The politics of sustainable design

Let’s face it, green design, sustainable design, ecological conscious innovations all of these concepts are highly politicized ideas. It’s inevitable. Every time you have innovative ideas they must enter into the arena to compete with the ideas of folks who’d like to see more of the same. The main reasons? The usual suspects: money and […]

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A syllabus for the 21st century – (01)

The illiterate of the 21st century will not be those who cannot read or write, but those who cannot learn, unlearn and relearn. – Alvin Toffler I have been thinking about how education should look like in our 21st century. Here is a list of the types of learning I think are important. Notice that […]

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Ecuador’s constitution grants rights to nature

“…the most interesting aspect of the new constitution is that it grants inalienable rights to nature. The Pennsylvania based Community Environmental Legal Defense Fund (CELDF) assisted in drafting the “Rights of Nature” chapter in the new constitution.  Language in the document assures nature the “right to exist, persist, maintain and regenerate its vital cycles, structure, […]

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Higher-order Thinking

I added “Higher-order Thinking” to the Wikipedia List of thought processes today. The entry for this thought process existed in Wikipedia but it was missing from the master list of thought processes – which is becoming a quick reference list. Here is a quote from the original entry on Higher-order Thinking: “Higher order thinking involves […]

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Assist Social Capital – A charitable organization

A friend of mine recently pointed out that a Scottish website had quoted in full one of my old blog postings. My curiosity led me to take a look and…I have to say that I am very proud to have been included in this website. The website is called “Assist Social Capital”, a non-profit, charitable […]

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Switching focus from bits to humans. How technology affects people.

Quoting Don Norman from a recent article on CNET “…We, as people, we should not care about the technology. We should care about the benefits it gives us…”[1] It’s moments like these that I am reminded why I am a fan of Norman.[2] Personally, I would like to see more cultural criticism of technology, and […]

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Making Sustainable Design a Reality

An interesting blog posting by a civil engineer (Dana Breig Probert),  dealing with the hurdles of developers and other stakeholders in an effort to move towards sustainable design. It’s written for the civil engineering audience but it is still an interesting and relevant posting. This may be a good example of sustainable design beyond products […]

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The First Pangea Day – May 10, 2008

Pah-pah-pangea day! From their “About Us” page: “Pangea Day taps the power of film to strengthen tolerance and compassion while uniting millions of people to build a better future. In a world where people are often divided by borders, difference, and conflict, it’s easy to lose sight of what we all have in common. Pangea […]

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Sustainable Societies Diagram

This is a work-in-progress. (You can click on the image to view it full-size). This may be another example of bottom-up innovation – where the people themselves lead change. Relevant Links: Rainforest Action Network: Sustainable Economies Updates: Added 5/12/08 – Product Usability Weblog: “Design Strategies for Sustainable User Behavior” Related on the Web: 5 Simple […]

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Going Green: the Supply Chain Dependency

Harvard Business Review has an interesting article that begins to expose the wider dependencies involved in implementing green strategies. Here are the highlight points: Design your products with sustainability as a core principal. Refine your goals and put them to paper. Embrace transparency and meaningful metrics. Harvard Business Review: HBR: “You’re Only As Green as […]

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