Sustainnovation - Noku canvas

This blog is part of our Sustainnovation series.

Sustainnovation is an exhibition (both physical and digital) of some of the most sustainable and innovative products coming onto the market at the moment. Our engineers and designers have carefully selected products that they feel will help us, and the planet, achieve our sustainability goals.

The Noku canvas

Made from 100% recycled plastics, natural cork and recycled car headlights, these hexagonal units allow you to make a green wall in your own home.

It gives people who live in urban environments and who don’t have access to gardens, an opportunity to build their own mini forest while saving. Each unit comes complete with a self-watering system. Shirinoku are also fully carbon neutral, offsetting all emissions via investments into reforestation.

The company name comes from the Japanese practice of ‘Shinrin-Yoku’ or ‘forest bathing’ which involves going into a forest environment to soothe your mind. This form of psychotherapy has measurable mental and physical health benefits. The Noku canvas was designed to give users that same feeling in their own home: by building a mini forest on their wall.

Manufactured entirely in the UK within a 100 miles radius from their warehouse in London, the supply chain road miles have been minimised. A sustainability web page will soon be available, showing a full, public life-cycle-analysis that calculates the exact CO₂ generated during the manufacture of a Noku canvas with all the working clearly shown.

Shirinoku samples are currently on display in our Edinburgh office.

Manufacturers: Shirinoku - London, UK

Shirinoku are a group of friends who met while studying design engineering at Imperial College London. In an attempt to brighten up their flat during lockdown, it soon became apparent they weren’t green fingered. Putting their design and engineering skills to the test, and being inspired by large green walls in offices, prototypes were developed. The team raised £140,000 on Kickstarter within 30 days.

For more information on the Noku Canvas, please see the Shirinoku website here.