Recent topic I have been thinking about lately …

I love traveling so much. About a month ago one of my roommates called me a “gypsy lady” because I am always moving around, planning new trips, and on a plane to somewhere.

BUT

How can I justify the environmental impact of my travels? I can’t! Ah! It really tears me up inside. The only true way to have a minimum carbon footprint, is to travel by foot [or self-powered means]. Every once in a while I check out new carbon footprint calculators [not a stand alone to method measure your impact!] and my air travels send my score sky high.

Humph. So, what is the most environmentally friendly way to travel overseas? Is there one?

I met some amazing people from all different fields; interior design, architecture, graphic design, engineering, and more. I was one of the younger attendees and can only hope that, in ten years, I measure up to some of the other folks — their accomplishements and careers were off-the-charts impressive. Design professionals shared stories about how they started new companies, went against the status quo of company operations, and did their own thing!

This is just a general synopsis of my experience at the DFC Summit, I am going to list some links to inspiring projects I learned about in my next post. There are some amazing start ups all over the country that are devoted to public health and sustainability. Radical.

Some photos from the conference:

Woo!

A break out session, where a topic is given [ex-how to break out of the status quo within your company] 

Lovely lunch on the terrace! Gorgeous Atlanta fall weather and view of the city.

Alan Balfour, Dean of the College of Architecture at Georgia Tech, was one of many fantastic speakers.

The conference ended with a tour of Perkins + Will new office space.

Alright I know the title is cheesy, but anyone that knows me knows that I love cheesiness. I’ve been thinking about some funny conversations I’ve had with people in the past about “green” thinking. Sometimes I cannot handle the ludicrous claims people say to me and it ends like the conversation pictured above.

I have a really hard time keeping my cool and explaining to people why it is important to recycle, compost, realize Hummers aren’t actually cool, buy local food, etc. when they have such an apathetic, crap attitude about it. I have gotten into some really heated arguments with my boyfriend and other close friends about environmental issues.

Why can’t everyone just shut up and recycle?

I have raised 89% of my goal. Still have another $175 dollars to go in order to reach $1600.

I cannot thank everyone enough — this is surreal and I am so anxious to head east. I am still perfecting the Closed Loop Shanghai T-shirts, but will post them as soon as the design is finalized.

Many of you who know me know that I absolutely despise graphic design. It usually takes me a pathetically long time to design a layout that works. A lot of times it just frustrates me because I do not think I have a natural “eye” for it. Last night I was working on some posters for the exhibit — it was rough. I hadn’t been in a studio-like “time crunch” in weeks and needed to crank out some graphics last night.

Up above is one of the layouts I came up with. I always have a hard time describing the Closed Loop experiment through graphics — through trial and error, I discovered a bunch of photos of trash isn’t interesting or informative. The Closed Loop was really about me sharing my experience of living sustainably with a lot of people. So, I decided to go a more story-telling route with an illustration of me in my Closed Loop apartment and a first person narrative.

This week I am working on finishing up a birdhouse for [The Atlanta Chapter] Architecture for Humanity’s 2nd Annual Birdhouse Social! My main goals were to create something simple, sustainable, and suitable for a birdie to live in.

Some verbage on the design so far >>

My idea was to retrofit an old basket since it has an organic, nest-like feel and is already designed for hanging. Then I took the concept of an old-school basket two steps further… I incorporated a bowl of some green liveliness (a low maintenance cactus) into the structure to add life/color/interest/contrast. The bowl of cactus also provide a roof structure to plug the opening in the basket and shelter the bird. To really emphasize the hanging position of the birdhouse, I am in the process of creating a mobile of plant root silhouettes. The silhouettes will be laser cut out of some scrap white acrylic that I have. The mobile will suspend from the bottom of the basket.

The basket and bowl were found at Salvation Army. The white plastic ring and wooden dowel were left over scraps from studio last semester. Overall, it cost me less than $10 to make and I was able to manipulate everything with hand tools.

Details about the Birdhouse Social (from the official site) >>

The event takes place on Saturday, August 14th 2010, from 4 to 8 pm.  The evening will feature a silent auction of custom birdhouses, and chicken coops, designed by some of Atlanta’s most creative residents. This year, the Birdhouse Social will benefit the Greater Vine Cities Outreach Program and English Avenue Campus renovation. Studioplex once again plays host to this outdoor event with Graphite Design also returning to create glorious birdhouse displays via creative installation.

Hope to see some of you there!

This summer, I’ve noticed a lot of my friends have replaced jet-setting vacations with road trips this year (and by noticed I mean stalked via Facebook). A road trip I annually take is the 15 hour motor trek up the east coast from Atlanta to northern New Jersey to visit family. Somewhere between North Carolina and Virginia my eyelids start giving out and my gas light blinks on. It is the perfect time to stop at a gas station, fill up my feisty red civic and grab a hot cup of mediocre vending machine coffee.

“Yeah… I’ll take a small hazelnut roast and a 10 gallons of Americano for my car.”

A request like this may not be as far-fetched as it sounds. Check out this vehicle, nicknamed “car-puccino”, that runs on coffee fuel. BBC TV host Jem Stansfield converted this 1988 VW Scirocco to run on coffee grounds into flammable gasses that can be used in the engine instead of petrol. The car successfully completed a 210 mile trip from London to Manchester! Check out the full story here.

I am going to do more research to find out what it is specifically in coffee beans that make for good automobile fuel. With people doing more and more wild experiments like these, who needs oil? I can only hope that in ten years, Americans will look back and chuckle at how much conflict the battle over oil caused and zip around in their coffee fueled cars.

I just received an e-mail from a former classmate of mine at Lund University that the Closed Loop Experiment has been selected as one of five projects to represent Lund University and the School of industrial design, at the Cumulus 20th anniversary exhibition in Shanghai during the World Expo.

I am really ridiculously excited to exhibit in Shanghai! Unfortunately, there is not enough funding to give all of the exhibitors free tickets to China, but I am none the less very honored to have been selected.

I am currently working on the posters I have to design for the event. I will be sure to post them when completed!

There are so many great ideas! GTRI has already established a group of people to act as the “environmental cheerleading team” (sounds silly, but is very important to have when starting an EMS). Two employees are determined to set up an urban rooftop garden! How incredible would it be to take your lunch break on the roof in an environment as pictured above? I would be a much needed improvement from eating at your desk. I have done it on a regular basis, and I truly believe that eating at your desk in front of your computer during  (a time that is supposed to be a break from work) is a soul drowning activity. But, that’s just me.

I am really happy to be part of the project. I think more and more businesses will realize that there IS a business case for sustainability.

Saving energy = saving money.

More green space = happy employees.

A solid environmental management system = marketing advantage (and green street cred).

I have formulated a question for all of you readers:

Imagine it was the year 2050. . .

It is early morning and you just woke up  (somewhere radical) . . .

You sit up and look out the window . . .

You live in the world’s most sustainable city of all time. . .

What do you see?

By 2050, what types of innovations in sustainability will there be? Shout out some crazy ideas folks! I need some inspiration!