Ecolect’s Materials Petting Zoo at IDSA Rhode Island’s Nextup Conference!

On Thursday September 25th, designers, business owners and individuals gathered together for ISDA Rhode Island’s Sustainability Conference in Providence. Presentations were given by four speakers; Meaghan O’Neal of TreeHugger.com, Sean Brennan & Kelly Sherman of Continuum, and Emily Pilloton of Project H Design spoke on the importance of understanding consumer behavior and choices. Emily discussed her current ongoing project, Hippo Roller, a water transportation device. Meaghan educated us about a new form of eco-friendly graffiti, and Sean and Kelly spoke passionately about the importance of the consumer mindset and understanding how consumers think about the environment. Most importantly, all of the guest speakers discussed ways of designing to guide consumers in choosing greener options. Afterwards, guests and speakers took part in an engaging discussion of causes, relevant issues, and solutions. Everyone congregated on the green roof of the historic and sustainably redeveloped, Peerless Lofts Building for cocktails and a small version of Ecolect’s Materials Petting Zoo, the cutting-edge traveling exhibition of environmentally considered materials.

Project H
Tree Hugger
Continuum

Even Video Games are Targeting Environmental Issues

“In a desperate, near future setting where controlling the planet’s depleting fossil resources determines the ultimate fate of civilization. A global war for oil is being waged between two superpowers, the Western Coalition (US/EU) and the Red Star Alliance (Russia/China).”

Jane McGonigal was a speaker at South by Southwest this year. She’s a game designer and future forecaster who “takes play seriously.” Her day to day work is as senior researcher at the Institute for the Future (what a great name). Jane spends a majority of her time writing and speaking about the power of digital games, virtual environments and other immersive experiences. She believes that they can change our current reality and also shape our future. Her specialty is focusing on designing collaborative games that mesh the real world with virtual environments. Originally titled “World Without Oil”, Frontlines: Fuel of War is a collaborative online game simulating global oil shortage. It’s the first mainstream video game to capitalize on the worst case scenario of a global oil shortage. According to Craig Anderson, the game “could in fact lead to changes in attitudes, beliefs, and ultimately, changes in behavior.” Craig is a well established professor who teaches psychology at Iowa State University. He is a leading expert in the study of how video games effect people.