Maker Faire Rome Makes Sustainability the New Bar to Match

The Maker Faire Rome experience is as big and as brilliant as it was last year, yet the focus has shifted to a vastly more sustainable trajectory this year.  The prime difference between this and other events I have come across, is that they have strived to reduce and indeed pay back the carbon footprint of this event in spades.

The team have created a Maker Faire Forest in Guatemala that is all part and parcel of its Circular Economy theme this year.  The trees are planted by a company called ZeroC02  who help local farming communities with food, security and economic support.  All of the trees are monitored so you can even get an update on the growth of your tree.

All the food and drink packaging at this years event is also renewable and sustainable and even the electricity is as well.  It’s been quite an achievement for an event of this size to make this feasible and realised.

Every year they allow schools from all over the world to attend for free.  This year schools traveled from Israel, France, Serbia, United Kingdom and of course many more local countries too.  With over 27,000 students and their teachers on location in one day the stands are swamped and the noise levels high.  However the energy generated from their experience taking part or viewing the exhibits was quite something to watch.

It’s essential that we pass on such innovative thoughts and concepts to the next generation.  We see huge leaps in technology because of these types events.

Time to hear about other innovative ideas, this time from the exhibitors:

Emotionwear

“Wear your heart on your sleeve”

I met with Sara Savian a Milan based fashion designer and Mauro Alfieri, a computer science engineer to discuss their unique company.  They both work in a FabLab, which is a laboratory and they work with digital fabrication machines.  Like laser cutting, 3D printing and electronic wearables.

Mauro would be the technical person of the team and has been responsible for putting in the mechanisms to measure emotions and collect data about the body.  Like body position, heartbeat and even health.

The idea came about initially from a very challenging wearable product they both worked on a couple of years ago, a glove that monitors the position of the hand and the fingers that was to be used for physiotherapy.  It was meant to record the actual process undertaken during physio and a means of measurement.

Once that was done they wanted to move on to something more fun and lighthearted  so they moved to their current product.  They wanted to make this a form of communication, enabling the viewers of the people wearing these clothes to have an understanding of peoples emotions.  People buy clothes to make the feel good, with these clothes other people know how they feel as well.

How is it done

The clothes express with lights and colours by using a sensor monitoring the wearers posture.  They researched that posture in influenced by emotions, when your sad you tend to slump etc.  In another garment they added a heartbeat sensor and body oxygen monitor that demonstrates colours in a hood.

These colours can be programmed to display at certain levels of the heart range to the wearers desire.  The normal would be the slower the heartbeat the muter the colour and brightest would be red for instance.  It can be what ever they want though.

Who’s it for?

Anyone can buy it but it has been previously used in performances and high level fashion events.  It is definitely a talking point.

The whole garment can be personalised.  The material, the colours, the shapes on the garment as well.  It’s a form of expression that we don’t usually have the opportunity to have.

This has already been on the runways of Rome on Digital Fashion night in January of this year.

Environmentally Friendly

They have made it possible to sell their products overseas without using any shipping!  Essentially what they have done is created a file that overseas producers can buy from them with the design details that they can then go on to reproduce themselves.  It’s open source fashion!

The team are now working on their sales and delivery after many years of research and development.

Naturins

I next met with Antonio Zuorro CTO, a Circular Economy expert and Irina Vetere CEO and their company Naturins also does something quite unique.

“This insect could save the world”

-Antonio Zuorro

Antonio is the researcher at the University of Rome.  His role is to extract value from natural sources. The compound in this instance is extracted from insects. He was brought on to the team to find and complete a total extraction from insects of their bioactive ingredients that can be used for cosmetic use.

We all accept plant extraction like Aloe Vera as the norm, but we can also utilise insects in the same way, its an untapped resource.

The Process

Antonio explained to me that they need to preserve the anti-oxidant levels in the insects by creating an extraction method that was total but not destructive, faster but not too aggressive.

They initially started with with Common Mealworm but now work with the Silkworm.  In the process of Silk production the worm is killed and then disposed of.  They intend to arrange contracts with the industry that they take what’s left to use for their business.

Taken from their website

Once they have the worm, they extract then purify the bioactive compound which includes anti-oxidants and melanoidins (Melanoidins are brown, high molecular weight heterogeneous polymers that are formed when sugars and amino acids combine (through the Maillard reaction) at high temperatures and low water activity. Taken from Wikipedia).  This is made into a full and comprehensive cosmetic range which includes face creams; day and night, body lotion, etc.

Their claim is that wrinkle reduction is markedly noticeable in just one month.  I tried some myself on my hand and it absorbed into my skin almost immediately.

They were at Maker Faire to look for more investment and also more knowledge partners as well.  They feel they need to build a skilled management team to move the company forward.  They have also thought of bringing the company to Ireland as the climate would preserve the compound.

Circular Economy

Both of these businesses have demonstrated a method of conservation and circular economy, which is what this years Maker Faire Rome themes based on.  By using locally bought and sought products they have made it possible to grow their business from the grassroots (pun intended).

There was a huge selection of businesses to choose from at the event but both of these businesses stood out in their initiative and application.

The challenge will be topping this for next year.  Let’s hope we find out what magic they can bring next year.