http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IoRjz8iTVoo
1. Rachel Carson, Silent Spring,
http://www.amazon.com/Silent-Spring-Rachel-Carson/dp/0618249060/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1264035182&sr=8-1
rubber duck example:
1. includes chemicals known to cause reproductive defects/cancer
2. we have a design problem
3. design is a signal of intention
4. designs must have inherent intelligence
5. design must come in abundance
NO:
tyranny
concern for limits
strategy of tragedy
Design
dominion and stewardship are together
how do we love all the children of all species of all time
State
1. right to kill
2. right to be duplicitous
Commerce:
1. how do we generate prosperity?
We can prevent:
1. global warming
2. mercury toxicity of children. Solution: clean air act.
YES!
1. strategy of hope!
2. No end game, the infinite game
3. cradle to cradle
4. a doctor in India has given eyesight to 2 million people for free
5. a carpet has been developed which is constantly recyclable
6. the corporate campus for the gap is a nesting grounds for birds, an asset
7. In Hong Kong, farmers could farm the same piece of land for 40 centuries
8. we need “technical nutrition”
9. trees: 1) make oxygen, 2) sequester oxygen, 3) fix nitrogen, 4) distills water, 5) accrues solar energy as fuel, 6) makes complex sugars as food, 7) creates microclimates, 8) changes colors with the seasons, 9) self replicates.
“Our goal is a delightfully diverse, safe, healthy and just world, with clean air, water, soil and power-economically and elegantly enjoyed.”
Other issues:
1. diversity can be difficult but we want it
2. our products aren’t safe and healthy
3. mistreatment of prisoners in Guantanamo Bay
4. water has been declared a human right by United Nations
5. air quality, important to anyone who breathes
6. nitrification of soil
7. car steel cannot be recycled because its coating is contaminated
8. we’ve found 6x as much plastic as plankton in certain parts of the ocean
9. if China uses brick for housing: ruin all soil, have no food, no energy
10. China sells toxic products to Walmart, US sends $ to China, mutually assured destruction
“When will we see the end of the age of oil? The Stone Age didn’t end because we ran out of stones.”
Other truth
1. companies that act ethically outperform those who don’t
Awesome:
1. William McDonough went to Yale & studied in a building by Le Corbusier
2. designed a solar-heated house which was built in Ireland
3. Vitruvius talked about solar energy & architecture
Cradle To Cradle
1. the book itself is a polymer, the book is not a tree
“We write our history on the skin of fish with the blood of bears”
Agenda:
1. cost
2. performance
3. aesthetics
4. ecological intelligence (life)
5. justice (liberty)
6.fun (the pursuit of happiness)
7. growth that is good
Interplaying forces:
1. energy is physics
2. chemistry is math
3. biology problem: put forth toxic materials, can’t recovery that output
Challenging Assumptions:
1. growth is good: growth is a precondition for simple replication
2. growth requires a free form of energy (sunlight)
3. needs an open system of chemicals operating for the benefit of the organism and its reproduction
4. could human artifice be a living thing?
5. we want an open metabolism!
What do we want to grow?
1. not destruction
2. prosperity
3. health
4.security
5.community
6. peace
7. culture
8. cheese
Primary metabolisms [nutrition] :
1. biological: planet can only sustain 500M humans, Birkenstocks & organic cotton, not good enough
2. technical
Eco effective design criteria:
1. carcinogenicity
2. teratogenicity
3. mutagenicity
4. disruption of endocrine system
Concepts:
1. infinitely recyclable nylon in Nikes
2. biodegradable soles
3. Ford car: some materials cycle back into industry, others turn into soil
4. building like a tree
5. waste = food
6. lift earth onto roof
Actual projects:
1. building @ Oberlin, creates more energy than it needs to operate, purifies its own water,
2. building for the Gap in California, grasses on roof,
3. saved Ford $35 million by using trees to filter storm-water
4. world’s largest green roof-Ford
5. house 400M people in China in ten years
6. feces to waste water treatment plant > used as fertilizer
7. fertilizer > gas to use for cooking
Wednesday, January 20, 2010
Notes On The "Story Of Stuff" with Annie Leonard
Story Of Stuff with Annie Leonard, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gLBE5QAYXp8
1. extraction, natural resource exploitation
1a. undermining planet’s ability for people to live here
1b. 40% of US waterways-undrinkable
2. production
3. distribution
4. consumption
5. disposal
6. the materials economy
a system in crisis
-linear system
-finite planet
-interacting with societies, cultures, the environment
-there are limits!
Consumption @ US rates
1. need 3 to five planets!
2. less than 4% of original forest left
3. using more than fair share: 5% of population, 30% of world’s resources, produce 1/3 of the world’s waste
4. US industry admits 4 Billion pounds of chemicals are produced each year
Overuse
1) 3/4 of global fisheries, fished over capacity
2) 1/3 of planet’s natural resource space has been used
3) losing 2,000 trees a minute
Toxic
-100,000 synthetic chemicals used in production
-toxics in, toxics out
-brominated flame retardants (B.F.R.) used in computers, appliances, couches, pillows
-our pillows are doused in a neuro-toxin.
