Lately I have been thinking about going vegetarian….

There are so many reasons to go vegetarian, but the one that really resonates with me is how much methane the animal industry produces.

I do not necessarily think eating animal products is bad or cruel, it is completely natural for species to consume each other in order to survive. However, the rate of consumption of animal products, due to factory farming, is much higher than necessary. These factory farms are producing more animals than people need to be consuming in order to live and destroying the ozone layer at the same time. We are way past the survival stage and living on the gluttonous rates.

This same idea applies to products too. There are so many products that are produced in billions that do not necessarily have a market or an audience who needs them. These useless products that are destined for landfills because they have no purpose. So we are damaging the environment WITHOUT ANY GOOD REASON.

The animal industry is damaging the environment in many ways, specifically by producing mass amounts of methane, when human beings do not even need that much meat to live.

I honestly only eat meat once a week and think that it would be a fairly easy transition for me. I am also lactose intolerant… maybe vegan is the way to go. A plus to going vegan is that all of my food waste would be compostable because it would lack meat or dairy products.

Hmmm… I have been thinking about this for a while but haven’t really had the guts to take the first step…

If anyone has any tips or experience that they had while going vegan or vegetarian– I will gladly take them

“In the United States alone there are presently more than three thousand million tires in landfills, illegal dumps and stockpiles, increasing by another thousand million every four years. The largest pile of tires in the world is in Westley, California, where thirty-four million scrap tires cover near 200 acres, sometimes forming seven-storey mountains.”

– The Green Imperative by Victor Papanek (1995)

Want more? Click here for a .PDF of Chapter 2 from The Green Imperative

I was surprised that many students thought that sustainability DOES compromise the design process. Without naming names, one student said negatively affecting the environment (with new product and mass-manufacturing) was justified because it meant we were evolving technologies and intellectually growing as a society. My answer — If we are evolved and intellectual, why can’t we think of ways to still move forward as a society without destroying the very planet we live on. Anyways, I feel the exact opposite. I hope all designers do — designing for sustainability is definitely a challenge, but it in no way should stifle the advancement of ideas and innovations — instead, sustainability might lead us down a new path.

I can understand why people feel like living sustainably means reverting back to primitive ways when technology and mass production did not exist. Yes, that was one period of time where people lived more sustainably. Reducing our consumption and production of products is one way to live more sustainably — but what if we just consumed biodegradable products or produced products with wind powered factories. You don’t have to be “green” and cynical!

I have so much faith in future designers/engineers/architects/visionaries. I know that if we are optimistic and keep our creative and innovative juices flowing that we won’t have to sacrifice the norms of our current society to be green. We will think up ways to live sustainably AND advance technology — those two realms are so closely interconnected to me. I just hope that future designers are up to the challenge! Because my class last week got me feeling pretty pessimistic.

If future designers are not optimistic, then how will they affect future consumers?

It makes me ask myself: How do people perceive green? I wonder how easily the average consumer is tricked into buying a green-washed product. Green washing is a term used to describe a product that APPEARS to be green, [commonly in packaging, logo, or coloring].

Designing for sustainability is very complex! It involves an extensive life cycle analysis that considers every aspect of the production, use, and disposal of a product.

Green washing certainly makes it difficult to distinguish between what products may be genuinely green and ones that are a result of strategic marketing.

What do you think of the coretoon below? Based on current auto-trends, do you think cars are just trying to appear green through styling, coloring, etc… or is there some progress in sustainable automobile design?

Will there ever be a *feasible* sustainable automobile?

Maybe I am taking this too far…but are there such things as eco-friendly dates? Now, by “environmentally friendly date” I do not mean planting a tree with your love interest. Although that would be adorably poetic.

So, what comes to mind when you first think of a “green date”? You might think of hiking, walking through the park, having a picnic, riding a tandem bicycle into the sunset while holding hands…

What are some less obvious eco-friendly dates, that still make an impact?

These are some ideas that I have:

1. Dine in >> Cook a romantic dinner at home! You can choose locally grown, package-free foods. You can also compost all of your food waste. I find that cooking at home reduces a lot of individual waste output. Think about how much waste is produced from one order of take-out Chinese. You would also be surprised at how many restaurants do not compost any food waste at all. When you cook at home, you are in control to make more sustainable decisions.

2. Go thrift shopping >> Ok, this might not sound like fun—but it is! Thrift stores, consignment stores, and the Salvation Army are packed with so many interesting artifacts. Every shelf is full of conversation pieces. Purchasing these items is also elongating their product lifecycles (and delaying their trip to a landfill).

3. Build a fort >> We all did it when we were kids. If you didn’t, you are missing out. It can be a fun escape from home—without any cost or extra supplies. You can build and decorate a palace within the means of your house. Clean up is easy too since all of your building materials can be returned to their natural state in your home… hm… I spy an underlying “closed loop” tone here.

4. Brew your own beer >> A lot of my friends have recently gotten into brewing their own beer. It is cheap, fun, and satisfying. Besides the marvelous fact that it is awesome to create your very own beer, think about all of the beer bottles that are being directly recycled and reused. No downcycling here.

Notice how in these cases being sustainable goes hand in hand with being cheap. Two things that I am an expert in.

Got any more date ideas? I’d love to hear them.

It has been almost a year since the Closed Loop started– one year of composting all of my food waste. I have got to say, the transition was not that difficult. I should start weighing the amount of compost I collect every week, it would be interesting to see how many pounds of food waste is composted in one year.

The photo above is what the compost bin looks like in my apartment in Atlanta. Somehow it always morphs into a smiley face… basically, we collect the food in a bin that is [unfortunately] lined with plastic bags. It is the easiest way to transport the compost to my roommmate’s house in rural Georgia. We are hopefully going to switch to biodegradable plastic bags soon. The Georgia Tech campus dining halls compost all their food waste — but they are hesitant to let students compost their food waste there as well.

[taken from the website]

Atlanta Pecha Kucha is an informal forum for creative work encompassing a range of disciplines: advertising, architecture, art, fashion, food, graphics, media (digital, moving, mixed), products…

The key to Pecha Kucha is the simple formula: 20 slides for 20 seconds each. Each invited speaker has the spotlight for 6 minutes 40 seconds to share and show off their work before the program moves on to the next presentation. The unfolding mix of stuff on show keeps everyone engaged and talking. The bar eases the conversation.

If you are in the Atlanta area, you should come out on Feb 21!

Pecha Kucha is held at Octane Coffee Lounge
[1009 Marietta St NW, Atlanta, GA 30318]

Hope to see you there!

How many brilliant researchers are out there.. making discoveries, advancing science.. but do not have the skills to make their impact accessible? Maybe that is my role in industrial design. I’d like to bridge the gap between researches/engineers/scientists and industrial designers. Maybe…

I personally have had a difficult time talking to people about what makes a product “sustainable”. There are so many complex factors to consider. I am currently taking a course about sustainable design and materials and it continues to raise more reg flags in my mind about how hard it is to be green! And I mean really green, none of that green washing. Any one can create a green-leaf-shaped logo and dump their product into a cardboard box and claim they are green. How can we really educate consumers so they can make good decisions? I think this is going to be a big hurdle for designers [now] and in the future.

Click here to read the article >> Colorblind: Understand How Consumers Think About the Environment