Greengaged is a not for profit organisation founded in 2008 by Sophie Thomas from thomas.matthews, Sarah Johnson from Re Design and Anne Chick from The Sustainable Design Research Centre at Kingston University.
Greengaged aims to advance the design industry’s capacity to respond positively to key environmental challenges such as climate change. This is done by offering thought leadership, creating spaces for dialogue, and opportunities for knowledge sharing - within the industry and beyond.
Sophie runs the communication design agency thomas.matthews, a trail-blazer in innovative sustainable design, which she co-founded in 1998. She is an ambassador for the cause through her lecturing and in her role as trustee to the Design Council and has co-founded the designer’s resource Three Trees Don’t Make A Forest.
Sarah runs the social enterprise [re]design an organisation that propagates sustainable actions through design. [re]design promote products and projects that are friendly to people and planet, and partner with a wide range of organisations to pioneer sustainable innovation.
Anne is Director of the Sustainable Design Research Centre and heads up the new MA on Design for Development at Kingston University. She has been an academic pioneer in sustainability for over fifteen years and her sustainable design research, knowledge transfer and educational work are acknowledged worldwide.
With an array of socially focused clients under her belt, Kate is an independent communications designer and consultant. In 2008, Kate set up and led the digital communications for greengaged and has since joined the team to assist its invaluable online presence. Kate is currently studying an MA in Design Writing Criticism at London College of Communication.
Posted by Kate Andrews on Sep 07, 2009 at 05:54 PM | 0 comments
On Monday 21st September, Ed Gillespie of Futerra and the first of our 2009 curators, will be curating day one of Greengaged at the Design Council. Looking at issues surrounding travel, energy and housing his day is aptly titled, Design for Life: Barriers to Behaviour Change?
With a growing list of speakers and participants, Ed will also be exploring what is holding us back from pulling sustainability into mainstream design. Read more about the day and book your place here.
Posted by Kate Andrews on Aug 31, 2009 at 12:15 PM | 0 comments
Built on the successful programme of events at London Design Festival 2008 and the lineup for 2009, Greengaged is spreading its reach even further and are pleased announce we are going international!!
In China, Greengaged are working with partners such as Central Academy of Fine Arts (CAFA), British Council China and the Design for Social Innovation and Sustainability Network China (DESIS-China) to run sustainable design events. The Central Academy of Fine Arts (CAFA), the lead organiser of the Icograda World Design Congress in Beijing, is committed to sustainable design and will be hosting Greengaged-China as a session of the congress. Running also as part of the British Council's "China-UK Creative Entrepreneurs" events lineup, the Greengaged-China workshops will take place in Beijing from 19th-24th October.
In response to the theme of the conference, the objectives of Greengaged-China will be:
Posted by Laura Snell on Aug 20, 2009 at 04:20 PM | 0 comments
As part of our Crafting Mass Production day, we are planning a letterpress workshop run by Alex Cooper and Rose Gridneff of Workshop in Hackney, with four high profile designers, from 10am–4pm on Wednesday, 9 September. Together, the designers will produce a single piece of work, which will be printed in an edition of 500 and will be given away as part of greengaged.
There are two available places and we would like to invite you to join in. Email us at here, telling us why you want to participate in no more than 100 words, and win a chance to spend a day collaborating with well known designers in a letterpress workshop. The competition closes on Friday 28 August.
Posted by Kate Andrews on Jul 24, 2009 at 04:32 PM | 0 comments
Responding to current economic, social and environmental crises, London's NEF (the new economics foundation) have recently launched plans for "The Bigger Picture: A Festival of Interdependence", a series of creative activities and events beginning in autumn 2009. The festival will culminate in a large-scale, free public event in central London on 24 October 2009 (11:00am-18:00pm) when an interactive, living exhibition will be staged in the dramatic post-industrial setting of the Bargehouse on London’s South Bank.
