Surrey helps launch the Renew Channel in the City of London

Friday 17 February 2012

Terrorist threats have seen the removal of waste bins from many busy areas. Yet, more than ever there is a need for recycling on-the-go in key financial, retail and transport hubs. The London based company Renew has met this demand by financing a "blast mitigated" network of on-street information and recycling pods with an innovative business model. They are now delivering against a 21year contract with the City of London to provide and maintain up to 200 Renew Pods in the Square Mile free of charge. Instead of selling the high-tech units, Renew finances them through built in LED screens which stream a mixture of breaking news, real-time information and sponsorship messages. In fact, Kaveh Memari, CEO of Renew, sees his company as primarily in the information business with the recycling highlighting the eco conscious side of this media business – they also view it internally as a comment on print - "Recycle the old, read the new, Renew".

The Digital Ecosystems (DE) research group at Surrey University has been working with Renew for the past year to refine their information handling and web streaming technology. Rulemotion, spun out of the DE group, now has a contract for the next year to continue to develop the Renew information channels. During that time they will continue to draw on the DE Group’s know-how to realise Renew’s vision of providing localised, focused, timely and relevant information to both visitors and those living and working in London.