Green Design » Sustainable Design

Tools of Engagement

Alex Steffen — Wed, 15 Jul 2009 18:01:39 +0000

Most of the time, when designers have been asked to create products, spaces and services with the user in mind, the result has been designs that prioritize coolness and convenience above all other values, says Robert Fabricant in fan excellent post over on Core 77.

But what if the 'users' themselves are the problem? What if users represent not a coherent set of needs but a messy mix of desires and influences? What, ultimately, is the role of the designer in sorting through these desires to determine which should drive our design decisions? And what frameworks, other than intuition, should we use to make these judgments?
There are no easy answers to these questions. They call our attention to the increasingly difficult task of maintaining the myth of the neutral designer whose role can be purely defined as one of 'supporting' existing needs. This shift in perspective is being driven, in part, by the popularization of Behavioral Economics through books like Nudge and Predictably Irrational]. These books are troubling to read. They remind us that often the most influential aspects of an experience are overlooked in a traditional UCD process, such as the order of the options in a web form, or whether a cup of coffee is warm or cold. They highlight a set of principles that do not jibe with our design education, with the 'Universal Principles of Design'. For example, there are principles from the social sciences, like Social Proof, exemplified by the smiley face on a utility bill which has been shown in studies to motivate people to reduce energy consumption by 20%. This does not come out of the traditional design playbook.

Given how much of all of our decision-making is in fact over-written with branding, marketing, pseudo-journalistic information and just plain bad thinking -- and how pernicious the result has been in our communities, leaving us with collapsing suburban sprawl, privatized public goods, mountains of debt and less satisfying lives -- the idea that design needs to open itself up to both a more democratizing approach and also a deeper responsibility to the outcomes of its work is a needed one, its seems to me.

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(Posted by Alex Steffen in Sustainable Design at 10:01 AM)

Tools of Engagement

Alex Steffen — Wed, 15 Jul 2009 18:01:39 +0000

But what if the 'users' themselves are the problem? What if users represent not a coherent set of needs but a messy mix of desires and influences? What, ultimately, is the role of the designer in sorting through these desires to determine which should drive our design decisions? And what frameworks, other than intuition, should we use to make these judgments?
There are no easy answers to these questions. They call our attention to the increasingly difficult task of maintaining the myth of the neutral designer whose role can be purely defined as one of 'supporting' existing needs. This shift in perspective is being driven, in part, by the popularization of Behavioral Economics through books like Nudge and Predictably Irrational]. These books are troubling to read. They remind us that often the most influential aspects of an experience are overlooked in a traditional UCD process, such as the order of the options in a web form, or whether a cup of coffee is warm or cold. They highlight a set of principles that do not jibe with our design education, with the 'Universal Principles of Design'. For example, there are principles from the social sciences, like Social Proof, exemplified by the smiley face on a utility bill which has been shown in studies to motivate people to reduce energy consumption by 20%. This does not come out of the traditional design playbook.

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(Posted by Alex Steffen in Sustainable Design at 10:01 AM)

Ask the Planet: Introducing Children to Biomimicry through Music

WorldChanging Team — Fri, 10 Jul 2009 15:59:00 +0000

Nominated by Hesseltje S. van Goor

My grant goes to the Biomimicry Institute and their new children’s CD, Ask the Planet and its sister-website, AskNature.org. As Bioneers Radio Show host/producer Neil Harvey describes it:

a musical celebration of nature’s genius … designed to connect children to nature, create a sense of awe for the environment, and teach them about the concepts of biomimicry.

Coming at a time where climate crisis has gained international recognition, the field of Biomimetics has done more than simply provide us with new consumer products such as Velcro and eco-friendly, self-cleaning paint. By looking to nature for answers, it has effectively engaged nature directly in a global dialogue about humanity's place on this planet and the planet's true place in what could be the future economy of our planet. (Learn more about biomimicry here, here and here).

Initiatives such as the Ask the Planet CD do more than just connect children to nature through music. By alerting children to the fact that an ecologically diverse planet may help us develop more sustainable technologies and a stronger economy (through capitalising on all the things we can learn from nature), we are nourishing the idea that fostering the world's ecosystems = profit, and perhaps more importantly, inviting those who are set to inherit this Earth to become involved with finding solutions to the environmental, economic, political and moral dilemmas of our time.

You can listen to excerpts of the CD here and view the official newspage here.

This piece is part of Worldchanging's Attention Philanthropy campaign. All week long, the Worldchanging Network will be delivering "attention grants" to worthy projects, individuals, resources and more. You can learn more about these gifts of notice and find other entries by clicking here.

