This country is offering free electricity during the day
Plus a brand that's making sneakers from plants and fruits
Today’s sustainable snapshot👇🏽
This country is offering free electricity during the day
Making sneakers from plants and fruits
Quiz of the Week
Sustainable brands that I recently discovered
News that kept me hopeful
This country is offering free electricity during the day
Through its Solar Share Offer, the Australian government is giving households a daily window of free electricity. Initially, this would be available to residential customers who live in New South Wales (NSW), South Australia (SA), or South East Queensland (SE Qld).
The customers could be homeowners or renters, but they should have a smart meter installed at their homes.
The free electricity is available during the daytime when the solar power generation is abundant.
Residents can use this free electricity window to run their appliances like dryers, dishwashers, ovens, and heating and cooling systems. They can also charge their electric vehicles or home batteries and then use the stored free power during expensive peak periods, essentially reducing their electricity bills to almost zero.
Although there’s a daily cap usage of 24 kWh to prevent misuse, that’s enough power to meet the needs of an average 5-person household.
I like this initiative better than putting the onus on households to install solar panels and go through all the installation, regulatory, and maintenance work. This one centralizes the solution, and households just have to plug in to take advantage of this. Sounds more inclusive and tappable to me.
What do you think?
Making sneakers from plants and fruits
Paris-based MoEa uses innovative biomaterials to make leather-alternative sneakers.
What are biomaterials?
Biomaterials are made from a technological process that transforms fruits or plant waste into a wearable material. It has leather-like properties but is cruelty-free and emits 95%* less CO2 than leather (*according to a study conducted by FAIRLY MADE®).
The waste of fruits and plants is blended with stabilizers like organic cotton, bio-PU, or recycled plastic, depending on each plant.
What kind of plant waste does the brand use?
Well, you have sneakers made from
Apple skin waste from the Italian juice industry
Mexican cactus
Grape skin waste from the Italian wine industry
Pineapple leaves waste from the Philippines
The brand cares about the afterlife as well
Through its [Re]MoEa program, it offers a repair service that lets you extend the life of your MoEa sneakers by having them repaired by one of their partner shoemaker.
It also runs Second Life, an innovative recycling program. It allows customers to give new life to their used sneakers by transforming them into new, unique pairs, while limiting the environmental impact associated with their end-of-life.
Time for the quiz of the week
Note: Answer at the end of the newsletter. No one (including me) can see your response, so feel free to vote. 😉
While we are talking about warming places, I recently came across this tool where you can check how fast your city is heating up. You could even check your birthplace, somewhere else you have lived or worked, and spend some time imagining how those places would be now. Do share it with your friends and family as well. This is a great way to start a climate conversation 🔻
Sustainable brands that I recently discovered
🇺🇸 IONIC Water Technologies…A proprietary solution to extract salt from seawater and harmful chemicals from contaminated drinking water.
🇰🇪 Zeno…Making flexible energy storage and powerful electric mobility accessible to those who can benefit the most from it.
🇨🇦 SELLIT9…Making it seamless to trade in your old electronic devices.
🇳🇿 Dawn Aerospace…Providing more scalable and sustainable ways to access and move around in space.
News that kept me hopeful
Went the other way…Spain’s lower dependence on gas kept electricity prices in check during the war.
Quickest commerce…Urban homes in Hyderabad are growing tomatoes, chillies, and herbs on their terrace garden.
Shared setup…Neighbors in Sweden are using their cars to power their homes.
Green investment…Tony Parkes left his investment banking gig to restore a subtropical rainforest in northern New South Wales.
Quiz answer: Europe
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