It’s funny how one good idea leads to another. In the case of Agile Acoustics, that’s exactly what happened. Just over a year ago, Co2nscience Founder & CEO Stuart Jones launched Stretcher Prints via a Kickstarter campaign raising its goal of $20,000 USD. Stretcher Prints are wall prints made from recycled plastic bottles and they do just what the name implies – stretch.
Transforming waste into art
Passionate about the planet and innovation, Co2nscience set out to develop Stretcher Prints – the world’s first recycled wall print which transforms waste into art. Stretcher Prints are truly something you have to see for yourself to believe. Just like any work of art, the possibilities are…well…endless. Have a cherished family portrait or work poster you’d like to enlarge? Stretcher Prints has it covered (and stretched).
During the Research and Development phase of what would become Stretcher Prints, Co2nscience re-used 13,750 discarded plastic bottles which would normally have ended up in landfills. Their recycling goal? 140,000 bottles enough to cover an entire football pitch or 10,851 medium-sized Stretcher Prints. The prints use 80% recycled and 20% virgin polyester. However, Co2nscience’s goal is that the entire print will use 100% recycled materials in the near future. The prints have even been awarded ‘Best ‘Innovation’ by the 2014 Yorkshire Post Environment Awards.
One good ideas leads to another
Shortly after the creation of Stretcher Prints, Stuart Jones found himself showcasing the product to an architect. As fate would have it, this particular architect was in need of a solution to a growing problem at her office – noise. By his own admission, Jones did not give the conversation much thought at first.
‘I didn’t give it much thought at the time but as I started to research it, I discovered what a real problem office acoustics can be, particularly open plan offices.’
After realizing the possibilities, Jones and his team applied for a $12,000 USD research grant to work with Bradford University on testing Stretcher Prints’ acoustics performance. Testing results were for the most part good but Jones and his team realized that things could be improved. So, they decided to re-develop the prints aimed squarely at the corporate office acoustics sector.
Agile Acoustics
6 months, additional grants, capital and R&D (and a recent patent application) have led to creation of Agile Acoustics – a spin-off of Stretcher Prints. States Jones, ‘We wanted to use the best materials, thicknesses and composition of our recycled plastic bottle fabric to ensure they perform at the very best Class A acoustic performance.’
What makes Agile Acoustics unique is their ability to easily be moved or remain stationary (hung on a wall). ‘An employee can take the Agile Panels off the wall and use them at their desk when they need some quiet time. We call it erecting a polite Do Not Disturb sign, and this is obviously a very visual way of telling colleagues that you need to concentrate on something.’
According to certain research on productivity and well-being in the workplace, staff disengagement costs the U.S. $450 – $550 billion per year. Could Agile Acoustics improve on worker productivity? Time will tell, but one thing is certain. Stretcher Prints and Agile Acoustics are reimagining how we see waste. Some might even call it art.