(May 25, 2023) Auckland, New Zealand – Lime, the world’s leading provider of shared electric vehicles, has been working in partnership with The Cacophony Project and 2040 Limited that has seen its old scooter and bike batteries earn a second life powering tools designed to save New Zealand’s precious birds.
The recycled batteries are being used to power thermal cameras and the Cacophony trap in various projects that are protecting New Zealand’s endangered birds around the country. The Department of Conservation has already seen Cacophony traps and cameras have a 10x higher catch rate than traditional traps.
Damaged Lime scooter battery cells – which would otherwise have been recycled – are refurbished in Christchurch and used to power the devices fully. 2040 identified Lime’s batteries in particular due to their high level of waterproofing and charge capacity. The ‘upcycling’ of Lime batteries gives them a second life and helps to reduce the carbon footprint of Lime’s vehicles.
“We’re really excited to continue to work with 2040 and The Cacophony Project to give a new, second life to our old batteries,” said Hugo Burt-Morris, General Manager for ANZ at Lime. “2040’s technical expertise and innovative product line offers an exciting opportunity to re-use parts that would otherwise have been recycled, and turn them into important technology to conserve New Zealand’s precious bird populations. Our team believes in this game-changing project and that in some small way, this partnership will contribute to New Zealand’s goal of becoming predator free.”
“We really appreciate the partnership we have with Lime. This allows us to provide batteries at a lower cost to our customers, who love that they are recycled,” said Shaun Ryan, Managing Director of 2040 Limited.
Some examples of how the Lime battery-powered traps and cameras are being used are:
Auckland Council
Auckland Council started using thermal cameras with machine vision to track down a stoat in the Shakespear Park Sanctuary. They’ve now become an indispensable tool in Shakespear and Tāwharanui. The council have also lent the cameras to the Department of Conservation to help with a stoat incursion on Motutapu Island.
Mamaku Point Conservation Reserve
Mamaku Point is using the cameras to detect animals coming around their predator-proof fence and using the Cacophony Project Trap to catch them. This saves precious birds from being destroyed and saves the ranger a lot of time.
Rewild Wainui
Rewild Wainui is a community project to protect nature that is using cameras to understand what predators they have and where they are, so they can focus their trapping efforts. They have also started to use cacophony traps.
Lime’s mission is to build a future where transportation is shared, affordable and carbon-free. As the world’s largest provider of shared electric vehicles, Lime partners with cities to deploy electric bikes and scooters to serve any trip under five miles. One of Time Magazine’s 100 Most Influential Companies in 2021, Lime has powered more than 400 million rides in more than 250 cities across five continents, spurring a new generation of clean alternatives to car ownership. Learn more at li.me.
About The Cacophony Project
The Cacophony Project is a not-for-profit organisation creating open-source technology to save New Zealand’s endangered birds. The core technology includes a thermal camera with machine vision that is more sensitive and requires less labour than other predator monitoring techniques, a bird monitor that samples audio 24/7 and uses machine learning to automatically recognise bird calls and a high interaction rate trap that catches more predators than other traps and is currently being further developed to automatically identify and kill predators
About 2040
2040 Limited is a social enterprise whose mission is to use the technology developed by The Cacophony Project to eradicate all predators of native birds in New Zealand by 2040. 2040 manufactures, sells and supports hi tech bird and pest monitors and traps.
