Blog

  When you own a small business, you never have enough of two things: Time in the day or money in the bank. For the last four years, my business partner Claire Mazur and I have run Of a Kind — a website that introduces up-and-coming designers to the world through a combination of eCommerce and storytelling — and along the way, we have unearthed a slew of tools that make our lives easier and our workloads more manageable. Better even? They are cheap or free. Though we are super-fans of a few standalone platforms — see: Help Scout for customer service and Slack for team…

An innovative ‘tri-generation’ clean energy system fueled entirely by raw plant oils could have great potential for isolated homes and businesses operating outside grid systems both in the UK and abroad. Developed by a consortium led by Newcastle University and funded by the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC), through the RCUK Energy Program, the small-scale combined cooling, heat and power system has been designed to provide dependable electricity without the need for a mains connection. Ideally suited for small-holdings and businesses, and particularly applications in the developing world, the waste heat that is produced by the system is used for cooling and heating in…

Solar technology has evolved beyond just your grandpa's big, bulky photovoltaic panels on the roof. Advances in flexible, hyper-efficient and nano-scale materials of late has made it possible for solar cells to begin popping up in all kinds of shapes and places you might not expect. Here's a quick rundown of some surprising spots where solar technology dwells – be sure to flip through the gallery to get a full grasp on the scale of the increasingly solar-powered landscape.   Solar Energy at sea Solar panels are great, so long has you can find the real estate on which to…