Posted by Kate Andrews on Jul 21, 2009 at 07:52 AM | 0 comments
To be held once again during London Design Festival, Greengaged 2009 at the Design Council introduces an exciting new programme, and five brilliant guest curators that will each create a day based around their expert subject arena. In the latest feature for Greengaged.com, Greengaged co-founder Sophie Thomas welcomes Ed Gillespie, John Grant, Michael Pawlyn, Anna Gerber and Dan Epstein to this years event.
Posted by Sophie Thomas on Jun 22, 2009 at 07:13 PM | 1 comments
photo by: Kate Andrews
Following the conclusion of last year’s London Design Festival - and a few weeks of sleep - myself and co-founders Sarah Johnson and Anne Chick met up and reflected on the inaugural greengaged. We came to the conclusion that we had managed to cram in a huge amount of events in seven days, all of which were incredibly interesting, instructive and thoughtful. We hope all 2000 of you who came to one of our events thought so too. For this we are still very thankful to everyone who offered their time and made it happen; from the multitude of marvellous speakers to the organisers that sorted out IT, drinks and PR.
You can still look through and hear about last year’s events on this site, in the blog archive. We will also be releasing weekly podcast recordings of the highlights starting with this week’s – a conversation between Michael Braungart and Phillip Ball. Keep in touch for further audio and video releases coming up…
One of the things we did vow last year was that we would give ourselves more time to plan for the London Design Festival if we were to do it again… and here we are in June - already zooming up to September – a bit too fast for my liking, but hey. Things are coming together and we are really excited to announce our presence again at the Design Council for this year’s London Design Festival. We are very thankful for the continued support from the Design Council who have again offered to host our week of events at their lovely offices in Covent Garden. Greengaged ‘09 promises a very full and relevant programme for all designers in all disciplines. So, whether you are interested in sustainability or not sure if you should be, make sure you are signed up on our mailing list to be the first to hear of our plans. For now, here’s a quick taster of what is in store for 2009...
Posted by Kate Andrews on Jun 22, 2009 at 07:32 AM | 0 comments
Bringing together key figures since the 1960s who have created utopian works and inspiring solutions for our ever-changing planet, Radical Nature–Art and Architecture for a Changing Planet (1969–2009) is the current art and design exhibition open until 18 Oct 2009 at London's Barbican Centre. "The beauty and wonder of nature have provided inspiration for artists and architects for centuries. Since the 1960s, the increasingly evident degradation of the natural world and the effects of climate change have brought a new urgency to their responses."
Radical Nature draws on ideas that have emerged out of Land Art, environmental activism, experimental architecture and utopianism. The exhibition is designed as one fantastical landscape, with each piece introducing into the gallery space a dramatic portion of nature. Work by pioneering figures such as the architectural collective Ant Farm and visionary architect Richard Buckminster Fuller, artists Joseph Beuys, Agnes Denes, Hans Haacke and Robert Smithson are shown alongside pieces by a younger generation of practitioners including Heather and Ivan Morison, R&Sie(n), Philippe Rahm architects and Simon Starling. Radical Nature also features specially commissioned and restaged historical installations, some of which are located in the outdoor spaces around the Barbican while a satellite project by the architectural collective EXYZT is situated off site.
The RSA Art & Ecology network have offered a sneak insight into this must see environmental exhibition. If you have been to the show already or are planning on attending any of the forthcoming talks and events do let us know your thoughts!
Posted by Kate Andrews on Jun 17, 2009 at 05:12 PM | 0 comments
In Franny Armstrong's epic motion picture The Age of Stupid, famed actor Pete Postlethwaite stars as a man living alone in the devastated future world of 2055, looking back at old footage from 2008 and asking: why didn’t we stop climate change when we had the chance? On Friday 22nd May 2009, I attended the first Indie Screenings of the film at London's Royal Society of the Arts, and the film is absolutely incredible - a truly remarkable piece of cinema, that truly deserves international recognition. Read my full review of the RSA screening here...
For live news, updates, new events, new posts and commentary you can follow us on Twitter @Greengaged. To get involved with discussions add #Greengaged to your tweets!
—posted by Sophie Thomas, Jul 27, 2010 at 02:04 PM
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The podcast is now available to subscribe to on, and download from, iTunes.
