Sustainability

Dubai's Expo 2020 recently began and Carlo Ratti Associatti and Italo Rota have created a pavilion for Italy. Aiming to produce a sustainable build that wouldn't end up in landfill, it's made from recycled bottles, orange peel and three boat hulls.

Given that the currently available BMW i8 and i3 are already fairly futuristic cars, one might wonder what form a Bimmer made 19 years from now would take. The German automaker is exploring that question, with its BMW i Vision Circular concept.

German startup Sono Motors has introduced new battery technology for its forthcoming Sion electric vehicle that promises to not only power the vehicle across longer trips but allow higher charging rates in between.

The US federal government has given the green light to the country's largest offshore wind farm to date, and one that will greatly expand its capacity to generate this form of renewable energy by adding 800-MW to the mix.

Dutch architectural studio i29 has recently completed a striking eco-friendly floating home, as part of the Schoonschip floating village in Amsterdam. The unique floating community boasts a collective of 46 sustainably designed homes.

A simple home test for breast cancer and a UV energy-harvesting window made of recycled materials are the big winners of this year’s James Dyson Awards. The annual competition encourages university students to develop innovative solutions to problems.

A new review article, from a team of material scientists, is suggesting a leather-like material made from mushroom-derived biomass has the potential to be cheaper, and more environmentally sustainable, than animal leather or its plastic derivations.

BMW i Ventures announced today it is investing in Prometheus Fuels. The Silicon Valley startup is working on technologies for pulling CO2 out of the atmosphere and processing it into carbon-neutral gasoline.

NASA's myco-architecture project at NASA’s Ames Research Center in Silicon Valley is exploring the possibility that future inhabitants of the Moon and Mars, not to mention the Earth, may live in homes grown from fungus.

Britain's Imperial War Museum (IWM) recently gained a new archive to help house its vast collection of records. The IWM Paper Store is one seriously energy efficient building and is also the most airtight Passivhaus project to date, according to International Passivhaus Association records.

When Gibson introduced the Flying V electric guitar in 1958, it divided opinion. A bold new aviation concept out of TU Delft is sure to do the same. Wearing the same moniker as Gibson's iconic instrument, the design is aimed at improving aircraft efficiency and sustainability.

I've often wondered what it would actually be like to have a small footprint, off-grid house. How does it work? What does it take? How much does it really cost? Does it feel like going back in time?