-toxics build up the food chain
-human breast milk has become toxic
-factory workers: working with reproductive toxins and carcinogens
-burning garbage releases toxins and creates
-dioxin, most toxic man made substance known
-we could stop creating dioxin, just stop burning trash
Other analysis:
-erosion of local environments/economies > ensures migration of workers from rural areas into cities
-resources are wasted
-whole communities get wasted
-distribution, selling toxic, contaminated junk as quick as possible
Externalized costs
-the real cost of making things is not captured in the price
-how can $4.99 capture the cost of making things?
-metal from South Africa
-oil, from Iraq
-plastics, produced in China
-who really paid? People in the 3rd world paid: loss of natural resource space, loss of clean air, -increasing asthma and cancer rates
-30% of children in the Congo have dropped out of school to mine
-workers have to pay for their own health insurance
Consumption Is The Heart Of The System
-after 911, Bush could have suggested: grieve, pray, hope. He said “To shop!”
-America has become a nation of consumers
-our identity has become that of consumers
-our “value” has become based on how much we consume
-keep the materials flowing!
-what percent of materials from manufactured products are in use 6 months later? 1%.
-99% on the stuff we harvest, mine, consume becomes waste
-people today consume 2x what they did 50 years ago
-stewardship, resourcefulness, thrift: valued by grandparents
-“consumption as a way of life”
-“our ultimate purpose is to produce more consumer goods” not healthcare, education, safe transportation, sustainability, justice.
-3,000 ads a day, we see more ads in a year
-ads, make us unhappy with what we have
-our national happiness peaked in the 1950s
-we have more stuff but less time for friends, family
-big activities: watch TV & shop
-commercials tell us: “You suck”
-work, watch, spend treadmill
-average house-size has doubled since the 1970s
-4.5lbs of garbage per day, per person
-pollute land, air, water, and change the climate
Planned obsolescence/ perceived obsolescence
-intentional
-perceived obsolescence
-fashion: not concerned about providing women with shoes that are the most healthy for their feet
Recycling:
-a positive activity
-reduces garbage
-reduces pressure to mine materials
-will never be enough
-for every one barrel of garbage you create, 70 garbage barrels were made in production
-recycling 100% of garbage: not possible
-items are designed not to be recycled in the 1st place
Positive Social Movements:
-points of intervention:
-saving forests
-clean production
-labor rights
-“fair trade”
-conscious consuming
-taking back our government to work “for the people, and by the people”
-blocking landfills and incinerators
The Big picture
-people need to unite, we can reclaim and transform this linear system into something new!
-we need to create a system that doesn’t waste resources & doesn’t waste people
-get rid of the “throw away” mindset
-sustainability, equity, green chemistry, zero waste, closed loop production, renewable energy, local living economies
-the old path in unrealistic
-we are people too, so let us create something new!
1. extraction, natural resource exploitation
1a. undermining planet’s ability for people to live here
1b. 40% of US waterways-undrinkable
2. production
3. distribution
4. consumption
5. disposal
6. the materials economy
a system in crisis
-linear system
-finite planet
-interacting with societies, cultures, the environment
-there are limits!
Consumption @ US rates
1. need 3 to five planets!
2. less than 4% of original forest left
3. using more than fair share: 5% of population, 30% of world’s resources, produce 1/3 of the world’s waste
4. US industry admits 4 Billion pounds of chemicals are produced each year
Overuse
1) 3/4 of global fisheries, fished over capacity
2) 1/3 of planet’s natural resource space has been used
3) losing 2,000 trees a minute
Toxic
-100,000 synthetic chemicals used in production
-toxics in, toxics out
-brominated flame retardants (B.F.R.) used in computers, appliances, couches, pillows
-our pillows are doused in a neuro-toxin.
-toxics build up the food chain
-human breast milk has become toxic
-factory workers: working with reproductive toxins and carcinogens
-burning garbage releases toxins and creates
-dioxin, most toxic man made substance known
-we could stop creating dioxin, just stop burning trash
Other analysis:
-erosion of local environments/economies > ensures migration of workers from rural areas into cities
-resources are wasted
-whole communities get wasted
-distribution, selling toxic, contaminated junk as quick as possible
Externalized costs
-the real cost of making things is not captured in the price
-how can $4.99 capture the cost of making things?
-metal from South Africa
-oil, from Iraq
-plastics, produced in China
-who really paid? People in the 3rd world paid: loss of natural resource space, loss of clean air, -increasing asthma and cancer rates
-30% of children in the Congo have dropped out of school to mine
-workers have to pay for their own health insurance
Consumption Is The Heart Of The System
-after 911, Bush could have suggested: grieve, pray, hope. He said “To shop!”
-America has become a nation of consumers
-our identity has become that of consumers
-our “value” has become based on how much we consume
-keep the materials flowing!
-what percent of materials from manufactured products are in use 6 months later? 1%.
