Brighton creator showcases upcycling skills in cleantech tie-up
Swedish cleantech group Aira has teamed up with Brighton-based creator Charis Williams, otherwise known as 'The Salvage Sister', to show what can be done with disused boilers.
The UK government wants to replace 600,000 boilers a year by 2028 with greener alternatives and the artist shows, via the creative campaign, how to take the boilers destined for scrap and instead upcycle them into furniture.
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Williams, whose skills have also been showcased on TV, spent 23 days transforming three polluting gas boilers into functional household items that no longer emit carbon emissions into the environment, including a chair and a table lamp.
Charis Williams, AKA ‘The Salvage Sister’, said: “Creating beautiful and useful items out of scrap, redundant parts and salvage is what I do, whether I’m making functional items like furniture and chandeliers or sculptures. I started working with scrap to highlight the epic amounts of useable materials being sent to landfill needlessly.
"When Aira asked me if I could make furniture from old boilers, I knew it would be a challenge, for a start - I wasn’t sure what I’d find inside, other than pipework! But I love a challenge, and if anyone could make this happen… it was going to be me! I jumped at the chance to work with Aira, we have the same ethos, and I love their Scandi style."
Pamela Brown, chief marketing officer (CMO) of Aira Group, added: "Switching to a heat pump and ditching a gas boiler is needed on many fronts – to help people reduce heating bills as we head into winter and importantly to significantly reduce CO2 emissions from heating, which contributes to almost one third of the UK’s annual carbon footprint.
"With this partnership, we want to show how symbols of pollution and environmental damage, such as gas boilers, can be transformed and given a new lease of life as household items that we can all enjoy. We see the sculptures as lasting reminders of the potential to rebuild our society, to help us create a cleaner, more climate-friendly future."
The launch coincided (on Sep 20) with The United Nations World Cleanup Day 2024 to highlight the pressures of waste on the global climate and to raise awareness of the benefits of upcycling.
Aira provides clean energy-tech solutions to consumers and is set to become Europe’s number one direct-to-consumer brand within the industry.
