The TV presenter and designer reveals his favourite eco-friendly brands and products promoting sustainable living ahead of Grand Designs Live at the NEC.
Image: Grand Designs Live
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 from 10 - 14 October 2018.
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:
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.
Yirego‘S Drumi by Yirego - a non-electric personal washing machine
Image: Yirego
Requiring no electricity, reducing home carbon emissions and reducing water usage for each wash load, Drumi by Yirego, could change the way we do laundry forever. Creating ethical, eco-friendly household products that provide both better everyday living and simple solutions for your household tasks; Yirego’s products all embody the ethos to ‘consume less’.
Scoby by Roza Janusz - a biological, fully edible, fully recyclable packaging solution
Image: Roza Janusz
SCOBY by Roza Janusz can be grown by producers to wrap their products and bring them to clients with zero waste. This edible and recyclable product is created from waste fermentation, which takes place in shallow containers.
SCOBY looks to reinvent traditional food conservation techniques to fit to the modern world, fighting addiction to single-used plastic and food waste.
Tala - an award-winning eco-conscious lighting brand
Image: Tala
Founded on the premise that good design can help mitigate climate change, perfectly echoing the ethos behind Kevin’s Green Heroes, Tala believe that beautiful objects and efficient technology belong together.
Combining the best of British design with superior componentry, selecting methods and materials on their environmental impact, and remaining committed to reducing carbon emissions in the atmosphere.
Bamboo Bicycle Club - recyclable, build-it yourself, sustainable and stylish bicycles
Image: Bamboo Bicycle Club
Returning Green Hero brand, Bamboo Bicycle Club, are committed to enabling people to build cutting-edge bikes that are sustainable and can be completely recycled after many years of usage.
Bamboo has ideal properties, with vibration dampening effects, any bumps in the road seem to be effortlessly absorbed. Academic research credits bamboo as an ideal material for bicycle building, giving everyone the opportunity to build a bike from scratch, regardless of being young or old, a cycle enthusiast or beginner, an experienced mechanic or novice.
Lucentia Design - original design utilising recycled materials
Image: Lucentia Design
Using plastics at the end of their useful lives, returning Green Hero brand Lucentia Deign recycle them into new sheet material. Working with acrylics, polycarbonates and vinyl creating beautiful panels with a myriad of finishes. Their latest polycarbonate sheet encapsulates shredded £5 notes that have been taken off the market.
Corrugated Hemp Fibres by Margent Farm - affordable eco-structures with plant-based material
Image: Margent Farm
Using hemp within the structure of a building is carbon negative, due to the carbon dioxide within the hemp plant being locked away for the life of the life of building. Margent Farm use corrugated hemp in a building as it is better for insulation, cost and better for Planet Earth.
See Kevin McCloud's Green Hereos this week at Grand Designs Live at Birmingham's NEC, where Bamboo Bicycle Club, Lucentia Design and Hemp Fibres by Margent Farm will run live demonstrations of their products everyday of the show from 11am - 4pm.
Which Green Hero are you most excited about seeing at Grand Designs Live 2018? Tweet us @granddesignsmag or post a comment on our Facebook page.