-99% on the stuff we harvest, mine, consume becomes waste
-people today consume 2x what they did 50 years ago
-stewardship, resourcefulness, thrift: valued by grandparents
-“consumption as a way of life”
-“our ultimate purpose is to produce more consumer goods” not healthcare, education, safe transportation, sustainability, justice.
-3,000 ads a day, we see more ads in a year
-ads, make us unhappy with what we have
-our national happiness peaked in the 1950s
-we have more stuff but less time for friends, family
-big activities: watch TV & shop
-commercials tell us: “You suck”
-work, watch, spend treadmill
-average house-size has doubled since the 1970s
-4.5lbs of garbage per day, per person
-pollute land, air, water, and change the climate
Planned obsolescence/ perceived obsolescence
-intentional
-perceived obsolescence
-fashion: not concerned about providing women with shoes that are the most healthy for their feet
Recycling:
-a positive activity
-reduces garbage
-reduces pressure to mine materials
-will never be enough
-for every one barrel of garbage you create, 70 garbage barrels were made in production
-recycling 100% of garbage: not possible
-items are designed not to be recycled in the 1st place
Positive Social Movements:
-points of intervention:
-saving forests
-clean production
-labor rights
-“fair trade”
-conscious consuming
-taking back our government to work “for the people, and by the people”
-blocking landfills and incinerators
The Big picture
-people need to unite, we can reclaim and transform this linear system into something new!
-we need to create a system that doesn’t waste resources & doesn’t waste people
-get rid of the “throw away” mindset
-sustainability, equity, green chemistry, zero waste, closed loop production, renewable energy, local living economies
-the old path in unrealistic
-we are people too, so let us create something new!
Friday, January 15, 2010
Design Revolution: 100 Products That Empower People by Emily Pilloton, p. 1-9
a. designers need to be change makers instead of “stuff makers”
b. design for social good
What motivates people?
a. Nike + iPod Sport kit: advertising, lifestyle, and tribe-making
b. Zipcar: save fossil fuels, leverage economies of scale
Goals:
a. do a lot with little
b. challenge the status quo
c. economy of materials
d. clarity of purpose
e. delight in use
Method:
a. what is the object’s intended use?
Problems:
a. market forces alone are not adequate to address social problems
Components:
1. form
2. function
3. beauty
4. ergonomics
5. accessibility
6. affordability
7. sustainability
8. renewable energy
9. green materials
10. cultural appropriateness
11. responsible labor practices
12. respect for the user
The Practice of Design
1. interconnected
2. global
3. consequence creating endeavor > toxicity/pollution/social inequality or, a force for positive change
Challenge your notions of designers:
1. don’t just blame designers for negative externalities, many set out wanting to make the world a better place
2. design is not confined to certain professional credentials: grassroots efforts can lead to design any volunteers, handy-people, poets, etc. can be designers
Areas of design:
1. architecture
2. engineering
3. products
4. transport
5. fashion
6. graphics
7. multimedia
8. information technology
9. social services
10. disaster relief, etc.
Important concerns:
1. social vectors
2. accessibility
3. affordability
4. empathy
5. social currency
6. respecting ecosystems
Our “movement”
“immune response”, a rising action against the ceaseless assault on the natural and social environment
1. arts activism
2. sustainable forestry
3. eco-labeling
4. industrial ecology
5. pollution remediation
6. green-banking
Be hopeful, be optimistic, solve problems, and celebrate life!
b. design for social good
What motivates people?
a. Nike + iPod Sport kit: advertising, lifestyle, and tribe-making
b. Zipcar: save fossil fuels, leverage economies of scale
Goals:
a. do a lot with little
b. challenge the status quo
c. economy of materials
d. clarity of purpose
e. delight in use
Method:
a. what is the object’s intended use?
Problems:
a. market forces alone are not adequate to address social problems
Components:
1. form
2. function
3. beauty
4. ergonomics
5. accessibility
6. affordability
7. sustainability
8. renewable energy
9. green materials
10. cultural appropriateness
11. responsible labor practices
12. respect for the user
The Practice of Design
1. interconnected
2. global
3. consequence creating endeavor > toxicity/pollution/social inequality or, a force for positive change
Challenge your notions of designers:
1. don’t just blame designers for negative externalities, many set out wanting to make the world a better place
2. design is not confined to certain professional credentials: grassroots efforts can lead to design any volunteers, handy-people, poets, etc. can be designers
Areas of design:
1. architecture
2. engineering
3. products
4. transport
5. fashion
6. graphics
7. multimedia
8. information technology
9. social services
10. disaster relief, etc.
Important concerns:
1. social vectors
2. accessibility
3. affordability
4. empathy
5. social currency
6. respecting ecosystems
Our “movement”
“immune response”, a rising action against the ceaseless assault on the natural and social environment
1. arts activism
2. sustainable forestry
3. eco-labeling
4. industrial ecology
5. pollution remediation
6. green-banking
Be hopeful, be optimistic, solve problems, and celebrate life!
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