"Was it a conscious decision or a momentary lapse of reason? How did progress take priority over humankind? Could harnessing the world’s energy that allowed our ascent now be the ledge pan of our down fall?" These are the questions addressed in the PBS ongoing series e2. The most recent episodes, narrated by Morgan Freeman, focus on energy. They look at transportation infrastructure, the auto industry, fuels and renewable fuels, alternative energy solutions and infrastructure, etc. As a result of examining such critical topics, the network was able to land a high-profile guest list for this 6-episode series including Samuel Bodman, the US secretary of energy; Brian Boldemberg, Brazil’s former secretary for the environment; Amory Lovins, founder of the Rocky Mountain Institute; and Muhammad Yunus, Nobel Peace Prize winner. These began airing October 12, 2007

The next set of episodes, narrated by Brad Pitt, will focus on design and innovation. This high profile guest list features designers, architects, and other enthusiasts dedicated to changing the world though socially and environmentally conscious design. Some of the architects include Thom Mayne, architect of the new San Francisco Federal Building, and Adriaan Gueze, the lead architect of the Borneo Sporenburg development in Amsterdam. Other architects and sustainability enthusiasts include Ed Mazria, architect and founder of the Architecture 2030 organization, and William McDonough of Cradle-to-Cradle design.

These projects, among many others, are leading the way in fabricating sustainable design solutions. Whether they work with system management, future projections, or actual structures, these folks are dedicated to creating better design solutions that will last longer. It isn’t only about eliminating the bad anymore. It is about streamlining processes, and creating structures that will last and can multi-function. These architects and designers take you inside processes and reveal involved truths about good and bad design and how they leverage decisions. These episodes begin airing November 23, 2007.

As noted on the website, "The decisions in Washington affect the mountain glaciers in Peru, deforestation of the Amazon affect the heat waves of Paris, the power plants in China effect air quality in Los Angeles …" — we are faced with a lot of global issues that we collectively can have an influence on. PBS has sought out those who are leading others in aiding this progress. "It’s about facing what seem to be insurmountable challenges for what they really are — opportunities to reinvent and redesign." I have yet to see a TV series that touches on so many critical global topics and educates consumers about what is occurring in our energy and construction industries.

In its second year, digital software manufacturer AutoDesk sponsors this PBS project. e2 challenges you to live smarter, live greener, and live with the future in mind. PBS has also build a resource for you to research projects featured in the program. And just for you, they’ve made their own dictionary for the environmentally conscious, as well as a resource for additional independent research.

Last night, Thursday, October 18th, at the National Design Awards Gala in New York City was the announcement of the Peoples Design Awards. As part of National Design Week, Copper-Hewitt supports an annual competition where people nominate great design.

Voting has been open to the public online since mid September. As it is too late to cast your vote, it isn’t too late to congratulate the winner and find out what people consider excellence in design. The most exciting part of this year’s ballot is that many of the nominees were for projects geared towards sustainable progress. Social sustainability is one of the most important attributes for the public to consider, our responsibility towards sustainability and global issues shows promise.

Last year the public chose the Katrina Cottage by designer Marianne Cusato. Designed with similar dimensions and attributes to the FEMA homes, this project is the alternative. The 308 square foot cottage is constructed with fiber reinforced cement siding and a metal roof to withstand hurricane force winds. Since the launch of the project it has grown to attract habitants for multiple purposes. The cottage itself isn’t necessarily a sustainable edifice, but as it will live through intense natural forces and sustain its structure over time.

Also, similar to this year’s nomination for the LifeStraw (a $2 straw that purifies water while drinking for those who don’t have access to safe drinking water), the Katrina Cottage highlights the need for alternatives regarding current issues. When these alternatives are designed with sustainability, necessity, and in this case affordability in mind, we get closer to practical solutions and functional design for a sustainable, safe and healthy future.

This year’s winner is TOMS shoes. TOMS shoes is a simple project- with every pair of shoes bought, a pair is donated to a child who doesn’t have any. TOMS mission is to simply make life more comfortable. Currently TOMS is running a pledge to get 50,000 pair of shoes to take over to South Africa on November 1. These shoes will be divvied out to children in need. The shoes are not necessarily constructed with sustainable (recycled, reusable) materials, but the project does indeed socially sustain communities by enabling a more comfortable, and healthy lifestyle.

Other nominees on the ballot this year geared towards social sustainability and massive change were Good Magazine, Design Can Change, and Global Green Efforts in New Orleans. Good Magazine is a new San Francisco based publication highlighting projects geared towards social activism and sustainability. Design Can Change is a global campaign put together by SmashLAB geared towards bringing designers together to fight climate change.

