by: Centre for Sustainable Fashion, 2013-03-28 17:41:11 UTC
It’s our third year of running the Better Lives lecture series and this time we’ve paired up with LCF resident psychology Dr Carolyn Mair to devise four sessions exploring Psychology’s links with Fashion.
Our focus will be on Judgment and Wellbeing.
Speakers taking part will include Cosmopolitan’s Woman of the Year 2012: Natasha Devon (Body Gossip), Dilys Williams (Director at CSF), Dr Kate Fletcher (Researcher, CSF), Frances Corner (Head of College, LCF) and Caryn Franklin MBE (Fashion Commentator).
More information is available at the following link where you can also sign up to attend any or all of the free sessions: http://betterliveslectures.eventbrite.co.uk
by: FEED STOP, 2013-03-18 13:00:00 UTC
What does a sustainable photography studio look like, and how do you create one? Jason Lindsey worked hard for several years now to make our studio sustainable. In the process, we've encountered some unexpected challenges and reaped some surprising rewards.
We began when we relocated our studio to a 2200-square-foot brick building that was constructed between 1890 and 1900. We knew we had our work cut out for us. The building was drafty. It had an earthen crawl space, no insulation, including in the attic, and a few loosely fit, single-pane windows. An inefficient, dilapidated natural gas-powered, forced-air HVAC unit was [...]
Froc is a new high chair by Slovenian company Rimarket and design studio Gigodesign. But not only is this a nice-looking high chair, it’s also adjustable in more than one way: the seat and footrest heights and the backrest position are all able to be adjusted.
The removable safety belt will keep babies and toddler safe but when removed, make older kids feel like they’re sitting at the table like an adult (until they’re 10). The solid leg with four extensions keeps the chair nice and sturdy, too.
Froc is available in five different colors (green, blue, orange, white and purple) and you can buy it online at froc.si.
Terra Motors' e-tricycle can carry six and travel 31 miles per charge.
(Credit: Terra Motors)
Tuk-tuks are a common way to get around in many Asian cities, but they contribute to urban pollution and high fuel costs.
Tokyo-based startup Terra Motors wants to put more non-polluting vehicles on the streets with an electric tuk-tuk unveiled this week for the Philippines.
The blue and white "e-tricycle" is powered by a lithium-ion battery and can carry six people including the driver. It's just under 11 feet long and is steered with handlebars.
It can travel some 31 miles per 2-hour charge, according to the firm, which is hoping to become the world's top electric tuk-tuk maker.
Re Rag Rug is an experimental design and crafts project initiated in August 2012 by designers Katarina Brieditis and Katarina Evans in Stockholm, Sweden. Their goal is to develop one unique rag rug each month for a full year using different types of recycled materials and a variety of techniques ranging from sewing to plaiting, crocheting, knitting, macramé, rolling, cutting, applique, and embroidery. The designers’ goal is to work in a free and experimental manner to create innovative rugs – the fact that they’re made out of recycled materials is an added bonus.
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by: Environmental Leader, 2013-03-28 14:49:38 UTC Eliminating fossil fuel subsidies worth $1.9 trillion worldwide would reduce CO2 emissions by 4.2 billion tons — a 13 percent reduction — and produce “major gains” for economic growth, according to an International Monetary Fund report. Energy Subsidy Reform – Lessons and Implications says subsidies for petroleum products, electricity, natural gas and coal equal about [...]
Will this be how we revitalize the economy? Across the country, new multidisciplinary spaces for people to learn, experiment, and make are popping up, creating a new surge of jobs with them.
Obama’s State of the Union Address this year was a steady dopamine drip for me: “We have cleared away the rubble of crisis … making America a magnet for manufacturing … a once-shuttered warehouse is now a state-of-the art lab where new workers are mastering the 3-D printing that has the potential to revolutionize the way we make almost everything.” And be-still-my-heart: “we are finally poised to control our own energy future." He might have well described the Emerald City, as far as I was concerned.
I think it’s important to try and understand what exactly these “state-of-the art labs” or “manufacturing hubs” will be like and the direct role they play in employing more Americans while also making manufacturing processes smarter.
The aim of these hubs is to put smart, entrepreneurial people together with advanced manufacturing technology to come up with applications for that technology. Those applications will reduce waste in manufacturing processes, which will mean that U.S. manufacturers can charge less for their services. With new technology comes the need for newly skilled workers to wield it properly. So it’s a smart growth strategy: reduce the bottom line and increase profit; take profit and reinvest it in the company’s growth (i.e. adding employees).
It’s easy to imagine rows and rows of MakerBots humming away with workers waiting patiently for the parts and assemblies to come “hot off the press”, but the reality looks more like this. Those are pictures from the pilot National Additive Manufacturing Innovation Institute in Youngstown, Ohio that President Obama mentioned in his speech (Full disclosure: my employer, Autodesk, is involved in the pilot). As you can see, the machine tools are a mix of additive manufacturing technologies (like 3D printing and laser sintering) and machine tools that you’d find in factories today that cut, stamp, and assemble parts together. The solutions coming out of the lab will probably be workflows comprised of elements from both.
