Noise pollution creates annoyance, sleep disturbance, affects cardiovascular and metabolic system. What’s more, it may cause heart diseases, premature deaths while leading to cognitive impairment in children. According to the WTO, after air pollution, noise pollution is the second environmental cause of health problems.
In Europe, road traffic noise has significant impacts on the health and well-being of people. More than 100 million people in Europe are exposed to long-term noise pollution harmful to their health (Peris, 2020). Hopefully, an ambitious start-up from Italy grasps the nettle for it: Phononic Vibes.
The company was founded in 2018 and based in Milan. Core team of the company consists of engineers from Politecnico di Milano, a well-known technical university in Europe. Phononic Vibes develops products and systems to insulate and mitigate vibration and noise, in a niche market of noise management.
Since it was established, Phononic Vibes has been filing 12 patents granted or in the granting phase, in just 4 years. 4 of them are in infrastructure, 3 in transportation, 3 in appliances and 2 in general. They use 100% recycled and recyclable plastics to produce special panels for sound absorbing and insulating.
While most green technology development teams focus on air or water pollution, their aim is to reduce the noise pollution. Take the transportation industry, in which noise pollution is a particular problem. Although electric vehicles can reduce noise pollution, growing mobilization of people in the cities offset this bright side. To give an example, one of their products to reduce the air-borne noise from passing trains is developed in partnership with Deutsche Bahn, which helps to keep urban areas quiet.
Noise management solutions can help to reduce detrimental effects of noise pollution on health, protect ecosystems and biodiversity by not disturbing wildlife. The company operates in a rather small industry but we expect that an increasing number of firms will enter the sector because of increasing population, urban areas, mobility and ultimately, demand for better life quality. The fact that the company experienced 4 rounds of fundraising clearly reflects this potential market demand for its products.
References
Peris, E. (2020). Environmental noise in Europe: 2020. Eur. Environ. Agency, 1, 104.
