increase font size
From left to right: Colin Campbell from Ovis Global, Nick Davenport from Lanaco, and Kevin Liu from BlueAir in Stockholm
In a breakthrough for New Zealand wool technology, woollen air filters by local company Lanaco, will be used by Unilever-owned air purifier manufacturer Blueair.
Lanaco has hailed the new partnership as a truly significant step in the commercialisation of its Ecostatic wool filters and a boost for the air purifier market that has previously relied on synthetic air filters. Blueair operates in 60 countries.
Lanaco’s Ecostatic wool filters are already known far and beyond. They have made it into outer space on NASA rockets for Moon and Mars missions, and were part of the facemasks that kept the New Zealand team at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics free of COVID. Now they have found a home on Earth.
Lanaco founder and chief executive Nick Davenport says the new partnership with Blueair, a leading Swedish air wellness pioneer, represents a step-change in the global air filtration market. Blueair is the first to integrate electrostatic technology into its range of portable air purifiers.
“Blueair's dedication to innovation, sustainability and quality resonates with our core values at Lanaco,” Davenport says.
“Our company has developed wool-based filter media because wool provides both the basis for true performance and the best sustainability credentials. We are thrilled that our partnership with Blueair captures this capability whilst also recognising the environmental benefits of woollen filters as well.
“Just as Icebreaker did for wool clothing, Lanaco is bringing its branded New Zealand wool technology to the global filtration market by partnering with one of Europe’s greatest consumer goods companies.”
Blueair chief executive Andy Lu says partnering with Lanaco to produce the industry's first woollen, biodegradable filter is not just a milestone for Blueair, “but a transformative moment for the entire air purification industry”.
The electrostatic filter technology is uniquely supported by the established Ovis Global Astino sheep breeding programme, which is pivotal in its success as wool with superior filtration performance is being bred for. This initiative presents a long-term growth opportunity for the farming sector, with thousands of tonnes of New Zealand wool potentially benefiting from this scientifically sophisticated application of wool as a novel biomaterial.
Targeting a global filter media market valued at over $US8 billion, Lanaco says the Unilever partnership is the first of several high-volume market opportunities that Lanaco is presently progressing to full commercialisation.
Wool carpet and rug manufacturer Bremworth says it’s emerging from a period of significant transformation, rebuilding from damage caused by Cyclone Gabrielle and moving away from synthetics to the production of wool carpets and rugs.
Farmer-owned wool fibre and carpet producer Wools of New Zealand hopes that its new partnership with a major Chinese carpet and rug manufacturer will help combat counterfeiters in the global market and highlight the prestige of New Zealand wool to Chinese consumers.
While New Zealand’s clever thinkers were out in full force at the Fieldays Innovations event last month, the youngsters weren’t there to be overlooked.
OPINION: A mate of yours truly has been getting quotes for new carpet in the lounge and, being a good keen man, he was looking first at wool carpet.
LIC is embarking on a ground-breaking project aimed at breeding heat tolerant and disease resistant dairy cows for Sub-Saharan Africa, in collaboration with the global leader in precision breeding, Acceligen, and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.
DairyNZ chair elect Tracy Brown says working together to create and implement sensible, affordable and enduring policy has never been more important.
Synlait farmer suppliers are relieved to see the troubled milk processor on the road to recovery.
A critically threatened endemic freshwater fish found only in Canterbury has been discovered at a Craigmore Sustainables farm near Timaru.
A hundred primary schools across New Zealand are now better resourced to teach their students about food and farming after winning ‘George the Farmer’ book sets in a recent competition run by rural lender, Rabobank.
Kiwifruit growers are celebrating a trifecta of industry milestones next month.
OPINION: A reader recently called out the Hound for not giving Federated Farmers enough credit for taking Otago Regional Council…
OPINION: Your old mate was shocked to learn that two pet projects of progressive dreamers have come a gutser in…