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(Posted by WorldChanging Team in Sustainable Design at 7:59 AM)

Ask the Planet: Introducing Children to Biomimicry through Music

WorldChanging Team — Fri, 10 Jul 2009 15:59:00 +0000

Nominated by Hesseltje S. van Goor

My grant goes to the Biomimicry Institute and their new children’s CD, Ask the Planet and its sister-website, AskNature.org. As Bioneers Radio Show host/producer Neil Harvey describes it:

a musical celebration of nature’s genius … designed to connect children to nature, create a sense of awe for the environment, and teach them about the concepts of biomimicry.

You can listen to excerpts of the CD here and view the official newspage here.

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(Posted by WorldChanging Team in Sustainable Design at 7:59 AM)

ETech 2009: Adobe on Sustainability

Jeremy Faludi — Tue, 17 Mar 2009 21:05:34 +0000

At ETech last week, Kevin Lynch from Adobe talked about some sustainability-related things they're working on. The most important-sounding one was actually just briefly mentioned: Acrobat Connect, a web-conferencing tool. I haven't used it, and he didn't demo it, but good online collaboration tools are one of the most important things software people can make for sustainability, because they enable telecommuting and telepresence. When people think of solving the transportation problems, they automatically think of electric cars, but a far better solution is telecommuting. Telecommuting uses less energy and fewer resources than the best EV or even the best bus or train; plus there's less congestion, less need for new roads, and it can replace airline travel as well as cars.

There are loads of online collaboration tools out there, but none of them is really ready for prime time (except perhaps the hyper-expensive virtual meeting rooms from Cisco), since they all seem to limit as much as they enable. Perhaps Acrobat Connect is going to be a contender. A quick look at its website showed that it seems to be a well-featured cross-platform virtual program in your browser that doesn't require additional software installation, and that can be used by monthly subscription. (Too bad it can't be paid for on a per-use basis.)

Lynch also showed some ideas Adobe has had for making its publishing tools help graphic designers be more sustainable in their work, by perhaps having color palettes show you the toxicity of inks in the colors you choose (or perhaps letting you limit your color selections to those that can be made with certain eco-friendly inks), or have the Print dialog box show you the number of trees cut down for the print run, etc. (Perhaps like the program GreenPrint, which reformats web pages or other documents to slice out ads, unwanted headers, and such, to use less paper in printing--it tells you how many trees you have saved by using it.) None of the ideas mentioned were developed at all, but it would be great to see them pursue something in that vein. At first glance it seems the biggest impact might be in a tool that helps packaging designers lay out cuttings on stock paper sizes, because cutting irregular shapes often wastes so much paper that could be saved simply by arranging the cutouts more tightly on a page. The software could both do the arranging automatically (saving the designer time and effort), and make suggestions for improvement (such as "reducing the width of this feature by 10 percent would allow you to fit 362 units per page rather than 294; this is a 23 percent paper cost savings.")

One of the most powerful things Adobe could do is help the world get off paper and get more digital. For instance, Lynch mentioned companies switching from printed quarterly reports to web-based publishing. This is a great thing for Adobe to promote and enable, and is likely to have a bigger impact than suggesting inks or paper types to designers. Perhaps they could create templates, or hosting services, or distribution channels, or other methods to encourage more companies to publish digitally. It could align perfectly with their business model. They don't make money off of people printing hardcopies of the things they design with Adobe software, but they could make money by helping people publish online.

Paper's user interface still beats digital in many ways, though, as we've mentioned before: it can be shared, written on, drawn on, highlighted, etc. All these things are possible using Acrobat, but many of these are still awkward compared to paper, mostly due to hardware interfaces. Screens plus mice and touchpads, etc. are no match for a pencil on a sheet of paper. When I asked about this, Lynch said it was largely a cultural issue more than a technical issue, and he certainly has a point that it's very hard to change people's habits, and there's only so much you can do with software interface. He also pointed out that some of it is due to poor workflow management in companies or governments, which is out of Adobe's hands. That said, a big portion of those habits and workflows are based on user interface. I'd be excited to see Adobe help push the adoption of more touch-screen tablet hardware, and more seamless integration of hardware and software, to go after this problem. It should be one that will both help the environment (by saving paper) and make lots of money (by making interfaces more natural, making the products and software more desirable). The best company to do this would really be Apple (we've seen Microsoft take its stab and, predictably, miss), or other OS companies (Ubuntu, maybe?) Still, Adobe could help push the market too. I'd like to see what they could come up with if they started playing more with the hardware people.

