When Laurens Vandecasteele was looking for a new home in 2020, the Suikerpark neighborhood in Veurne, Belgium, topped his list. He was drawn to its modern architecture, lush community gardens, and winding bike paths. Plus, the parklike space was just five minutes from the PepsiCo snack foods plant in Veurne, where Vandecasteele works as Frontline Manager.

“The houses are on the site of a former sugar factory where my father worked for almost 42 years,” Vandecasteele says. “I like the connection to my past.”

Vandecasteele’s new home also has a tie to his present — Lay’s potato chips will soon be the source of its heat. “It’s nice to know that your own company has created a solution that can heat your home,” he says.

Suikerpark is part of an innovative project that repurposes heat from PepsiCo’s snack plant and transforms it into sustainable energy. The Veurne site cooks up to 20 tons of potatoes an hour, releasing heat vapor as a by-product. When real estate developer Ion wanted to find inventive environmental solutions for Suikerpark, PepsiCo proposed an idea: What if some of the heat released during the process of making chips could be put to use? With the help of partners Noven, who designed the technology, and Fluvius, the area’s utility grid operator, PepsiCo is making it happen.

“Using a condenser, we capture the vapor from cooking and heat a water circuit from 50°C up to 80°C,” – explains Frank De Clercq, Maintenance and Sustainability Manager at the Veurne snacks plant. From there, the heated water will be transported to the houses at Suikerpark, where it will flow through the central heating system into radiators and hot water taps. The first homes will be warmed with the technology in 2022. Once it’s complete, the project will heat a total of 500 houses using clean, sustainable energy.

PepsiCo has set targets to cut carbon emissions by more than 40% by 2030 (against a 2015 baseline) and achieve net zero emissions by 2040. The company has undertaken several ambitious projects to reach this goal; the Veurne project is yet another step. “The heat generated at the Veurne plant helps reach net zero emissions and replaces heat that would normally be sourced by burning natural gas,” De Clercq explains.

And, if the mayor of Veurne has his way, Suikerpark is just the beginning, “This heat network on the scale of a neighbourhood is unique and Suikerpark is the opportunity of a lifetime. This is a great project to introduce new concepts that can be brought to the rest of Veurne” says Peter Roose. As the technology develops, there is potential to expand the system to the local hospital and other public buildings in the future. The Veurne plant could potentially heat more than 2,000 homes.

Budget airline EasyJet is introducing a new uniform for cabin crew and pilots, each made from approximately 45 recycled plastic bottles.

Manufactured by Northern-Ireland based company, Tailored Image, and created with unique high-tech material, the new uniform will be introduced into cabin crew circulation later this month. The roll-out across the airline is estimated to prevent around half a million plastic bottles from ending up as plastic waste each year.

The sustainable initiative makes a difference even before the first uniform is worn as, besides the fabric helping to reduce plastic waste, the high-tech material is made using renewable energy sources and has a 75% lower carbon footprint than traditional polyester.

The new fabric, adapted to the airline’s current style, was first trialled last year for suitability in the cabin and flight deck environments. Compared to their non-recycled alternative, it was found to be more abrasion-resistant. It also provides more elasticity, improving fit and freedom of movement.

Plastic has also been replaced in all clothing-related packaging in favour of recyclable and biodegradable materials: replacing plastic collar strays with recyclable cardboard ones, plastic shirt clips with metal shirt clips, non-recyclable white coated card with recyclable cardboard card, and polypropylene outer shirt covers with biodegradable shirt covers.

EasyJet has already taken steps to reduce plastic onboard as it continues to reduce the number of single-use plastic items used on its flights. The airline has replaced many items with more sustainable alternatives, such as introducing a small plant-based bowl as a teabag holder, removing over 27 million individual items of plastic from their inflight retail operation in the 2020 Financial Year, and the company has never offered plastic straws. They also offer a 50p discount on hot drinks for customers who bring their reusable cup.

“We are excited to be debuting this new pilot and cabin crew uniform made from recycled plastic bottles and to introduce it for our pilots and cabin crew colleagues. We know that sustainability is an important issue for them and also for our customers.

It is a priority for us to continue work on reducing our carbon footprint in the short term, coupled with long-term work to support the development of new technology, including zero-emission planes which aspire to reduce the carbon footprint of aviation radically.” – says Tina Milton, Director of Cabin Services at easyJet.

Since 2000, easyJet, who has over 300 aircrafts on nearly 1000 routes to more than 150 airports across 35 countries, has reduced the carbon emissions for each kilometre flown by a passenger by over a third. Initiatives have included introducing lightweight carpets, trolleys and seats, single-engine taxiing, and removing paper manuals from their aircraft.

In 2019, easyJet became the world’s first major airline to operate carbon neutral flights across its whole network by offsetting the carbon emissions from the fuel used for all of its flights through schemes accredited by two of the highest verification standards, Gold Standard and the Verified Carbon Standard.

Don’t be surprised if models trotting down fashion runaways several times a year, to showcase endless collections, becomes a thing of the past. And the global pandemic is actually not the main reason that packed catwalks have been turned into digital events in 2020.

After years of telling people to buy more and wear more, designers from around the world are turning their talent to creating long-lasting pieces. They are advocating a circular way of fashion where people are expected to reuse and recycle; so they are being encouraged to invest in fewer clothes.

And although sustainable and circular fashion is the latest trend in an industry known for fast and disposable products, some brands have been focused on this approach for a while now.

Three years ago, Spanish designer Pablo Erroz stopped showcasing his collections as “seasons”. Instead, the creative, whom has been part of the design teams of Massimo Dutti and Bershka, now creates timeless garments. His Non-Seasonal 2022 collection, recently showcased at both Mercedes Benz Fashion Week in Madrid and 080 Barcelona Fashion, taps into the concepts of sustainability and circularity – with all pieces being digitalized with embedded NFC tags via Blue Bite, a platform helping brands to digitally authenticate products. Blue Bite has worked with global fashion brands Adidas, Pinko and BVLGARI.

“We need a real commitment from brands to put sustainability over short-term profit. As a label, we must create without giving clothes an expiration date. We should always be thinking over the long term. It is also an evolution of our business model, where the concept of seasons has become obsolete. Afterall, we need to increase transparency to speak a common language that customers understand, so we can invite them to make those changes together.” – Believes Erroz, who launched his own label in 2012.

The sustainable business model of Pablo Erroz goes beyond having the same pieces used by several customers during its life cycle.

“The fact of eliminating the seasons and the genres in the garments, basically, is nothing more than a firm commitment to contribute to a more friendly and respectful consumption with the environment. Taking into account that resources are limited, we have also decided not to produce any fabrics for our collections. We buy stocks and thus also promote another type of business and a real circular economy”, says the designer.

Keeping an authentication process for each item guarantees that no-fake clothes enter the circular process. Consumers scans the NFC tag, getting a digitalized version of the piece — identified by a unique digital ID — that tells its full story, from the manufacturing process to a look into the future of the garment.

“We are happy to partner with Pablo Erroz to launch Blue Bite Circularity, which allows consumers to explore the origin story of the garment,” says Mikhail Damiani, CEO & Co-Founder of Blue Bite. “The circle continues as consumers authenticate the item, and, later in the product’s lifecycle, get location-based information on how to resell or upcycle the garment to keep it out of a landfill.”

With brands becoming more conscious with regards to sustainability, the next step will be to educate consumers on how they can embrace one of the pillars of high-end fashion: less is more.