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.

Recycling E-waste in the Bay Area.

GreenCitizen serves the San Francisco and Silicon Valley areas. They help individuals and organizations recycle electronics responsibly. They do this by providing convenient, affordable and responsible solutions, making it effortless for anyone and everyone to help save the environment from harmful electronic waste.

Prior to GreenCitizen, de-manufacturing processes and their environmental soundness were difficult to track and verify. Many other e-recycling companies were able to validate what electronics they have recycled, what processes they have used and where toxic materials have ended up. GreenCitizen has a proprietary checks and balance program called, Total Accountability Management System (GTAMS). According to GreenCitizen, this system “uniquely tracks recycled items from pickup in a developed country through to the shipping and de-manufacturing process in a GreenCitizen facility located in a developing country. The system enables complete accountability of all items in the de-manufacturing process worldwide.”

They are developing one of the first e-waste recycling systems in the world, designed to keep all parties responsible. Through the standard, everyone involved in the process must provide documentation and actual contributions to proper electronics recycling. GreenCitizen is working day and night to set a new, global standard in the technology of e-recycling. All research and development efforts are being conducted through what is being called, their Sustainable Technology Applied Research, or STAR Lab.

For more information visit greencitizen.com

Petting Good Materials in Boston

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

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

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.

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