Photo credit: flickr/toastiest, Creative Commons license.

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(Posted by Jeremy Faludi in Sustainable Design at 1:05 PM)

In the Bubble

Alex Steffen — Fri, 26 Dec 2008 19:16:24 +0000

I'm a huge fan of John Thackara and his writing. As I wrote of his book, In the Bubble,

That book changed my brain. From the very first few pages, I was hooked: here was design thinking about sustainability and social innovation that understood and loved technology and ingenuity, without being blinded to its downsides, that embraced prosperity and modernity without missing the big picture that our current ordering of the world is both making us less happy than we might be and destroying the planet in the process.

Now, In the Bubble is coming out in French, Italian and Portuguese editions. If you have friends who are more comfortable reading in these languages than English, In the Bubble would be a great gift.

I also note that you can get In the Bubble, Bruce Sterling's excellent, seminal Shaping Things, and Worldchanging together on Amazon for $US38. That's a smokin' great deal. (Remember too that supporting your local library or independent bookseller is always a good idea.)

(And, if you're looking for other good reads, check out the books we recommend in our Worldchanging gift guide)

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(Posted by Alex Steffen in Sustainable Design at 11:16 AM)

Conference Report: DesignBoost

WorldChanging Team — Wed, 22 Oct 2008 13:55:42 +0000

Note: We strongly encourage reader reports from the field. This is John Manoochehri's take on the recent DesignBoost conference. In the interests of full disclosure, we should mention that Alex Steffen was initially a scheduled speaker, but had to bow out because of conflicting demands.

DesignBoost is an emerging Scandinavian conference, network and brand created by communciations designer David Carlsson, and design entrepreneur and trend-hawk Peer Eriksson, both based in Malmö, Sweden. The first event took place last year - with the theme 'sustainable design' - and consisted of chats, talks, and a show (i.e. invitation-only conversations for international designers and other professionals), talks (lectures to a paying audience), and a show (a design exhibition). This year, the event was titled "Long Live The City!", took place 15-17 October (with the exhibition going on until 16 November), and had sustainable urbanity as its guiding theme. Sponsors included the city of Malmö, Region Skåne, Audi, Ittala and more. For a full report on the event - including the book that will emerge - check out http://designboost.se . These are my notes on the event - from the perspective of a participant with a vested interest, so only partial and quite personal.

There's huge interest in sustainability right now, and it makes perfect sense that every professional group and government should get involved in promoting the issue. The question is whether the interest can move beyond enthusiasm (and mere strategy) to actual delivery and development. For at least three reasons, the design community may have a uniquely hard time in making their contribution to sustainability count.

Firstly, designers are curiously often divorced - at least in the creative, idea phase - from research and science. This means that for all the the enthusiasm they naturally come up with, they can end up not reaching, or at best messily replicating, the ideas and strategies evolved in the best of the academic world. Who reads Papanek before coming to a sustainable design conference? Or Christopher Alexander? Or Buckminster Fuller? Or Palladio? Or Vitruvius? Not many. But the history of classical design, and latterly sustainable design, is littered - in fact, built upon - pregnant ideas of what the good life is, and how to durably build it. Is it really effective to reinvent a whole tradition?

Secondly, the design world is professional hitched to the very heart of the machine. Desigers are not just the finishers, in many instances, of environmentally unwholeseome stuff, they are often its originators - and always the image and narrative builders which make this stuff sell.

And thirdly, curiously, the depth of education, the extent of disciplinary orthodoxy, and the power of personal artistry - let alone any professional inertia - in the classic professions, architecture and urbanism, make it really hard to credibly introduce sustainability. Who wants to tell a global architect that mahogany and marble aren't the thing, if that's what he has built his style, vision, and career on?

And yet, for mirror reasons of all of these, design has answers where currently none exist, to the environmental problem.

The expert community - researchers and theorists - are by definition expert. But if we imagine expert to mean 'positively influential' we seem to be making an understanable but dangerous mistake - in fact, we probably are. The entire expert community, from one perspective, got us (globally) into the mess we are in, and at least haven't prevented it so far. Anyone who has spent any time at postgraduate level will confirm that 'innovation' and 'university', or 'social change' and 'university', are rather tricky couplings. So maybe, strangely enough, it is time to break ranks, to shake it up, to reinvent the wheel? Indeed, last year's DesignBoost did come up with a 'Sustainable Wheel' that has no detailed connection to any (of the many) other sustainable design methods or traditions I've seen - they reinvented it - and it looks good, in principle.

