Greengaged

Did you know that recycling one tonne of paper can save 7000 gallons of water, 17 trees, 380 gallons of oil, 3 cubic yards of landfill space and 4000kw of energy!? On Friday afternoon, non profit enterprise Three Trees Don’t Make a Forest held a three hour sustainable print and paper workshop to explore how different print processes affect recyclability, and how you can reduce the impact through the design process.

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Well, it really has been an amazing first week here at Greengaged, with a whole host of leading voices taking the opportunity to discuss and challenge the role of design to positively effect our environment. We would like to take this opportunity to thank everyone who has attended so far and we look forward to meeting more of you over the penultimate and final day this week.

Check out the blog as there is an organic list of stories and event reviews for you to read; if you attended the session or have an interest in the subject please do leave your comments. There are plenty more to come, so you better get started!

You can also take a look through the event photographs on Flickr and link up with attendees you may have seen or met on Facebook!

In November 2008, Professor Michael Braungart will launch a new UK edition of ‘Cradle to Cradle: Remaking the Way We Make Things’, the prolific and best-selling manifesto “calling for the transformation of human industry through ecologically intelligent design.” Greengaged are excited to announce that the new edition will be published by Random House, and in the new introduction Michael writes;

“In the nineteenth century various writers used the phrase ‘the hand that rocks the cradle is the hand that rules the world’ - and to them this meant that the way we raise our children would do more to change the world than empire-builders and new industries. The hands that rocks Cradle to Cradle today fit the phrase, I think, as our agenda is also about finding nurturing solutions very different to the often outrageous initiatives that harm the environment, sometimes by the same sort of institutions. Cradle to Cradle tried to put human being in the same ’species’ picture as other living things - and to us, a misuse of material resources is not just suicidal for future human generations but catastrophic for the future of life.” (Braungart, M. 2008. Cradle to Cradle).

On Monday evening, Professor Michael Braungart will close the penultimate day of Greengaged, with a lecture at the Royal Society of Arts that will highlight fields of materials assessment, waste and energy balances, and life-cycle design. Braungart’s lecture will be followed by a conversation with science and culture of materials writer Philip Ball.

Many discussions over the past three days here at Greengaged have questioned the validity of the word ’sustainability’. What does it really mean today? Do designers have differing perspectives of its definition and meaning? And possibly more importantly, do the public listen and how do they react when they hear such terminologies: green, eco, sustainable and so forth? Is the title sustainable, creating a market niche that offers only a ‘for’ or ‘against’ decision?

“I’d like to change the word sustainability. If you were to ask someone about their marriage and they say ‘its sustainable’, what would you think?!”- Sophie Thomas, thomas.matthews

If sustainability is to be embedded into all aspects of everyday living, why create a niche? Why have “eco” events at The London Design Festival if the future success of the entire creative sector is dependant on its recognition for good practice? As the Design Council recently pitched in The Good Design Plan, sustainability should be inherently built into our understanding of good design.

“We need to get away from the language that isn’t working for us?” - Sarah Johnson, [re]design

Is it therefore time for a revised umbrella of terms or descriptions? We’d like to hear how you introduce sustainability to your clients and how they react?

Following London United’s inspiring workshop 'Imagine 2058', we would like to encourage you all to take yourself on your own journey to the year 2058. So, take a moment to relax, close your eyes and walk around the city… 50 years from now. What can you see?

What does the city look like? What sounds are about? Where are the people, and what are they doing? What clothes are people wearing? What emotions do you get? What emotions do you see on others? Are people happy, are they talking to one another? Where can you buy some food? What is the form of transport; is there any transport? When you look at the sky, what colour is it? What is the weather like? Take a good look around you, can you see any trees or any water?

What does the year 2058 look like to you? Post your stories below...

At 6.30pm on Monday 15th September 2008, as a full moon rose over Covent Garden, John Grant, Aladin and other members of the 11 strong London United collective took to the greengaged limelight for their first ever workshop, “Imagine 2058″ - a journey through time. London United’s Aladin took centre stage to a circle of thirty five attendees and, in a soft tone, instructed “Relax and close your eyes… each time you exhale, you are going to move forward another year… 2010, 2011, 2012…”

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Early this Monday morning, in the heart of London, over sixty people arrived at the Design Council, for the “BIG BANG” breakfast launch of Greengaged, the eagerly anticipated sustainability hub at London Design Festival 2008!

Following an introductory welcome from David Kester, Chief Exec of the Design Council, Sophie Thomas, co-founder of thomas.matthews, took to the stand and set an ambitious launch debate: “This house believes that the primary responsibility for tackling global climate change lies with the design industry.”

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