Happy Good News

The Ideal Rooftop Greenhouse & Sanju Soman, One of the Youngest Climate Leaders in India?

Happy Sunday?EarthFriend! ??

I hope you all have had a good start?to February and have had a?lovely?weekend! Enjoy the good news which is happening?in the world around us. ??

Agrotopia, the Giant Rooftop Greenhouse

The?Meta Architectuurbureau and Van Bergen Kolpa Architecten in Belgium have created?Agrotopia, a greenhouse which was built on the roof of?an agricultural market. It was built on top of Europe's largest public building for urban food production, the?REO Veiling agricultural auction market. Agrotopia has 4 different climate zones, allowing for different?fruits and?vegetables to be produced, as well as research?facilities and an educational trail for the general public. The?conservatory also has silos which store rainwater from the roof, this is then?used to irrigate the greenhouse. They created "circular symbiosis with the city" by heating the greenhouse with residual heat from?waste incinerator nearby. Read more about Agrotopia?here!?

Eggshells Recycled to Create Tiles?

Nature Squared?transform sustainable natural materials into?innovative surfaces for products, interiors and architecture, used in?yachts, hotels and homes. One of their products include eggshells which are converted into tiles, whereby reducing the?8.5 million metric tonnes of eggshells which end up in landfills. They started in 2000, converting natural waste materials (recycled feathers and seashells),?reducing the amount of bio-waste that is found in?landfill.?Their recent line,?CArrelé, recycles eggshells found in local bakeries and kitchens in the Philippines. The mindset which Nature Squared created, converting biowaste into affordable designs is one to follow!?

BHAVA Upcycled 30,000 Kg of Waste?

Sanju Soman, the founder of Save A Rupee Spread A Smile (SARSAS) is a truly inspirational climate leader. Last year,?Sanju was selected as one of 17 young climate leaders from India by the UN due to his many efforts in helping the climate crisis. Most recently, Sanju started the initiative, Social Innovation Lab, whereby they trained 150 women from the fishing communities how to upcyle cloth. As well as starting the social enterprise,??BHAVA, which supported these women by helping them sell their upcycled products to the marketplace. This became the?largest upcycling effort in Kerala as a result of the team converting 30,000kg of waste into useable products, both reducing waste and increasing the income for these women. Read this?article?to hear all?about?what Sanju has?done to help the?environment around us!?