's this year’s list of brands that have been carefully curated by Kevin:
Chip[s] Board
Image: Chips Board
Chip[s] Board materials are made using waste from industrial Food processing and agricultural industries, Parblex™ Plastics are translucent pure or fibre reinforced bioplastics with incredible surface finish and durability, making them ideal for fashion and interior design applications.
Korvaa, by Avian
Image: Korvaa
Korvaa is applying fresh-from-the-lab findings on everyday objects as a way of highlighting the research of novel, biologically engineered materials.
The initiative brings together a mix of unique and surprising talent who all share a wish to jumpstart the development of these new, bio-based materials into future-proof, commercially viable products.
There is a global interest towards new, bio-based materials and their various applications. Earned media coverage around the initiative’s first project, a pair of Korvaa headphones, has reached a world-wide audience of over 350 million people.
Musiccloth by Rehyphen - woven material made from recycled cassette tapes
Image: Rehyphen
Tackling the issue of the obsolete nature of past technologies, Rehyphen uses the tape from cassette tapes, manipulating them into a durable and aesthetically pleasing material which can be used for a variety of items from art to fashion. This upcycling initiative aims to reduce and eliminate e-waste while giving life to a new product.
EO Acoustic - Noise-cancelling interior material based on spruce needles
Image: Red Shift Media
EO Acoustic’s panels are a natural porous material that absorbs sound reflections, regulates humidity and temperature, while creating a comfortable and healthy atmosphere.
The individuality of the material is found in the preservation of the original shape of the needles, which create a natural texture and a feeling of wood in the interior, as well as highly decorative properties.
Vlisco Recycled Carpet Studio – Environmentally sustainable carpets
Image: Red Shift Media
Using leftover and rejected textiles from Dutch based textile manufacturer, Vlisco, Simone Post has developed a line of high-quality, environmentally supportable carpets.
Whereas the destruction of the leftover and rejected textiles is time consuming and costly, recycling is environmentally sustainable and also offers a challenging platform for innovation.
That's Caffeine
Image: Atticus Durnell
That’s Caffeine Demitasu is a coffee table made of coffee grounds. Demitasu in Japanese stands for a small coffee cup. The first range of That’s Caffeine products have a similar design language of conical base representing earthing or grounding and stem reaching upwards.
It’s influenced by German modernistic and Japanese minimalist aesthetic because the I believe that form follows function and overcomplicated design does not serve as a solution to the problem.
HyO Cup – Disposable Biodegradable Cups, dried gourds grown inside 3D printed moulds
Image: Red Shift Media
The HyO vegetable cups could become a more environmentally friendly alternative to traditional plastic cups.
Squash are fast-growing plants that carry sturdy fruits every season, and once dried, the outer skin and inner fibres of the gourds become watertight.
Designs studio Cream has a centuries-old tradition of using gourds for vessels, to create its own compostable cups, using custom 3D printed moulds.
Mapuguaquen – The world's first active sound system made of clay
Image: Red Shift Media
Mapuguaquen fuses state of the art electronics and craft techniques to create unique, customised pieces, using raw, regional and biodegradable materials.
Poppy Pippin - Design solutions that improve cities and create a healthier environment
Image: Red Shift Media
These moss tiles by Poppy Pippin are press moulded terracotta wall tiles designed to encourage moss growth to improve air quality in the urban environment by absorbing carbon dioxide.
ecoBirdy - Sustainable 100% recycled plastic furniture
Image: Red Shift Media
Antwerp-based brand Ecobirdy has used recycled plastic toys to create a range colourful furniture for kids, aiming to raise their "awareness for sustainability". With an overarching goal of introducing
children to the circular economy, all the pieces from Ecobirdy's debut collection are made from old plastic toys and are completely recyclable.
4eco Limited
Image: 4eco
Biofase products are cutlery, straws and cocktail stirrers made predominantly of avocado seeds. They are produced in Mexico as it's the biggest producer of avocados in the world.
The seeds used to be discarded and are now reutilised to produce a unique biopolymer that creates a product that it is not only biodegradable but the most ecofriendly in the UK market.
See Kevin McCloud's Green Hereos at Grand Designs Live to see the Green Heroes showcase.
If you haven't got tickets yet, click here to get yours now.
Which Green Hero are you most excited about seeing at Grand Designs Live 2019? Tweet us @granddesignsmag or post a comment on our Facebook page.
