From a pioneering degree course to a world-first tiny home made from part of a decommissioned wind turbine, here are five innovative inceptions captured in our latest issue
Set to begin in 2026, the University of Sussex has announced plans for the UK’s first undergraduate degree in climate justice, sustainability and development. It will combine climate politics, activism and environmental human rights with practical green skills.
It seems timely: litigation is emerging as a vital tool for holding polluters to account.
Image: Rahul Dolai
Plates London, which Kirk Haworth founded with his sister Keeley, is the UK’s first vegan restaurant to win the world’s most coveted culinary gong. Curious diners have been packing out the Shoreditch-based eater to sample a menu packed with ‘layers of flavour and texture’, and we delve deeper in this issue’s news section.
We find out about the dishes on Plates’ slaughter-free tasting menu, from black truffle and artichoke risotto with blood orange and toasted hazelnut to rice pudding ice cream.
Image: Jodi Hinds
Every day we’re fed a slew of headlines warning of the scale of the climate crisis. Yet little is written on how it feels to witness these existential threats and how we might begin to process it all emotionally.
The Climate Mental Health Network, a US-based resource hub, hopes to kickstart those conversations through the Climate Emotions Wheel. The tool consists of four colour-coded quadrants – representing anger, positivity, sadness and fear – each of which has its own subcategories of more specific emotions such as outrage, panic, empowerment and inspiration.
The first-of-its-kind wheel was created in collaboration with Dr Panu Pihkala of the University of Helsinki, based on his research, which, for the last decade, has focused on our emotional response to the climate crisis. “It’s possible that when you hear birdsong you feel both sadness and gratitude to be there at that moment, hearing a bird sing,” he tells us in our new issue.
Image: The Climate Mental Health Network
Lizzie Dibble is hopeful that her clothes lending project could help bring in new footfall to the UK’s beleaguered libraries, as well as introducing readers to the romance of secondhand fashion.
Recently registered as a Community Interest Company, her With Love From … shared wardrobe is housed at Oswestry library in Shropshire, run by volunteers and backed by a crowdfunding campaign and a grant from Shropshire council.
There are currently around 400 pieces in the growing collection, which can be checked out via a barcode for three weeks at a time and renewed just like a book. Every garment is labelled with the name of the person who donated it. “It adds to the idea that preloved clothing is more special, because it has that history,” said Dibble.
While rental apps are gaining in popularity and ‘libraries of things’ are becoming more common across the country, With Love From … is thought to be the first to add clothes to the existing library system.
Image: Sarah White / With Love From …
A Swedish renewables developer has transformed part of a decommissioned wind turbine into a house in a bid to prove that these structures can have a meaningful second life. With an average lifespan of 20 to 25 years, estimates based on International Energy Agency figures forecast that 5,000 wind turbines will now be decommissioned each year.
In an effort to reduce this waste, the Swedish energy company Vattenfall has repurposed a nacelle, the part to which the three wind turbine blades are attached, into a tiny home. The prototype, which is believed to be the first of its kind, is equipped with a heat pump, solar panels and a solar water heater, and furnished with sustainably produced and secondhand items. Read about some other firms that are putting old wind turbines to fresh use in the new issue.
Image: Jorrit Lousberg
Main image: golero