Finally, Global Green was nominated for their work in New Orleans geared towards using the opportunity to rebuild in a way that is more beneficial to the environment and the community. Based on these nominations we can say with confidence that there are a lot of design efforts taking place to improve the condition of our health, safety, relationships and environment. Now it is your turn to participate.

This Friday is the opening day of the 3rd Solar Decathlon Exhibition. The exhibition takes place on the National Mall in Washington DC from October 12th to 20th. Sponsored by the U.S. Department of Energy’s Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy, the competition invites 20 teams from colleges and universities across the United States, Germany, Spain, and Canada to participate. The objective is to “design, build, and operate the most attractive, effective, and energy-efficient solar-powered house.” Students have been working on these projects for up to two years; they build them, then deconstruct their projects to transport them across the country and even across oceans only to put them back together again. Teams arrived in Washington last Wednesday, October 3, and have been assembling their homes to prep for Fridays opening.

Powered entirely by the sun, these high-tech homes that exhibit superior efficiency are “likely to help shape America’s clean energy future,” states a press release from the Department of Energy. The first Solar Decathlon was in 2002. I am partially inspired by this event as my old alma mater, the University of Michigan, competed in the 2005 competition. Although Michigan is not competing this year, many of the students from participating schools and prospective schools took notes on the flaws present in 2005, and went home to improve, reinvent, and discover new technologies for this year’s event.

As a result of seeing the 2005 University of Michigan MISO (Michigan Solar) home, I can tell you that these teams are consciously composed. With students from disciplines ranging from Engineering, Architecture, and Design to Urban Planning andEnvironmental Studies, these projects are guaranteed to be well-conceived. “These solar homes are powerful, comfortable, and stylish. They are relaxed, elegant, wasting neither space nor energy.” Since these projects come from an academic setting, a place where exploring concepts and visions for the future is fostered and encouraged, these homes are creative, innovative, and surprising.

Not only is this an opportunity for students to learn, explore, and experience solar home construction; it is also an occasion for the public to come view the solutions and learn about the best in energy efficiency and home design. If you are in the DC area and have a chance to stop by, the exhibition hosts an entrée of tours, seminars, workshops, and talks by students and professionals. Starting this Friday October 12, the exhibition is open to the public. Next Thursday, October 18 is a day devoted to building industry professionals, and the official awards ceremony is next Friday October 19. Enjoy!

Just as certain building products can earn Cradle-to-Cradle Certification, now disposable materials and products can earn a compostable seal. With the adoption of the American Society for Testing and Materials Specifications (ASTM), the Biodegradable Products Institute of New York and the US Composting Council are helping provide consumers with consistent information on materials and compostability. By using standard that are already in place, this allows for other companies to use the same criteria to evaluate materials, and ultimately allow for consistency across the board.

ASTM is an open forum for the development of high quality, market-relevant international standards used around the globe. According to the Biodegradable Products Institute,

…these specifications are the result of 8 years of intensive work by researchers, product manufacturers, composters, and resin producers to identify plastic and paper products which disintegrate and biodegrade completely and safely when composted in a municipal or commercial facility, like kraft paper, yard trimmings and food scraps.

With this rising attention to life cycle analysis of consumables, it is helpful to know if a cup we throw in the trash it is going to sit in the dump for thousands of years or not. Right? As consumers, we need to know what seals and labels are valid in order to trust and respect these claims. We are in a time when these issues such as life-cycle assessment, compostablility, recyclability … are bombarding us daily. If we can’t trust the validity of these claims, or if we see most things as merely greenwashed (to appear as a part of the "trend"), then consumers will lose interest. Then, the "trend" will dissipate or expire and we will be left with the same issues, and more confusion and rebellion.

This sounds terrifying right? Yes. So, it’s important to look for seals that are used on products that come from multiple product companies. If you check out the BPI website, you will see that many companies have come to them to obtain their evaluation and thus their seal to accredit their hard work. This is a good sign.

The interesting aspect to the BPI program is that they have their own private label in which they (at a first glance, anyway) disguise that they use more widely-accepted criteria to award their seal. The problem here is that this doesn’t allow consumers to leverage decisions very easily when everything is (seemingly) evaluated against a different set of criteria, and thus obtaining different seals. I can, although, leave you with the confidence that the Biodegradable Products Institute "compostable" logo is a valid one.

When we order a new piece of furniture or new piece of technology for our home, it comes delivered in a box large enough for kids to build a fort in (what I did in an old refrigerator box once). There’s so much packaging that you have to call your trash service and request a special “large load” pick-up. I am ashamed to bring home a plastic bag from the grocery store when I forget my cloth, but how ashamed are we when we request this mountain of waste.

