While the iconic San Francisco Flower Mart is preparing for a move to a new location, Kilroy Realty created an Innovation Center to showcase the Flower Mart’s history. Visitors might expect to be greeted with a hanging trellis of flowers, leaves and vines. But the latest installation by British artist Ian Berry is no ordinary arrangement. Each bloom comes not from a live plant but from pieces cut from upcycled jeans and denim.

One of the many enduring reminders of the coronavirus pandemic is the sight of used, discarded masks littering public spaces. Amanda Schachter and Alexander Levi of New York City’s SLO Architecture have taken on the idea of unearthing the discarded in “Turntable,” a public installation at Cooper’s Poynt Waterfront Park in Camden, N.J., that turns face masks and plastic bottles into a wind-powered beacon.

When Team USA joins the closing ceremony parade at the Summer Olympics in Tokyo, Japan, in August, the athletes will be wearing uniforms that are more sustainable than ever. The team’s longtime official outfitter Ralph Lauren developed and invested in groundbreaking innovations in sustainable materials and manufacturing technologies that are debuted with the Team USA collection.

We’ve all seen the heartbreaking photos of seals, sea turtles and other marine life entangled in discarded fishing nets. Even when nets break down, they just become smaller pieces of toxic plastic that get mistaken for food and eaten. Discarded fishing nets make up an estimated 10 percent of plastic in the ocean and have been found to be four times more harmful than all other forms of plastic pollution, according to some environmental groups.

Nextiles, a materials science and manufacturing company, is entering the sports and performance market to provide smart thread technology that captures biometric and biomechanics data. With backing from the National Science Foundation and Massachusetts Institute of Technology, the Brooklyn, N.Y.-based company blends traditional sewing techniques with printed circuit boards to make flexible material with sensors embedded within fabrics. Nextiles differentiates its suite of data analytics by providing Newtonian measurements through its fabrics (force, bending, stretching, velocity, pressure) to offer athletes and teams data such as torque, power, fatigue and strain. The fabric captures traditional measurements as well by combining force data with inertial measurement unit (IMU) technology (direction, speed, distance). Data can be streamed via Bluetooth® in real time and stored locally or in the cloud. Photos: Nextiles, www.nextiles.tech.

Polish company AEROSIZE Sp. z o.o. has collaborated with designer Dorota Kabala to create the AEROSIZE vest ONE and Avalanche Airbag System to protect skiers and snowboarders in environments prone to dangerous avalanches. The hybrid airbag system inside of the vest is based on the company’s proprietary technology that works differently than standard avalanche airbag systems. When pulling the trigger in front of the vest, compressed gas from the cartridges inflates only the airbag structural chamber, so the airbag frame grows and stretches the fabric of the airbag walls. The rest of the volume of the airbag is filled automatically with air sucked in from the environment, which minimizes the size of the components for a compact, but efficient, system. The products have been certified by TÜV SÜD Product Service GmbH in accordance with relevant safety requirements and test methods for avalanche airbag systems. Photos: AEROSIZE, TOPO visuals Adam Brandys.

Most compostable plastics, made primarily of the polyester known as polylactic acid (PLA), end up in landfills and last about as long as any other plastic. But University of California, Berkeley, scientists have invented a way to make them break down more easily within a few weeks, using just heat and water. The new process involves embedding polyester-eating enzymes in the plastic as it’s made. The enzymes are protected by a simple polymer wrapping. When exposed to heat and water, the enzyme releases the wrapping and starts breaking down the polymer into its building blocks—in the case of PLA, reducing it to lactic acid, which can feed the soil microbes in compost. The polymer wrapping also degrades.

New York-based advanced materials technology company PrimaLoft® Inc. has launched a new version of its down-alternative insulation first introduced in 2017. The new ThermoPlume® synthetic fill is made entirely of post-consumer recycled materials but delivers thermal performance that’s comparable to down by mimicking its fluidity, hand feel and aesthetics. The company says the product also has the water-repellent properties of PrimaLoft fibers to provide a soft, compressible thermal output, even in wet conditions. Particularly well suited for outdoor apparel, more than 70 brands are using the microfiber insulation in their product lines for the upcoming fall/winter season.

Berlin, Germany-based design students Lobke Beckfeld and Johanna Hehemeyer-Cürten have developed a handbag or tote that dissolves in water, will biodegrade or can be recycled. The Sonnet155 is made from two post-industrial waste materials: fruit skins left over from juice production and short cellulose fiber waste from textiles. Although it has the look of a handbag, it will last about as long as a paper bag. The bag’s key ingredient is pectin, extracted from the cell walls of the waste fruit that acts as a natural binder. This is reinforced with cellulose fibers that are too short to be turned into fabric. Combined with warm water, the mixture cures in a mold and can be sewn into a bag in about a week. When it wears out, the material can be dissolved in warm water and recast to make a new bag of the same quality. Photo: Sonnet155.

Helmets are designed to protect athletes in many sports from head injuries, but a helmet that doesn’t fit properly could leave the athlete vulnerable to traumatic brain injury. To mitigate this danger, researchers at Western Michigan University have developed a pressure-sensing cap, worn under the helmet, that can provide specific data to show whether a helmet is sized correctly.