Secrid invests 1% of its revenue through the Secrid Impact Fund in talented designers who are driving sustainable change in their industry.
Secrid returns to Dutch Design Week this year with the fourth edition of the Secrid Talent Podium: an initiative that focuses on emerging design talent. Seven innovative designers are using their creative product designs to bring about change in their own industries, and thus contribute to a more sustainable future. Meet the talents of the Secrid Talent Podium 2025 below.
Floris Schoonderbeek | Circle Farming
Circle Farming is developing an agricultural method with circular fields that combine efficiency and sustainability. Working in circles creates spaces for nature, recreation, and biodiversity. Instead of a tractor, a robot arm rotates slowly, while people – from the city – work on the crops from special beds, assisted by AI.
“I’m also convinced people play a crucial role in new agriculture. A growing demographic wants to know where their food comes from. Circle Farming is based on that choice. It seeks to make people’s role in food production matter again.”
Chloe So & Barna Soma Biro | PulpaTronics
PulpaTronics is developing fully recyclable RFID tags made from paper – to replace metal antennas that are typically hidden in price tags, hotel key cards, and packaging labels. Laser technology converts carbon in paper into a conductive material that can simply be recycled with regular paper waste after use, reducing CO2 footprint by 60%.
“PulpaTronics represents more than just better RFID tags. We're advocating for a fundamental shift in how we approach technology. I think we should question whether all our sophisticated solutions really need to be so complicated, so wasteful, and so disconnected from natural cycles. What we're doing is taking advanced technology and stripping it back to the bare minimum to make sure it's still functional but uses as little resources and energy as possible.”
Auke Bleij | Respyre
Respyre is developing moss concrete: an innovative building material where living mosses grow on concrete facades. Moss is not only beautiful and low maintenance, but it also purifies the air, cools the environment, and gives small insects a place to live. By cleverly using existing manufacturing processes, this innovation can compete with traditional facade finishes.
“Mosses are actually microscopic forests. When you zoom in on them, you can see trees with pathways. It’s really like walking through a tiny forest. A lot of air, which contains particulate matter and carbon dioxide, flows through them. These are physically retained on the surface or absorbed into the moss tissue due to the structure of the moss. Some mosses can even filter heavy metals or nitrogen from the air.”
Itika Gupta | Dungse Labs
Dungse Labs creates building materials from cow dung, transforming surplus waste into high-performance substitutes for wood, particle boards, and plastic. Traditional Himalayan techniques and modern manufacturing combine to offer natural insulation, anti-microbial properties, water resistance, and biodegradability. All while benefiting farmer economics, cow welfare, and the environment.
“I want to give purpose to shit in our society. Shit has no purpose in our society currently. I’d love to show how shit can have a purpose in our life, like in nature.”
Marjan van Aubel | Ra
Marjan van Aubel creates self-powered lamps, electricity-producing windows, and installations that make us feel connected to sunlight. Her designs use solar cells that convert colour into electricity. Using new technologies, she can flexibly and colourfully integrate solar energy into everything around us.
“If every colour can generate energy, then everything can generate its own energy! That’s still the basis of my work today. By now, I’ve been working on this for twelve years.”
Sarmīte Počakova & Mel van Dijk | (un)woven
(un)woven is a biomaterial made from waste and residual products from the textile industry. Short textile fibres are bonded with a biodegradable glue to form a material that feels like rice paper or wallpaper – but stronger. It displays natural colour variations like marble and can be used in architecture, interior design, and product design.
“My work revolves around the recognition that we’ve created a kind of Frankenstein material that we can’t recycle. I want to showcase an alternative perspective on this “waste.” Instead of trying to return them to their original form, I looked at these short fibers and thought: ‘If they’re not long enough, what are they good for?’ They’re fibers. Let’s use them as fibers, not as failed textiles.’”
Elizabeth Lee, Eden Harrison & Ori Blich | Carbon Cell
Carbon Cell’s foam is carbon-negative, plastic-free, compostable, and affordable—basically a game-changer for packaging. It’s made from biochar, a material derived from agricultural waste that locks away carbon for 100 years or more. With all these climate perks, Carbon Cell’s foam is ready to replace fossil-based foams, from luxury packaging and cold-chain shipping to acoustic and thermal insulation in buildings.
“It’s actually ancient technology, first developed in the Amazon thousands of years ago to improve soil fertility. These days, it's done in high-tech ways that recover the energy and gases and minimize environmental impact.”
Would you like to learn more about Secrid and this year’s seven talented designers? On Secrid’s website, you can already get to know these pioneers in depth. From 18 to 26 October 2025, you can discover the Secrid Talent Podium at the Klokgebouw during Dutch Design Week 2025.