Well a recent graduate of Central St Martins’ Masters Industrial Design Program, Tom Ballhatchet, decided to use the guild in a constructive way. Instead of throwing away all this stamped foam packaging from his new flat-screen TV, Tom decided to construct an entertainment stand. It makes us think of the form of these extruded or stamped packaging part, oftentimes they are the same shape and size or have nice crevices that can serve as storage. My only wish in this project is that he found a way to incorporate the gigantic box and plastic wrap.

With this trend of Zero waste design and seeing packaging as superfluous, we are beginning to see even more products out there that use their packaging in the fully constructed form. Lite2Go’s packaging doubles as the actual lampshade leaving very little waste (the label and instructions for assembly). Designed by Knoed (i.e. know no-end), Lite2go is a good example of their mission statement- “taking into consideration the full life cycle of materials going into the products they design”. The packaging/shade is made of recyclable polypropylene plastic; and the electric cord and bulb can be recycled at the appropriate centers.

The interesting thing about this design is that it is just plain practical. One doesn’t have to be an eco-conscious consumer to see this. Why create extra packaging when it is unnecessary? Although the light is marketed as a green product, it could be marketed just as a light with a fun DIY surprise.

With this trend of cutting down on emissions and waste, we need to think beyond recycling. As recycling requires energy to break materials down into a new usable source, reusing materials for a new purpose is much more energy efficient. I challenge you to get creative with your waste and repurpose some of it at least once before you get rid of it.

A few weeks ago I wrote an article alerting you to an international activity that took place on September 21 called Park(ing) Day. As predicted, the event, in its third year, was an overall hit. From a little over a dozen parks last year, this year’s international event tallied up 180 parks in 47 cities worldwide. San Francisco, Park(ing) Day’s hometown, accomplished 53 parks and 5 sidewalk plazas, LA boasted 45 parks, and NYC came in 3rd with 25 parks. If this isn’t enough to make your toes tickle, then view the images of participating parks and activities.

This year, the event gained necessary traction to make it recognizable and eventful. People remembered it from the year before, and were less hesitant to step out of their shell and visit with strangers, and many even took the day off or a few hours off to set up their own parks. As a statement of activism, the event stands to highlight how much public municipal space is designated for private vehicular parking. "Why can’t we park a bench instead of a car?" Well, that is exactly what many did.

According to the New York Times, the event’s irony lies in the fact that "This, after all, is the city where people, surrounded by 3,500 pounds of metal, have fought duels over who is entitled to park a 189-inch-long vehicle at 190 inches of curb space." But on National Park(ing) Day, participants are able to forget that, and see parking spaces as something new. Not only do they take a new form but also the scale of the 190 inches is put into a new perspective, and the space is used in a new, interesting, and appreciated way. In a space where one would park a vehicle that on a regular basis only transports a single passenger, up to 10 people can relax and visit.

The most appreciated factor of this day is the community participation. People are encouraged to visit, relax, and enjoy a minute or two of their day. In cities, we are under the impression that we sacrifice living space for more public space. Yet the majority of public space is designated for semi-private or privately owned public space i.e.: restaurants… The amount of city-owned public green space is getting more and more sparse.

So let’s imagine Park(ing) Day 5 years from now. We could transform streets worldwide into ballparks, or networking corridors. What if we could take up a lane on all city roads and designate it for eased foot traffic, or a place to notice your neighbors, catch-up, and sip a cup of coffee while observing the passing of time? Oh how community could grow…

This November 7-9, Chicago will host the largest GreenBuild Expo in history. Put on by the USGBC (United States Green Building Council), this year over 18,000 attendees will gather to learn about the trends in green construction and get inspired about future projects. In a city aiming to be the greenest, this is a monumental event. On top of it all, GreenBuild will be held in one of Chicago’s LEED certified facilities, the McCormick Place West Building.

According to the USGBC, "Chicago mayor Richard Daley has pledged to make Chicago the most environmentally friendly city in the world. Building on its legacy as a center of American architecture, Chicago was one of the first cities to adopt LEED. Today it has the most LEED projects of any city in the world."

