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Potato Head opens Bali’s first creative campus

Desa Potato Head creative village, Bali

Bali – Desa Potato Head is uplifting its original hybrid beach club concept with a new hotel and creative village that welcomes both locals and international guests.

Known as Potato Head Studios, it brings together music, art, design, food, wellness and sustainability for a holistic experience that aims to redefine beach destination hospitality. Alongside a 168-room hotel, the 387,500-square-feet complex now features farm-to-table restaurants, a multifunctional gallery and a music recording studio.

It is hoped the space will ignite local creativity as well as offering entertainment and inspiration to guests. Having originally dreamed up the creative campus concept in 2010, Ronald Akili, founder of Potato Head, says: ‘We know the consumer is changing to value experiences over simple transactions, and we believe that villages and communities can create those memorable experiences – especially when they are focused on inspiring creativity, like we’re doing at Desa Potato Head.’

The idea of creating a community living and working from a space all year round is further explored in our recent interview with Claus Sendlinger, founder of Design Hotels.

The Markup calls out big tech’s bad behaviour

The Markup

New York – A new investigative journalism site, The Markup, aims to expose how big tech is affecting our lives.

With the tagline Big Tech Is Watching You, We’re Watching Big Tech, the site is an example of the shift away from intrusive, non-transparent news platforms. Through its investigative journalism, it will draw attention to the ways technology companies and brands lack transparency on data collection and the use of artificial intelligence (AI) and surveillance.

In this way, The Markup is empowering consumers with education about the platforms and services they might or might not want to engage with. Aiming to cover a range of different industries, the site delves into the topics like the impact of AI on healthcare and automobile insurance algorithms. True to its own mission, the non-profit-making platform prioritises reader privacy by collecting very little data about site visitors. It also promises to never monetise its data and will not expose readers to third-party tracking.

With consumers increasingly concerned about their digital footprint and the ways big tech is tracking their lives, companies are being challenged to work towards new, more ethical frameworks – as we uncover in Morality Recoded.

This AI-enabled bin promotes eco-behaviour

US – CleanRobotics is making eco-behaviour easier for businesses with TrashBot – an artificially intelligent bin that sorts and separates rubbish from recyclables.

The smart bin allows users to drop all items of rubbish into one place, removing the need to manually sort items into recyclables and non-recyclables. Functioning with a camera and sensors, the TrashBot internally registers and sorts items in three to five seconds.

CleanRobotics says the technology separates rubbish at a rate of 90% accuracy – resulting in it being a significantly more efficient option than manual recycling, which it says is typically only 30% accurate. With pressure mounting on brands and consumers to be more eco-minded, there is a growing need for tech-based services that positively enable such behaviour.

In Educated Eating we look at the start-ups using AI to assist consumers with recycling and positive habit-forming in relation to food and drink waste.

Trashbot by CleanRobotics

Stat: Fashion industry buyers are fuelling CO2 emissions

The fashion industry is increasingly damaging to the environment, says a new report from Ordre in association with the Carbon Trust.

The study reveals that 241,000 tons of carbon dioxide (CO2) are released every year as a result of travel associated with the wholesale ready-to-wear fashion-buying process and fashion shows. Air travel also contributes 147,000 tons of carbon emissions, while 78,000 tons can be attributed to accommodation.

Simon P Lock, founder and CEO of Ordre Paris, says: ‘The carbon emissions are associated with the buyers and media travelling to attend [shows]. Other carbon emission points of focus include local travel on the ground, the use of fossil fuel in powering productions and the use of non-recyclable production materials.’

With the climate emergency continuing to draw attention to the industry, technological advancements will result in a growing number of brands embracing digitised processes and Immaterial Fashion to make fashion's footprint less impactful.