7 Remarkable Innovations in Sustainability (2020 List)

Every year, there are new innovations in sustainability that will make your municipality greener. To celebrate the best inventions and initiatives out there, here are the top 7 remarkable green innovations that you should watch out for in the future.

At Recycle Coach, we always keep an eye on the type of green technology developments that can help our municipalities be cleaner, healthier and better. This year, we’re kicking off a new annual event – our remarkable innovations list – to honor the people and companies behind the progress.

It’s essential that we continue to develop new ways of making environmentally sustainable initiatives accessible to you, as you work to find solutions to some of your city’s greatest challenges.

Here are the 7 most remarkable innovations in sustainability for 2020. This list is organized according to the positive impact we believe the innovation will have on the world.

#1: PowerHouse Energy’s Waste-to-Energy Hydro System

 This new innovation in sustainable business involves using landfill waste as fuel to create energy.

It works using a chemical recycling process that is able to convert unrecyclable plastic waste into hydropower – extracting hydrogen through a distributed modular generation energy recovery system. Plastic goes into a chamber and it’s heated until it becomes a gas.

The gas is then used as fuel to create electricity. This innovative tech takes care of the growing plastic waste problem, and recycles it into usable energy for businesses and residential areas. This company is banking on hydrogen being the world’s main energy source in 50 years!

#2: Panasonic’s Healthy Home System

Here’s one sustainable innovation that comes at the perfect time – amidst mounting air pollution fears and airborne viral threats. Panasonic has created a solution to big city smog, and decreasing air quality rates in people’s homes. This will be a fighter in the war against disease and ill health.

With the Cosmos Healthy Home System, the air inside your home will be filtered and monitored, using sensors and strategic ventilators. This product is unique because it continuously adjusts the air inside for quality, removing harmful particulates, organic compounds and relative humidity.

#3: The HP Elite Dragonfly Laptop

In the technology space, there is one green innovation that companies are embracing – the use of recyclable materials to created new products. Recycling as feedstock doesn’t get any better than when a tech giant like HP uses it to create a high value laptop, like the Elite Dragonfly.

Made from 82% recyclable materials, much of it from ocean-bound plastic waste – everything from the chassis to the parts inside the laptop are crafted from waste. HP is leading the tech charge in creating sustainable products to reduce pollution and facilitate closed-loop recycling.

#4: Stella McCartney’s Textile Recycling

Stella McCartney is best known for her fashion brand and the early adoption of sustainability innovations at her fashion house. Most recently she has developed a range of sustainable sports clothing and shoes for Adidas, using 70% recycled materials.

Using new technologies like 4D printing, her fashion creation process also results in zero waste. This makes Stella McCartney one of the most progressive and sustainable fashion houses in the world today, and someone who is influencing other houses to introduce sustainability into their models.

#5: Winnow and AI-enabled Food Waste

Winnow has some incredible sustainable technology examples from their growing client list. Using this AI-enabled technology, commercial kitchens, restaurants and cruise liners have been able to significantly reduce their food waste. Clients include Ikea, Hilton Hotels and Costa!

The technology uses food bin scales and computer vision tech, coupled with machine learning to create data on how a kitchen creates food waste. Much of this waste is avoidable, and once the data is analyzed, new practices can be installed to help the kitchen save money and reduce waste.

#6: Impossible Foods and Lab-Grown Meat

Here’s one of those sustainability initiatives that can really change the game. With meat consumption being a leading cause of climate change due to the emissions from the agricultural industry, meatless meat has a lot of potential. Impossible Foods has put it on the menu.

Sustainability pros say that lab-grown meat will be more popular than plant-based alternatives, and with all burgers set to be meatless by 2040, it’s a big innovation. Biotechnology is used to replicate meat cultures in a lab, which significantly reduces greenhouse gas emissions in the process.

#7: The Nissan Leaf a Car for The Circular Economy

One of the best green technology examples is in the automotive industry. Traditionally a huge polluter and greenhouse gas emitter, many car companies shifted gears a decade ago to find and use more sustainable methods of creating, and running vehicles. The Nissan Leaf is an excellent example.

Nissan has an incredible Green Program that attempts to eliminate waste throughout the vehicles lifecycle, from creation to when it once again becomes waste. The Leaf is 25% recycled matter, and is made with a level of sustainability we hope to see in other car manufacturers in future.

These 7 advanced green technologies make it onto our 2020 remarkable innovations in sustainability list. Congratulations to all of these trailblazing companies that are driving change when the world needs it most. Municipalities should encourage these innovations, and create incentives for companies like these who are working to improve the sustainable nature of the economy.