Amazing Eco Projects That Inspire Us

Here at Kabode we’re inspired by others who are doing awesome things to protect the environment and benefit the planet. We think it’s important to do what we can to help the planet by making our community more eco friendly, and try to teach our kids to think the same way.

We have rounded up some fun and interesting eco projects that we find inspiring, maybe you could share these with your kids and inspire them too? Who knows, in a few years time they might be the ones taking huge strides to develop eco friendly projects!

Cloudfisher - how to catch fog and drink it

“Water water everywhere, but not a drop to drink”
The amazing Cloudfisher can catch and harvest water vapour from the air, creating fresh, clean drinking water for people in mountainous areas that don’t have access to running water. These nifty nets require no power, they simply stand in air - just like a net floating in the sea - and catch passing water vapour. In optimum conditions each net can capture over 600 liters of water per day, providing vital water for hundreds of people.

A simple concept that is no doubt incredibly complex to develop, this genius project is already in action around the world and helping people to make use of a previously untapped resource

The Million Mile Beach Clean

Cornish charitable organisation Surfers Against Sewage have been doing everything they can to clean up our oceans for many years. The Million Mile Beach Clean is a large campaign to engage volunteers to join in with the community and clean up their local beaches - picking up litter and recycling or disposing of it properly, where it can’t clog up the waves and damage sea life. So far over 64,000 volunteers have joined in, cleaning over 73,000 miles of coastline.

You can get involved by joining in with an organised event, or doing your own mini clean as a family and logging it on the website. If you’re having a UK staycation this Summer why not put this on your to do list for fresh air, exercise and a very good cause?

Beevive

You can help to prevent the declining numbers of bees, one bee at a time! Just like busy humans, tired bees sometimes need a little perk up from a sugary drink. Ideally, they would get this from flower nectar, but as patches of wild flowers are being destroyed all the time in favour of building work and neat lawns, they sometimes find themselves over tired and without nectar nearby.

If you come across an exhausted bee you can gently move it out of harm's way and offer it a little sugar water to help it get back to its buzzy business. Beevive is a keyring containing a tiny glass tube of sugar water which you can keep on hand and jump to the rescue of a tired bee whenever you find one.

Although the keyring is not a toy, kids will love helping grown ups to revive a tired bee, giving them the opportunity to learn about how vital these pollen crying fuzzballs are and how important it is to let them get on with their business without fearing or squashing them.

Banana Peel Bioplastic

Have you ever considered that many fruits come in their own perfect packaging? The peel of an orange, the skin of a grape or the hard rind of a watermelon are all perfectly designed to protect the fruit inside from bacteria or damage.

At only 16 years old Elif Bilgin developed a process to turn discarded banana peel into usable bioplastic, so reducing food waste and reliance on petroleum based plastic. The issue of packaging is a big one, with tons being made and going to landfill every day. Many companies are switching to more eco friendly alternatives (we use FSC recycled card). Perhaps one day banana plastic will be the go to packaging solution?

1000 Runner Ducks

All the cotton used in Kabode’s bedding is farmed organically, meaning that no harmful pesticides are used. In order to meet the growing demand for organic produce farmers and scientists are working together to find inventive ways to keep crop healthy and bug free.

At one vineyard in South Africa the owners have found an unusually charming way to keep numbers of harmful snails low - they have adopted 1,000 runner ducks, who patrol the vines, eating the snails and leaving the fruit behind. Not only are they a fantastic spectacle, keeping the ducks means that the owners have been able to entirely stop the use of toxic snail bait, which kills not only the snails but other bugs too.

All of these projects captured our imagination because they have found unique and interesting ways to help the environment. Whether it’s small actions you can take yourself - such as picking up rubbish at the beach - or sophisticated technology like the Cloudfisher, there are endless things that can be done that are all steps toward protecting our planet for our kids and grandkids.

It’s projects like these that inspired us to create Kabode, our own eco-friendly kids brand. Seeing the inventiveness and creativity with which people all over the world are tackling environmental issues drives us to do better and to run our business in a way which is sustainable and good for the world.

Have you been inspired by any of these projects? Do your kids have any bright ideas to help the world around them? You never know, they might just be the next Elif Bilgin winning international awards for their smart thinking!