And, regarding design's link to the 'machine', the methods by which it serves it are precisely the means by which it can reverse its effects. If new parameters are set - design for recycling, new materials to work with, new types of efficiency including maximisation of solar gain and biomass, and minimisation of petrochemical plastics and energy waste, and much more - then design can set the 'machine', perhaps, in reverse: harnessing the market, for truly sustainable ends. And what the left hand of design hath wrought, the right hand can sell. Etc. In principle.

As as for design's deep disciplinary base, there is indeed a struggle to cultivate real skills that achieve - naturally - good sustainable design, still harder is it to achieve blending of really high-quality aesthetics and high-quality sustainability. But dialogue between environmental scientists and policy makers (who can frame what actually needs to be done, if it is to be sustainable) and top designers (who can define how it should be done, if it is to be liveable), is surely the only way to find a union between the environment 'problem' and the design 'solution'. In principle, that is.

These relfections, on design's contribution to the problem and 'in principle' central role to the solution characterise the flow and content of DesignBoost: the chats and talks and show reflected different aspects of these dichotomies.

Some of Scandinavia's top designers were giving talks - names like Gert Wingård, Bjarke Ingels, Anders Wilhelmsson, Ilka Suppanen and more all made it clear why Scandinavia does have a design reputation. And should. And international design thought-leaders - like Jeffrey Inaba, Jennifer Leonard, Krystina Dryza offered insights. Many others participated in the chats (some of them having given talks in the previous year; see website for all the names). The exhibition had materials from Ittala, Audi, the region, and other sponsors and partners. The visual and printed materials were gorgeously presented, and the whole event was well prepared, thanks to Peer's and David's work, that of their team, and with the support of the regional bodies. Sweden organises things well - I think sometimes they don't know how well.

The chats, for me, were extraordinary. It's a genuine luxury to have a day with international thinkers and technicians and creators, to discuss advanced questions of social progress, design, urban development and sustainability: without having to prepare anything, nor do anything other than listen and contribute and learn and enjoy. (And eat and drink.) The chats took place in Malmös premier location and current design icon, the Turning Torso tower, designed by Spanish architect Santiago Calatrava, pretty luxurious. I myself was part of debates on

- quality of life in the sustainable city: we worked out that this was not a game of working out 'ideal outcomes'; it was a game of working out and implementing 'good processes', by which heterogenous users and places create and renew their own quality lifeworlds;
- on the 'authentic city': we worked out that the authentic city is one where the 'narrative' of the urban space is what people actually live and experience, and indeed what they create themselves;
- and on whether innovation was always good: we worked out that the problem defaulted to what we considered 'good' was, and then worked out, beyond this, that whatever 'good' may be, if innovation tends to greater complexity, its unlikely to achieve overall good.

All conferences should be like this!

In the talks, there was a variety of approaches and content (not all of which I could attend). Some talks were very conceptual and aesthetic in tone and others were 'just the facts'. Some took the environmental issue as a problem that smacks us (or someone at least) in the face, others saw sustainability as something of a perfume and a mood that influences design decisions. Yeah, maybe you can tell I was a bit puzzled by some of the content. What is clear, though, is that there the new convergence of talent and creativity on the design question is intense and global. No-one was cynical, still less outright dismissive of the agenda, and everyone was seeking some way to put the issues into the heart of what they are about: and this is a quiet and significant breakthrough in itself, seen historically.

Bjarke Ingels apparently had a lot to say (which I missed), not surprising if you know his work, but I did catch Jeffrey Inaba's input which offered hauntingly beautiful images of futuristic sustainable technologies, and some immaculate competition-focussed renderings of a huge coastal development project in South Korea, intending to implement a wide set of sustainable technologies - and already catching the eye of the Korean government. Gert Wingårdh was very confident about both his own contribution, and the potential for things to be solved. Lisa White, Ilse Crawford, Kristina Dryza and others offered inputs filled with creative insights and offerings, and Jennifer Leonard demonstrated a kind of intuitive-yet-concrete magic for weaving together concepts of sustainability, place, urban narrative and continuity, personal engagement and technology.

