sustainability

The current industry model is broken. Our economy is built on a "take make waste" model that negatively impacts environmental and human systems and is not tenable in the long term. It is time to reinvent. We are gifted with an array of genius examples in nature–mechanisms and ecosystems that have evolved over 3.8 billion years and provide a blueprint for products, processes, and system organization that can be truly effective toward a healthier, resilient future. We propose that companies mimic nature and reinvent themselves around the fundamental science of Biomimicry's seven Life's Principles. This is Management Innovation According to Nature's Genius. » Read more

Thomas Thwaite, designer and technologist, is perhaps best known through his Toaster Project. The Toaster Project was an attempt to build a toaster from raw, self-mined materials. The project exposed the complexity of seemingly simple and everyday technology. It leaves us to wonder how technology will change our lives in the future, and shows how we all need others to get even simple products.

I contacted Thomas to ask him about his projects, his views on technology and what makes him tick. » Read more

This morning at SXSW, Andrew Zolli, curator of PopTech, talked to Hannah Jones, the VP of Sustainable Business at Nike about innovation, design, and sustainability through open data and collaboration.

The age of singularities
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You might already know about GreenXchange. It’s a specialized sort of commons specifically for innovations (or yet to be applied innovations) for environmental sustainability.  For now, that means an on-line space to post patents and supporting materials under one of three pledges.   » Read more

Think about a public space. Maybe it’s a park, or a public library, but some physical space owned by government. We have different expectations about public spaces, and our freedoms in them, compared to private spaces.

Think about a place where civic happenings go on, where dialogue and delivery of services occur. What comes to mind for me is the (maybe nostalgic) notion of a bustling city hall. People go there to interact with government and each other, and accomplish something. In theory, at least.

Now, imagine this public space is virtual. » Read more

“We can't solve problems by using the same kind of thinking we used when we created them.” Michael Tiemann used this quote from Albert Einstein to lead off his talk at last week's Open Your World forum. His presentation was called “Transformation and the Open Source Way”
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I've always been a fan of the Mozilla Foundation, and not just because of the Firefox web browser. As catalyst for some of the great communities in the open source world, Mozilla is something of a recipe factory for what to do right when it comes to building community. As it turns out, Mozilla's Director of Developer Relations, Chris Blizzard, is a long time friend of mine. » Read more

Where does open design and sustainability meet Tide? The open washing machine project. » Read more