Where design and sustainability cross paths

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A Better World By Design, a Big Success

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This past weekend Providence played host to the first ever Better World By Design Conference. A Better World by Design posed the question of how can we use technology to improve the world? By bringing together a wide range of attendee’s from the business and media world to industrial designers and architects, A Better World By Design was an innovative and rousing event that championed novel ways of dealing with poverty, the environment and many other social crises.

Talks were given by dozens of industry leaders, panel discussions were held by established professionals, with topics ranging from Sustainability in Architecture to Green Consumer Products. Along with the panel discussions, Cameron Sinclair and Iqbal Quadir delivered inspiring keynote speeches on how responsible design and capital flows can positively impact the developing world. Our own Matt Grigsby was involved with a panel discussion, aside Dawn Danby from Autodesk and Steve Hamburg from Brown’s Environmental Studies program and conducted a workshop on triple bottom line businesses. The Material’s Petting Zoo highlighting a sampling of the latest and greatest eco-friendly materials on the market today.

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By bringing together such a diverse group of attendees and speakers, the three-day event was a major success. The turn out was great and people were highly motivated and enthusiastic about how design can change the world for the better.

For more information about the event visit A Better World By Design.

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Petting Good Materials in Boston

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Ecolect held yet another successful Materials Petting Zoo, this time at the cutting edge, Boston-based design firm Continuum. Ecolect team members were on site to provide first hand material expertise and to field questions from the audience. 40 members of Continuum listened to a presentation by Matt Grigsby who outlined the origins and goals of Ecolect and the growing need to design more responsible and environmentally conscious products.

The leading design and branding consultancy is based in Boston has additional offices in Seoul and Milan. Continuum has a strong commitment to the environment and recently launched Colorblind, the ongoing consumer-focused sustainability project. With their strong commitment to environmentally positive design, Continuum was the perfect audience for another Ecolect Petting Zoo.

The atmosphere was fun, lively, and inspirational, with designers, engineers and other eager staff actively engaged, eager to see what material design alternatives are available. With the great talent at Continuum’s design studio, expect to see great environmentally friendly products on the market soon!

For more information about Continuum and their project Colorblind, visit www.dcontinuum.com/colorblind

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We’ve Just Made it a Lot Easier to Suggest Materials

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Here at Ecolect, we are in a constant state of making updates to the site, improving dynamically as we go. This week, we’ve updated the form for submitting materials to our team for review. We invite all visitors to use this form as much and as often as you see fit. It is our goal to extend ourselves, our knowledge and ultimately our support to everyone in the industry (manufacturers, architects and designers included) who are having an impact and working towards making design and development sustainable around the world.

If you are a manufacturer and would like us to review your material, do not hesitate to send samples and information straight away to our east coast office (contact listed below). We are open to all types of design and building materials including, finishes, sheet materials, fabrics, adhesives, foams, and plastics, just to name a few.

60 Valley Street, Unit 7
Providence, RI 02909
USA

Our team looks forward to learning more about all of the great business and individuals out there doing amazing things with sustainability while shaping what it means to be “green.” Thank you all for your support and we welcome any feedback you have for us. Visit ecolect.net/contact and let us know what you think!