A portable solar distiller which aims to provide anyone in the world with clean drinking water has won this year’s Lexus Design Award. In Henry Glogau’s design, water is collected in a 2.2m plastic canopy. Energy from sunlight then separates the contaminants and freshwater through evaporation. Design Week has details here

Design Week also reports on the launch of the Pluvo Column in the UK. The cleantech company has partnered with outdoor ad site provider Kinetic on the Column which it is claimed can scrub one cubic metre of air clean every second. Through a combination of filtering techniques, it claims to clean up to 99% of harmful particulate matter from the air. Kinetic will sell advertising space on the 11-foot high columns which will in turn pay for their installation and upkeep. Story here

Architecture: From Prehistory to Climate Emergency by Barnabas Calder tells the history of architecture as one of energy use, particularly in terms of how coal enabled the production of materials and processes to drive urban growth. Rowan Moore reviews the book for The Guardian here

Ofgem, Britain’s energy regulator, is investing £300m to help triple the number of ultra-rapid charging points for electric vehicles across the country. New infrastructure will support 3,550 new ultra-rapid charging points – 1,800 at motorway service stations and 1,750 in towns and cities. Story here

An inspiring story from Kenya, where local hotels are helping to support a novel recycling programme headed by grassroots organisation, the Watamu Marine Association. Local community members are paid to collect rubbish from the beach which is taken to a local recycling centre. Plastics are chopped up into small flakes and sold to local manufacturers.

"What we're hoping to achieve is a circular economy whereby the waste is brought in, transformed into something else and sold off,” said project coordinator Julie Myra Alego. “The money comes back and keeps the whole process sustainable.” UNEP has the story here

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