Social Impact
The Great Dot Eco Domain Debate
At Open Forum for Inhabitat: Two sides are emerging in an effort to create the.ECO top level domain early in 2010. One side (headed by Canada-based Big Room, and backed by World Wildlife Federation and Mikhail Gorbachev’s Green Cross) sees .ECO as a labeling program, where companies earn the right to the domain in exchange for transparent display of environmental impact information. The other side (lead by a group called Dot Ecoand backed Read More
Happiness? There’s an App for That
At Open Forum for Inhabitat: It turns out, money doesn’t buy happiness. In fact, as Daniel Gilbert pointed out in his book Stumbling on Happiness, humans are famously bad at predicting what will make us happy, because of logic-processing errors in our brands. So what does create the conditions for happiness? A new research project by doctoral student Matt Killingsworth out of Professor Gilbert’s Hedonic Psychology Laboratory at Harvard is enrolling anyone with Read More
Tools of Engagement
“If we want to impact these ecosystems on a large scale we must increasingly design for social systems, not individual needs.” – Robert Fabricant has been thinking about how the User Centered Design practice evolves out of the user needs trap and moves on to thinking about groups, communities, and neighborhoods. The New Practice of User Centered Design (thanks again Core77 for serving as a sustainable design think space). — Learning Landscape from Read More
Lessons from Ezio Manzini: Social Innovator is Your Next Job
Posted over at Core77 – a Wrap Up of Ezio Manzini’s talk to the NYC Eco Design Community; Bottega Altromercato, an example of social innovation from Sustainable Everday “The main activity of designers will be as social innovators,” said Ezio Manzini during an intimate conversation with o2NYC on May 6. Ezio’s talk outlined an exit strategy for conscious designers, a shift from making things to designing tools for a better Read More
Ezio Manzini in NYC on Cherry Lane
Tonight in NYC – May 6, 2009 – join me for a conversation with Ezio Manzini, one of o2 International’s early founders and one of the leading sustainability and design thinkers you’ve never heard about this side of the pond. Small, local, open and connected An Evening with Ezio Manzini Observing society as a whole and in all its contradictoriness, we can see that, alongside numerous unfortunately extremely worrying tendencies, signals Read More
NYU ITP: The Toxic Shield Snuggle Suit
The Toxic Shield Snuggle Suit By Chelsea Whittaker – Student Presentation in NYU ITP If Products Could Tell Their Stories Toxic Shield Snuggle Suit from Chelsea on Vimeo. Toxic Shield Snuggle Suit from Chelsea Whitaker on Vimeo. Learn more about the Toxic Shield Snuggle Suit here.
Read MoreNYU ITP: If Products Could Speak Class 8 The Labor Movement
We talk about that which is not documented in LCA – human impacts beyond just health. Social impacts are the 3rd leg of the triple bottom line, that which cannot be easily measured. Today’s class: A little history of the labor movement, activism to expose overseas factory conditions, leading to a rousing discussion on the pros and cons of fair trade. We’ll also do in-class life cycle assessment. If Products Read More
Green and Lean
The students in my class at NYU have been wondering what green means to people these days after so much hype and overexposure on the issue. Continuum published the results of Colorblind, their large scale green consumer study, combining ethnographic and online community research – I wrote up a post over at Core77. — What happened to the green consumer? Sales of hybrid cars, organic food, and solar panels are on the wane, as Read More
Syllabus: If Products Could Tell Their Stories
Phase 1: If Products Could Tell Their Stories, To Whom Would They Speak? 1. Intro: Towards a Sustainable Model of Product Design Discussion: Intro to Life Cycle Awareness and Life Cycle Assessment Tools, and intro to sustainable product/service development Readings: The Okala Guide, Modules 9, 10, 11, pp. 28-37. Shaping Things, Chapters 1-6, pp. 1-54. Assignment due next class: Choose one product and evaluate a published, peer-reviewed Life Cycle Assessment Read More