Sustainability
No batteries. No electronics.
Designed to be repaired and recycled.
Electronic earmuffs that let speech through need batteries and electronics to do it. We’re designing The Shield to keep speech intelligible without them, so there’s nothing to charge and less to throw away. These are design goals for a product at the concept stage.
What we’re designing for.
No batteries.
Nothing to charge, replace or dispose of. A passive earmuff can’t run flat halfway through a shift.
No electronics.
No circuit boards, microphones or speakers in the hearing protector, so there’s no e-waste from it at the end of its life.
Repaired and recycled.
We aim to design The Shield to be repaired rather than replaced, and recycled when it’s finally worn out.
UN Sustainable Development Goals
Four goals our work relates to.
SDG 3: Good Health and Well-being
Noise-induced hearing loss is permanent and almost always preventable. We’re designing protection that people will want to keep on.
SDG 8: Decent Work and Economic Growth
We want safer workplaces where people can protect their hearing and still talk to each other.
SDG 12: Responsible Consumption and Production
We aim for a long-lived, repairable, battery-free product instead of another device that needs new batteries.
SDG 13: Climate Action
Leaving out batteries and electronics is intended to lower the product’s footprint over its life.
Get in touch
Questions about our approach?
We’re at the concept stage, and happy to talk about how we’re approaching repair, recycling and everything else.