A Better World By Design, a Big Success

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.



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.

Conference Alert! A Better World by Design Nov. 7-9 @ Brown University in Providence RI

What are designers doing to address critical issues facing today’s world? How are engineers developing new technologies to improve life on earth? Where are entrepreneurs finding surprising opportunities in this mess? A Better World by Design will attempt to address these questions by demonstrating what professionals and academics are doing to promote sustainable development and change the world for the better.

Cameron Sinclair of Architecture for Humanity and Iqbal Quadir of Grameenphone will be the keynote speakers for the weekend.

Over three days, dozens of industry leaders will speak about novel approaches and solutions to extreme poverty, access to basic resources, and environmental degradation. In the spirit of engineering, workshops will put theory to practice and galleries will display the innovations and messages of talented designers.

Admission is $40 for students and $100 for non-students.

More information at http://www.abetterworldbydesign.com

And the Winner is…

This year at South by Southwest in Austin it was Story of Stuff. Needless to say, we think the folks at storyofstuff.com did a great job and their site is an excellent tool for education. Ecolect would like to thank all of the fans out there who voted for us and send our congratulations to the team at Story of Stuff. Hey, it was fun and we got to connect with eco-minded thinkers at the conference who are having a huge impact, educating and supporting others every step of the way.

Much Needed Action to Make the South Bronx More Sustainable

Majora Carter is a very inspiring activist who has been making a massive difference in New York’s South Bronx. Her organization, Sustainable South Bronx works to locally improve the use of land, water and energy while innovating transportation and education.

To learn more about her initiatives click here.