Stockholm, Sweden
Imagine a micro-factory platform that produces 70,000 litres of perfect drinking water monthly while also preventing up to 200,000 plastic bottles becoming waste and saving 8 tons of GHG emissions.
Swedish sustainable tech firm, Wayout AB has designed a solar-powered microbrewery and water purification system that provides a sustainable alternative for the local supply of water and beverages. By relocating the benefits of the business to where the products are consumed, local prosperity is enabled, outdated industrial structures are bypassed, and humanity is a transition towards a greener, healthier and safer future.
Wayout’s versatile eco-friendly system recently won a 2020 Good Design award from The Chicago Athenaeum.
Martin Renck, founder and head designer of Wayout AB, along with his team, have developed a sustainable beverage micro-factory, offering them for lease to clients who see the opportunities in locally producing water and beverages with a minimal eco-footprint.
All contained in one strikingly, sleek, and successfully engineered and all-encompassing, solar-powered brewing system—essentially a micro-factory—the machine’s processes are automated— filtering water (which can be done instantly) or brewing beer, soft drinks, sodas, ciders, and kombucha (which take seven to 10 days)—and can be monitored locally via a smartphone app or from the firm’s office in Stockholm.
Instead of shipping pre-packaged beverages around the planet – producing tons and tons of excess carbon dioxide and leaving billions of plastic bottles in the wake – Wayout provides a sustainable and commercial alternative for local coverage of water and beverages.
Through modern research and new technology, Wayout’s micro-factories are engineered to have as little impact as possible on the environment. The fully automated system recycles water and energy internally and is developed to be powered by solar panels. When all beverage is locally produced from scratch, many harmful side effects are bypassed, like bottling, logistics, distribution, and plastic waste.
The most important ingredient in all beverage is water. Most people on Earth do not have access to clean drinking water. Wayout’s micro-factories treat all types of water – they even desalinate seawater. The treated water is remineralized to be included in all beverages or to be served directly as supreme quality drinking water, still or sparkling.
According to Renck: “Coca-Cola, PepsiCo and Nestlé are the world’s biggest plastic polluters. CocaCola produces about three million tons of plastic packaging a year—equivalent to 200,000 bottles a minute. Imported bottled beer releases 400% more CO₂ compared to locally brewed beer served from tap on site.”
“Greater awareness of environmental factors is creating demand for products that preemptively guard against environmental concerns. Water will be a stressed resource. Many cities will be constantly in a state of water shortage.”
“Big, centralized industry drains aquifers and uses up resources and dumps trash where there are no systems for recycling.”
“What our concept solves,” continues Renck, “is that instead of shipping pre-packaged beverages around the planet—producing tons and tons of excess carbon dioxide and leaving billions of plastic bottles in the wake—we provide a sustainable alternative for local coverage of water and beverages.”
Designers: Wayout AB
Design Team: Martin Renck, Bjorn Pettersson, Urban Ahlgren, Carl Philip Bernadotte, Oscar Kylberg, and Thomas Schaad
Manufacturer: Wayout AB