Fascinatingly, the two most different presentations were next to each other, one from Michael White, and the other from Johanna Stål with Kerstin Sylwan. Michael White didn't really pretend that he was 'into' sustainable design, he just showed us what good, provocative, curious design is and how it works, and made a striking implicit case that good, provocative, curious design tends to be sustainable. (I was kinda convinced.) Johanna Stål and Kerstin Sylwan made a case for a variety of very sustainable offerings, focusing around their new book on energy, delivering a classic, wholeseome (organic) dose of sustainability meat (tofu, maybe) and potatoes without too much time spent on design sauce. The fact that Johanna, editor of Sweden's top eco-lifestyle magazine, Camino, and Michael, global design icon-renegade, were on the same stage, is evidence of the convergence that is happening in this space - or rather what DesignBoost is uniquely achieving.

Later in the afternoon, there was a very thoughtful piece by designer Ilkka Suppanen, and two grounded inputs on the concrete problems (human sanitation in the third world; waste-based informal economies in megacities) from Anders Wilhelmson (who is developing a one-use, self-sanitising toilet bag), and Maria Cecilia Loschiavo from the University of Sao Paolo (who talked about supporting and learning from waste-reclamation social groups and economic activities). Perhaps the most impressive presentation of the day from the perspective of action was offered by Guido Verijke of Ikea. Guido very humbly showed that Ikea's vast cotton supply chain, with all its chemical, water and other impacts on the environment, is going to be rendered sustainable, whatever it takes, by 2015: and it takes a huge amount. This kind of work goes on behind the surface of design, and of the radar of public environmentalism - but is vast. Some things really are changing. My own presentation (the last one of the day), tried to frame out both the challenge and opportunity for the design community in respect of urban lifestyles which, 40 years out, need to be hugely less consuming of resources, but likely will also have to be 'consumerish', if not consumerist. I tried to show that the conventional policy and economic science frameworks are not so good when it comes to getting a design handle on urban consumerish lifestyles, but using what I call 'functional design' principles we can get closer; and examples like Skype show us how technology is already leveraging them.

The overall was a concept and practice world of great diversity and richness, and yet, to my ears, imperfect harmony. A huge, wild bouquet of insights and ideas on the 'sustainable city' emerged, from countless perspectives. Almost everyone had some direct or indirect promotion of a sustainability agenda - who disagrees with motherhood and apple pie? But looking at the portfolios of the design-leading participants (even the organisers), it is not easy to determine that the overall balance of concern or professional practice of those present is to achieve sustainability. But surely we all know that, unlike 'better design', a 'more sustainable society' is not something that we can take or leave? Conversely, looking at the work of the environment-leading participants, it is hard to detect that their work has gone to scale, and, still less, been taken to heart by the world's discerning (or just demanding) consumers.

I felt it was like this: we are not yet performing the same orchestral work. But rehearsals have taken place place, the orchestra is on stage, and instruments are being warmed up. In that moment before the orchestra is finally tuned, music lovers will recognize the splendid chaos and cacophony of individual instruments playing passages from the piece, finding their pitch, generally being diverse together, before the real deal. DesignBoost is a concert platform for sustainable design, and as it grows, I feel that the music we will hear, with all the different contributors finding their place in the score, will be gorgeous and magnificent. This is good because though sustainability badly needs to just happen, the lesson increasingly is that it just won't, unless it is indeed gorgeous and magnificent.

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(Posted by WorldChanging Team in Sustainable Design at 5:55 AM)

Will Lights Bloom Across Canada?

WorldChanging Team — Mon, 20 Oct 2008 21:00:17 +0000

By WorldChanging Canada writer Madeline Ashby.

Via PhysOrg, we learn of Philips' new "Light Blossom," a green-savvy streetlight that will promises to reduce light pollution while gathering energy from the sun and wind. The flower-shaped lights will not only track the movement of the sun across the sky, but let its "petals" rotate and catch the wind's energy. In addition, the LED lamps will dim during nighttime hours but brighten whenever motion sensors are activated.

I can imagine that this combination of features could be viable in my home country of Canada, specifically on the East Coast where summer sun and winter winds would make it useful and efficient year-round.

But what would be wonderful is if homeowners could add miniature blossoms to front yards and cottage properties as a means of adding brightness, security, and efficiency. "Plant" these futuristic pieces of practical decor in the household grid, and you might "grow" some savings (and increase resale value).

Inside Image: Phillips
Article from WorldChanging Canada.

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(Posted by WorldChanging Team in Sustainable Design at 1:00 PM)

Preview: Curry Stone’s Five Finalists in Humanitarian Design

Julia Levitt — Fri, 12 Sep 2008 22:52:18 +0000

Here's a handful of innovative, human-oriented solutions to start off your weekend. The Curry Stone Design Prize, a competition debuted this year by the University of Kentucky College of Design, will unveil its 2008 finalists tomorrow at this week's 11th International Venice Architecture Biennale in Venice, Italy.

The Curry Stone judges will award $100,000 to the winning creator of an innovation that improves human lives. The five finalists are described (in an excerpt from Curry Stone's media release), along with pictures of their innovations, below:

Shawn Frayne, inventor of the Windbelt, the world’s first non-turbine wind-powered generator. The technology, which is light enough to hold in your hand, has enormous potential to help people in poor communities power lamps, run small vaccine refrigerators and charge cell phones for pennies a day.

Wes Janz, architect and associate professor of architecture at Ball State University in Indiana and author of the forthcoming book, "One Small Project." Janz’s practice focuses on “leftover places” – the world’s slums and settlements where people build shelters from scavenged materials. In collaboration with his students and local communities, Janz has constructed shelters and pavilions in Argentina, Sri Lanka and elsewhere from found materials such as mud and rubble from demolished buildings.

MMA Architects’ innovations include an ingenious design for low-cost homes in a shantytown outside Cape Town, whose timber frame and sandbag infill construction can be built for $6,900. The design, which borrows from indigenous mud-and-wattle building techniques, is energy-efficient, and requires little to no electricity or skilled labor to construct.

Marjetica Potrč, an artist and architect who works closely with impoverished communities to devise sustainable solutions to quality-of-life dilemmas, such as a “dry toilet” which collects human waste and converts it to fertilizer. More recently, she has spent time in New Orleans examining the revival of homegrown sustainable practices such as rainwater harvesting, which helps collect run-off storm-water, restores wetlands and prevents flooding.

Antonio Scarponi, an architect based in Venice, Italy uses architecture, multimedia arts and design to “jam” the conventional social order and illuminate our shared humanity as well as the social and political lines that divide us. His 2007 interactive project, “Dreaming Wall,” was a digitally generated billboard installed in an historic Milanese square that displayed randomly chosen real-time text messages sent from across the world.

Photos courtesy of the Curry Stone Design Prize.

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(Posted by Julia Levitt in Sustainable Design at 2:52 PM)

I (heart) Fluff

Cameron Sinclair — Wed, 03 Sep 2008 18:41:54 +0000

Today I received a packet of Fluff, a new composting and potential building material made entirely from recycled household waste.

Fluff is produced by the Bouldin Corporation, which is made up of three companies Bouldin and Lawson, WastAway Services, and Composite Products of America. Together this trio of companies takes regular unsorted household garbage which is then processed for 30 minutes before being transformed in to a stable product they call "Fluff." Fluff is a pathogen-free material that can be used for soil amendment for land reclamation, a growing medium for plants but its most exciting application is that of an extruded material for use in the building trade.

Composite Products of America extrudes the Fluff into 8" x 8" tongue and groove posts or landscaping timbers for the building of retaining wall or small one room structures. There is even a bench made of extruded fluff currently located in the Tennessee State Capital Building - talk about adding waste to the government.

All this product needs now is a couple of designers to take it to the next level. Perhaps something like what Ferrara Design did for recycled cardboard with their Global Village Shelters. Ladies, Gentlemen the gauntlet has been thrown.

This piece is a part of our month long retrospective leading up to our anniversary on Oct. 1. For the next four weeks, we'll celebrate five years of solutions-based, forward-thinking and innovative journalism by publishing the best of the Worldchanging archives.

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(Posted by Cameron Sinclair in Sustainable Design at 10:41 AM)

When appropriate design meets sustainable livelihoods

Cameron Sinclair — Tue, 26 Aug 2008 23:35:57 +0000

In many parts of rural South Asia young women are often left with little option in gaining a stable income. Unfortunately thousands, some are as young as 12, are being trafficked and lost into prostitution every year.

In July I was in Bangkok to meet with some of our Burma reconstruction teams and happened to connect with Eve Blossom. Eve is the founder of Lulan Artisans, locally driven social venture that creates an alliance between textile designers and artisans to produce hand-woven fabrics through-out South Asia. They currently supports over 650 weavers, spinners, dyers and finishers using a holistic approach to produce fabrics that are better for the environment.

By providing economic opportunity and stability this project helps preserve the art of hand-weaving in Asia while creating environmentally sustainable fabrics. Collections include fabric-by-the-yard, as well as home and fashion accessories are already marketed through select retailers and outlets. Now they are ready to expand, hire thousands of weavers and build innovative off-the-grid weaving centers whose profits will support these artisans and provide health care and schooling for their children. Fortunately the American Express Members Project is offering funding to allow them to scale and they are within striking distance of the next round.

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(Posted by Cameron Sinclair in Sustainable Design at 3:35 PM)

Prefab Takes Manhattan

Sarah Kuck — Tue, 15 Jul 2008 21:55:03 +0000

For the last 20 years, home builders, designers and dwellers have watched the construction of manufactured, or prefabricated, homes change from quick, basic and temporary to ultra-hip, eco-friendly and sustainable.

Taking a multifaceted look at this progression is a the New York Museum of Modern Art's latest exhibit “Home Delivery: Fabricating the Modern Dwelling," which will showcase the historic and modern elements of the prefab housing evolution. Opening on July 20, the exhibit will feature 60 projects within the museum as well as the construction of five full-scale houses on the streets of Manhattan, outside and west of the museum. “Home Delivery” will take visitors on a tour of not only the history of prefab design and construction but also of the issues surrounding the building technique, such as mass production, sustainability and portability.

Barry Bergdoll, the museum’s chief curator of architecture and design, recently told The New York Times about why the MoMA decided to present prefabricated houses as an art instillation:

“Home Delivery” offered the perfect opportunity to bring together architects’ current interest in digital fabrication with the general public’s nostalgia for Modernist prefab designs, and to do an exhibition that was both contemporary and historical at the same time…As Bergdoll [explained], “I’m very interested in process — how architects work, how they solve problems and how they adapt to new technologies — not just ‘Isn’t this cool?’

As we’ve written before, 21st century prefab has come a long way from its strictly utilitarian beginnings. Fabulous prefab of the new millennium continues to impress us with its capacity to combine two ideas we love: smart urban design and ecological ingenuity. The movement to make prefab more sustainable will only further its ability to stylishly create both density and affordability, and integrate innovative building techniques such as natural ventilation and green roofing.

Check out some examples of fabulous Aussie prefab here, and shots of the upcoming MoMA exhibit from the New York Times here.

Photo credit:Richard Barnes for New York Times Magazine

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(Posted by Sarah Kuck in Sustainable Design at 1:55 PM)

The Designers Accord Makes a Statement

Sarah Kuck — Sat, 07 Jun 2008 00:31:48 +0000

Designers are uniquely positioned to save the world. Or so believes Valarie Casey , who commented during her recent Compostmodern presentation that

Designers change habits and behavior. They create accessibility. They look to nature for inspiration. And they're suckers for detail.

As a call to arms for designers to reduce their trades’ negative impact, Casey founded The Designers Accord. Since January, she has been assembling a coalition of designers, educators, researchers, engineers, business consultants and corporations who want to work together to integrate sustainable design into all levels of practice and production.

Casey says signing the Accord means making a statement about collaborative, meaningful change. And truly, it is just a statement. The Accord admits it's no LEED certification for design. And on the surface, it doesn't appear to be much more than lip service. To become a member of the Designers Accord, adopters must:

* Initiate a dialogue about environmental impact and sustainable alternatives with each and every client
* Educate design teams about sustainability and sustainable design
* measure and pledge to reduce your carbon footprint annually and
* Help advance the conversation on sustainable design by contributing to a communal knowledge base.

(That last one is controversial for traditional designers, as the industry doesn’t typically take kindly to knowledge sharing.)

Critics are quick to point out that it takes little more than intent to join this self-regulated cause. Designers have little to lose by becoming members and much potentially to gain from their allegiance with a sustainability group, as more and more consumers decide to spend the extra buck for ‘green’ products.

We can't help but wish there could be something more radical done to help the design industry progress toward firmer goals and standards; Much of what is unsustainable in the world is at some point a product of design. The Designers Accord was obviously born from this realization, and perhaps this will come as the organization grows and develops.

But, the Accord states, the barrier to entry is deliberately low in hopes of creating a critical mass. And after reading the Casey’s thoughts behind the creation of the Accord I don’t see how you could be anything but inspired to join.

It all started in 2007 with Casey’s eco-epiphany and her resulting manifesto titled the “Kyoto Treaty of Design”, in which she states:

As we redefine the role of design in this new world order, we must look to each other for ideas and inspiration. Individually greening our companies is not sufficient. By pooling our knowledge, we can create a network in which every client is compelled to engage in a discussion of sustainability - no matter which firm it selects as a design partner. Together, we can advocate for the improvements - large and small - that will produce lasting change.

The Kyoto Treaty of Design ends with a call to action for the creative community to participate in environmental stewardship. From this rough sketch, the Accord was born. It quickly garnered the support of giants such as the American Institute of Graphic Arts, Architecture for Humanity and the Industrial Designers Society of America, as well as attracted more than 100,000 design firms, corporations and institutions from almost 100 countries to join the movement.

The Accord’s next project is an open Web platform. This online forum will be a place for designers to share knowledge, exchange information and discuss ways to engage clients in conversations about environmental impact. The Accord believes this cooperative model of competition will inspire even greater innovation.

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(Posted by Sarah Kuck in Sustainable Design at 4:31 PM)

FreeAire and Free Lunches

Alex Steffen — Tue, 08 Apr 2008 21:49:58 +0000

Clark, in his post today about heat pumps and hot water, wondered aloud about other energy-saving techniques:

Why doesn't my fridge connect to the outside world? In wintertime, there's plenty of cold air for free, just outside my window. In summertime, the hot air from the fridge's air pump gets recirculated into my already-overheated house. Seems like a problem looking for a solution. Any takers?

This, in turn, reminded me of the Freeaire Refrigeration System, which as Blaine wrote, is

"...designed to provide such free cooling for walk-in coolers, freezers and cold storage warehouses. The system utilizes an electronic controller to finely tune the operation of standard refrigeration equipment, and this controller simply monitors the outdoor temperature and desired temperature settings and stops refrigerator evaporator fans when not needed, which also reduces the compressor's refrigeration load. Proper airflow is maintained when the evaporator fans switch off by operating one or more energy-efficient circulating fans.
Roughly half the electricity consumed by a typical convenience store is used for refrigeration. The Freeaire System is designed to save energy year-round by allowing refrigeration equipment for a walk-in cooler or freezer to run only as much as it has to. Once the system is installed, evaporator fans typically operate 50 to 75% less often, and reach-in door heaters operate 90% less frequently. Condensing units also usually experience a 10 to 20% reduction in operations. Moreover, a Freeaire System saving 20,000 kilowatt-hours annually can prevent 40,000 pounds of CO2 from being emitted to the atmosphere.

This, in turn. made me think of smart homes that operate to maximize the utility of natural light and breezes, and of moonlight-sensitive streetlights.

And now, I'll wonder aloud in turn: What other free lunches are out there, waiting to be eaten?

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(Posted by Alex Steffen in Sustainable Design at 1:49 PM)

Bright Green Metal

Alex Steffen — Tue, 19 Feb 2008 22:22:55 +0000

I'd love some help thinking something through.

Jer's December post Your Stuff: If It Isn't Grown, It Must Be Mined really got me thinking about metals, mining and sustainability (it's an absolutely classic Worldchanging post, if you haven't already read it). I've been contemplating some of the implications.

Industrial activity emits a bit more than 18% of all the CO2 we spew out each year.

About 56% of that pollution, globally, is from metal production.

What can be done to lower that total? Jer runs through many of the current best practices, from recycling metals to better mining techniques. These are all good, but all have some limitations. Ultimately, as Jer says, "our industrial economy will be made up entirely of recycled and biologically grown material."

In the meantime, we need to take steps towards making that possible. I'm interested in the side of the equation that doesn't involve mining or smelting: changes in the way we design, sell and use metal-based products.

There are a whole array of techniques here: dematerialization, product-service systems, producer take-backs and design for disassemby, land-use changes.

Most of them seem to me to boil down to four essential strategies:

1) avoid the creation of the thing in the first place;

2) reduce the need to use the thing on a regular basis, allowing the product to become a service shared by more people and thus reducing the total number made;

3) design the thing to last a long time and be repairable or upgradable, reducing the need for replacements;

4) design the thing to be as completely recyclable as possible, and require the producer to be responsible for its end-use.

Take the car. The best approach is to design our cities and transportation systems such that people don't have cars at all; the next is to make car-use occasional enough that car-shares can meet people's automotive needs, greatly reducing the number of cars on the road; the next is to manufacture those cars in such a way that they can be easily repaired, maintained and upgraded, greatly extending their lifecycles (hopefully while continuously improving their performance); and the last is to make sure that when that car goes to the junk yard, as much of it as possible ends up in another newly-manufactured car.

So far, so good. But what other post-smelting strategies for reducing the impact of metals might we imagine? What other clever ideas are out there? What timelines are possible, realistic? I'd love your ideas, resources and recommendations.

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(Posted by Alex Steffen in Sustainable Design at 2:22 PM)