Innovation That Matters

Springwise choice: Top 7 innovations from 2018

The Springwise team have selected their favourite innovations from 2018, featuring dynamic and transformative ideas across different sectors to help stimulate creativity, growth and success in your business. From packaged consumables for the mind to fighting textile waste, high-tech to low-tech – reminisce on the highlights of this year’s most creative advances in modern technology.

Art installation promotes mental and emotional wellbeing

Understanding mental health is very important in today’s society. Innovation and technology have sought to drive improvement in the mental health sector by providing digital platforms for more accessible healthcare. However, innovation does not always appear in the form of technology alone. Innovation can also come from businesses and communities coming together to find creative solutions to meet the needs of people. This is why I have chosen this innovation as it is not only a great way to tackle stigma but also combines creativity and innovation to address the common psychological needs of every individual. Additionally, this art installation project can increase political engagement and provide a mandate for funding from public services.

Emily Uwemedimo | Editorial Administrator

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Charcoal balls tackle Kenyan reforestation

Many attempts to help those in developing countries can often be detrimental to the local society in the end, as they don’t accommodate for local economies or processes. Seedballs is an excellent example of helping to solve a problem by working with local populations. A very simple idea can help to reduce the negative environmental effects of deforestation at a low-cost. Such positive action coming from a community movement, with school children helping to spread the seed balls in their local area, shows how the core of innovation comes down to an effective idea and people motivated enough to put it into action.

Rachael Davies | Staff Writer

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Fight against plastic boosted with food that acts as tableware

The world doesn’t need more innovation per se. We need more innovation that matters as we navigate the era of catastrophic planetary destruction. This is why I have chosen the Evoware project as my favourite innovation for 2018. Of the many thousand innovations our Springspotters send us each year this simple idea, developed by a budding Indonesian entrepreneur, uses seaweed, an abundant natural resource, to create food packaging for the future. It is as inspiring as it is innovative. This is exactly the type of idea Springwise is here to support and showcase to our millions of followers. It was fantastic to see the idea picked up and broadcast on the recent BBC programme Drowning in Plastic. Who knows if major food manufacturers will take notice of this innovation that could change the world.

James Bidwell | Chairman

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Lamp emits light waves to replace WiFi

WiFi is an essential part of everyday life. But WiFi has its limitations, including poor security, slow speeds and limited coverage in some areas. LiFi would solve those problems by using light to transmit data instead of radio waves. However, in order to make LiFi a reality, the tech needs to be embedded in a wide range of devices. Alexandre Picciotto’s C-224 lamp is one of the first of these everyday appliances to contain LiFi capability. Picciotto designed the lamp for use in public libraries, but I have chosen the C-224 as my innovation of the year because of the capability of this technology to potentially transform the way we send and receive data.

Lisa Magloff | Staff Writer

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Recycled denim is repurposed for joint reconstructions

Fashion is one of the highest polluting industries with textile dyeing, microfibres and textile waste contributing to different forms of environmental damage, including water, air, and soil pollution. This denim recycling discovery by Australian scientists is a double win: it provides a new material for use in knee reconstructions and could also help solve the global problem of textile waste. I’m always fascinated by the amazing scientific discoveries we feature at Springwise. This innovation gives hope for a world where nature and humans are looked after in equal measure.

Linda Ligios | Managing Editor

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Self-sufficient sustainable home created on a low budget

The ActiveHouse is a fantastic example of sustainability and construction going hand in hand. I have seen many positive examples of sustainable housing since joining Springwise. This project from the Netherlands shows that sustainable principles can be implemented on a new build at a low cost. Solar panels and big windows can make a big difference in terms of energy consumption. Whenever I encounter an innovation such as this, it makes me feel that we are moving in the right direction. If only I could live in one of them!

Alfred Jahn | Marketing Manager

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Virtual reality therapy helps overcome acrophobia

All those who struggle with a fear of heights will be encouraged to find out about this evidence-based VR treatment which, has delivered life-changing results for participants testing the therapy in 2018. What is really exciting is that this is potentially only the very start of immersive technology contributing to improving our health and wellbeing in years to come. No longer the reserve of gamers, VR is becoming one of the medical profession’s technology partners and the clinical benefits are not very far from reality. The future is definitely looking brighter with advances in this field.

Sophia Dempsey | Managing Director

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