We’ve looked at the theory and the technology pieces, but how will that induce growth? Another hub is a venture aptly named New Lab. The site,developed by New York-based real estate and design firm Macro Sea, is an 84,000 square foot space in the Brooklyn Navy Yard. It is the consummate public private partnership, backed by Speaker Christine Quinn, the NYC Council and the Empire State Development Corporation Regional Council, Mayor Bloomberg, and others.
It is slated to be kind of a non-denominational MIT Media Lab, where cross-pollination between green manufacturing start-ups, R&D teams, academia, designers, technologists, and digital fabricators will run rampant. There has been such great demand from groups wanting to get in that Macro Sea decided not to wait for the retrofit to be completed and has opened a beta space in an adjacent building where they are hosting tenants. The beta program will illuminate the best ways for New Lab to incubate these groups and give them excellent physical spaces in state of the art co-working labs, war rooms, libraries, and fabrication shops.
The beta group contains some impressive members, including: Within Lab, DNI (Lowline Solar Collector), Hypersonic, and Terreform ONE, all of whom plan to join academic tenants like Columbia University Applied Building Sciences in the larger space when it opens. In this beta group alone there is a brain trust that can grow furniture, light underground areas, utilize technology to identify optimized forms for 3D printing, and explore digitally fabricated spaces designed to morph over time.
The space will likely be one of the most prominent examples resilient architecture in New York City. The cavernous space, once a repair shop for Navy ships, experienced flooding during Hurricane Sandy. Macro Sea, like most sane entities, expects megastorms to be a regular occurrence. They are tackling this strategically by bringing all electrical wires from above and installing a hoist that can be used to easily move equipment on the first floor to the second floor mezzanine at the next big hurricane warning. They’re also thinking about resiliency by creating slab flooring that can be wiped in the event of a surge.
The last important defining characteristic of these hubs is their ability to create jobs. How will they induce job creation? Alex Escamilla, Senior Project Director at Macro Sea, explains: “We estimate 332 permanent jobs will come from New Lab on top of the 72 temporary construction jobs. The beauty of being in the Brooklyn Navy Yard is that as these businesses grow, there is plenty of space for them to expand and hire more workers.”
While this may be a small number of jobs in the grand scheme of the overall jobs crisis, it’s an example of how innovation, creativity and pursuing new areas of industry can be instrumental in the creation of not only jobs, but important advances in the application of technology. Hopefully we’ll start to see new labs crop up across the country and deliver the promise of Obama’s State of the Union.
Many of you may already recognize this stunning lighting collection, but few realize the conceptual research and green experimentation that went into developing the IN-EI ISSEY MIYAKE project. Designed by world-renowned Japanese fashion designer Issey Miyake for Italian lighting company Artemide, these cutting edge lamps employ a re-treated fabric derived from recycled plastic bottles to create an other-worldly lighting effect. The collection recently won the iF Product Design Award 2013 from the prestigious International Forum Design Hannover.
So what green innovations underlie this “enlightened idea”?
Together with his Reality Lab, Miyake developed the new material for the lamps using a 3D mathematical process — each lamp is created from a single piece of cloth that manages diffuse light in unexpected ways. The unique folding technology and an additional surface treatment makes for self-supporting pieces that keep their shape (and can be re-shaped) without the need for an internal frame. Naturally, in keeping with an eco-friendly approach, IN-EI ISSEY MIYAKE uses low-energy LEDs.
Overall, the IN-EI ISSEY MIYAKE collection finds the perfect balance between light and shadow, tradition and innovation.
by: Design 4 Sustainability, 2013-03-12 13:11:47 UTC
Part of a product range designed for retail, this is an LED spotlight great for making fresh food look fresher, adding sparkle and contrast with the ...
by: Design 4 Sustainability, 2013-03-11 21:35:06 UTC
Desso is a dutch carpet manufacturer which commited itselfs a few years ago to go Cradle to Cradle and even go beyond that to innovate in ways to not ...
by: Design 4 Sustainability, 2013-03-08 14:54:10 UTC
The swedish Pulplab is researching how paper can be used in cases that non-paperlike properties are needed; shock absorbing, strong, durable, insulating ...
by: Design 4 Sustainability, 2013-03-06 10:48:34 UTC
The general perception is that staying indoor is more healthy than being outdoors. Actually it is equally harmful and can cause several respiratory ...
by: Design 4 Sustainability, 2013-03-05 14:00:46 UTC
AGUAMIX is a completely touchless sensor-faucet, not only to start the water flow but also for adjusting the temperature by a little movement of the ...
by: Design 4 Sustainability, 2013-03-05 08:25:51 UTC
Eco-fashion label Naturevsfuture’s name was inspired by designer Nina Valenti’s belief that there is a constant struggle between nature and future ...
by: Design 4 Sustainability, 2013-03-05 08:24:58 UTC
Eco-fashion label Naturevsfuture’s name was inspired by designer Nina Valenti’s belief that there is a constant struggle between nature and future ...
by: Design 4 Sustainability, 2013-03-01 13:41:39 UTC
The panels/tiles are made from bamboo pulp, and have the feel of solid fibreboard.
- Original colour: off-white
- Paintable with wall paint
- ...
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