Included in the Expo is an international conference with headlining speakers such as Paul Hawken (author), Sadhu Johnston (Chicago Commissioner of the Department of Environment),  Thom Mayne (Founder and Principal of Morphosis), Maria Atkinson (Global Head of Sustainability at Lend Lease), and former US President Bill Clinton. USGBC President and CEO Rick Fedrizzi on is especially excited about Clinton’s planned appearance:

"This is an unprecedented opportunity for our green building community to hear from one of the greatest philanthropic and environmental leaders of this century. The William J. Clinton Foundation is facilitating a series of global action plans that are addressing some of the most intractable problems of our times — AIDS, economic sustainability as a way to eradicate poverty, the elimination of childhood obesity. His framework has shown the power that groups of individuals have to effect real change."

"Reducing the C02 emissions that lead to climate change is another key area of focus, and it’s being addressed by the Clinton Climate Initiative, with green building as a cornerstone of that effort,” Fedrizzi noted. “We are making a difference, and President Clinton’s unique ability to inspire individual action will add incredible momentum to this important work."

The event has a full schedule of networking and educational opportunities. Whether you are a homeowner, a builder, designer, architect, engineer, and, heck, even a programmer or a banker, there is something applicable to everyone’s life. With over 850 exhibit booths displaying the newest products and technologies, the expo itself will be an educational and eye opening experience. If you leave thinking, "I still can’t do it," then you didn’t pick up enough tools while in attendance.

PowerSEED began as a way to playfully and artistically beautify a Pasadena electric power plant. The art installation was commissioned by the City of Pasadena to increase safety and security in the area while making the industrial construction a little less fierce. Developed by a design duo calling themselves UeBERSEE (German for oversees), PowerSEED is a design/art installation incorporating flower-like stalks with stamen-like solar-powered lights sprouting out the top.

The 30 lights are positioned in clusters that are not so randomly scattered about the site. Each solar light sits atop a 24-meter flexible pole that sways gently in the wind and power plant exhaust. In addition, these freestanding lights double as WIFI-controlled structures. And going even further, to increase the sense of ownership towards the installation, the gentleman from UeBERSEE started an "Adopt a Power Plant Program" in which community members can own a light of choice.

The project was completed in 2006, but the excitement didn’t stop there. The design group received a runner-up position in Metropolis magazine’s Next Generation Design Competition. They also went on to receive a position as a finalist for the 2007 Index Awards, a highly acclaimed award program for projects completed in the previous year. As an extension of the PowerSEED, they also designed sidewalk tile pods. These are sidewalk tiles set right into the walkways, imbedded with solar powered lights to artfully and effectively light a pedestrian’s path. This concept in conjunction with the flower stamen solar lights were entered into these competitions, and received recognition for their simplicity, sustainable community attributes, and playful beauty.

Dedicated to "storytelling by design in the business and cultural realm both," the German design duo (Nikolaus Hafermaas and Boris Von Bormann) has worked with clients such as Mercedes, Motorola, Toyota, Audi, Zurich Financial Services, Nissan, and (as we now know) the City of Pasadena. They designate themselves as ideal partners for ad agencies, design houses that want to expand into the 3d environments realm, narrative spaces, and brand experiences. So for those of you who need to add a little play to your office campus, perhaps you should consider UeBERSEE as your environmental designers to improve the sustainability profile of your company and the aesthetic/emotional reactions towards your work environment.

More than 70% of outdoor space in the city of San Francisco is dedicated to vehicle parking. That leaves little space for public activity, public play, and public human parking. This very idea sparked an inspiration in a few young men in San Francisco who decided to intervene by paying the meter to create temporary public parks. Rebar group is what they call themselves and the event is called PARK(ing).

The first event took place on November 16, 2005, when these guys and their buddies rolled into town with a truck bed full of sod. They identified a parking spot in a part of downtown San Francisco that was lacking any sort of public outdoor human space, put some quarters in the meter (thus renting the downtown real estate), rolled out their sod, parked a bench, and enjoyed their afternoon in the park (until the 2 hour meter ran out). They invited all passing pedestrians to enjoy a little time in the sun with them, and take a rest. “By our calculations, we provided an additional 24,000 square-foot-minutes of public open space that Wednesday afternoon,” says Rebar member.

The critical issue the members of Rebar intend to approach goes beyond the excessive amount of city surface area dedicated to private vehicles. They desire to display the paucity of public outdoor urban human habitat by way of temporarily renting this private vehicular space.

It is nice to have trees in the city to clean our air and increase our exposure to nature amongst the manmade construct, but oftentimes these small plots of earth are fenced off. Why not include a place to enter and rest your feet right next to these trees?

In its third year, Rebar’s spactacular PARK(ing) event will take place in cities all over the world. Friday Sept. 21st will be a day that no one could miss while tromping around a participating city. The Trust for Public Land is heading up National PARK(ing) day in more than a dozen U.S. cities: NYC, LA, DC, