MC Weekly Issue #16, Wednesday, April 12, 2006

“Now that we can do anything, what will we do?”

Welcome to Massive Change Weekly, an electronic newsletter sharing news about groundbreaking achievements in global design.

Massive Change odds and sods this week.

Here’s a great website, RED, an online journal put out by the Design Council: http://www.designcouncil.org.uk/mt/red/index.html. Red says it’s “challenging accepted thinking on economic and social issues through design innovation.” The Design Council itself is a British agency incorporated by Royal Charter that “enhances prosperity and well-being in the UK by demonstrating and promoting the vital role of design in a modern economy”, across business, education and other public sectors. It was founded in 1944 as the “Council of Industrial Design” by Hugh Dalton, the President of the Board of Trade in a British government, at the height of WW II. Today, it provides “online knowledge and other design resources” and “a series of projects that see designers and other experts working directly with selected businesses, schools and public services organisations to integrate design thinking and methods thoroughly into their strategies and systems”. RED is an incredible resource and highly recommended by us.

Our readers write: Michael Lea drew my attention to this article in SEED magazine. “Eco-friendly city planners searching for sustainable materials and technology should look to traditional communities such as cave villages for inspiration, says a researcher and former architect. Jiang Lu, an assistant professor of interior design at Eastern Michigan University, has spent the last year studying cave dwellings in Shaanxi Province of China and noted the practical methods that power their sustainable existence. She recommends that would-be sustainable city planners in the West design dwellings based on local materials and culture, connecting architecture with daily life. ‘Their life cycle is so simple, so pure. They don’t waste anything; they don’t have any impact on the environment,’ she said. ‘That’s really impressive’.”

Although I’ve never been, apparently the Aspen Design Summit is an incredible annual event for “massive change thinking”. This year’s summit is being moderated by John Thackara, who describes himself as a “symposiarch who designs events, projects, and organizations. He is also the Director of Doors of Perception (Doors), a design futures network with offices in Amsterdam and Bangalore. Founded as a conference in 1993, Doors now connects together a worldwide network of visionary designers, thinkers, and grassroots innovators. This unique community of practice is inspired by two related questions: ‘we know what new technology can do, but what is it for?’ and, ‘how do we want to live?’.” Bruce Mau’s Incomplete Manifesto for Growth (http://www.brucemaudesign.com/manifesto.html) was originally presented at a Doors conference back in 1998. The Aspen summit this year will take place June 20-23. “Never before have one year’s events so demanded a call for action on a global scale, and never before has the Aspen Design Summit been more ready for the challenge. In June 2006, design-minded leaders from around the world will gather in Aspen, Colorado to make positive, measurable impacts on the social and cultural concerns of today. The Aspen Design Summit, a partnership of IDCA and AIGA, is a multi-disciplinary retreat where design thinking and the design process will be used to craft solutions and commit participants to actions that improve the quality of life worldwide. At the Summit, design will be presented as a tool to inform and inspire innovative leadership across society. Aspen Design Summit presentations and workshops will engage decision makers from around the world in dialogues and activities. Design will be used as a catalyst for innovation, and positive change. While the Aspen Design Summit will reach capacity at 340 participants, the impact will be felt around the globe.” http://www.aspendesignsummit.aiga.org/ and http://www.thackara.com/ The Doors of Perception site is also a treasure trove and, pardon the expression, intelligent design: http://www.doorsofperception.com/.

Finally, check out http://www.greenshift.ca/index.html. Green Shift started as an environmental consulting service, but branched out to create an excellent mix of sustainable products. “Our goal is to make it easy and cost effective for companies to be green, and hence to get away from the idea that environmental products are an appendage for a niche market that should or will pay a higher price tag. To achieve this, Green Shift carefully sources and investigates products and the companies behind them because anyone can claim to make an environmental product and green washing is rampant…

Green Shift performs life cycle analyses, works with manufacturers to ensure higher standards are met and obtained, negotiates good pricing in exchange, and finds a way to make these solutions a no-lose decision for buyers. A great benefit is that we get to see first hand who really is looking for solutions and who likes to just talk about it. Essentially, we operate a form of endorsement program with a goal of creating a looping support network of good responsible companies and organizations - from manufacturers through to the end consumers. A lot of the products we carry are not glamorous. We have instead focused on mass use items that should have been replaced long ago. The options are always expanding however and we try to take on products whenever we can find a willing market. Some examples of what we offer include: Non-toxic, Biodegradable, cups, plates, bowls, cutlery, bags, wrapping…; Non-toxic, Biodegradable cleaning products; Non-toxic, Non Green House Gas emitting fuels; Fair Trade, Shade Grown, Organic Coffees from around the world; Chlorine Free, High Post Consumer Recycled Content Paper Products - toilet paper, towels, nose tissues, envelopes… containers… bags… boxes…; Other solutions to environmental concerns - including sourcing and screening new products by request.”

This entry was posted on Monday, June 12th, 2006 at 11:14 pm and is filed under MC Weekly. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.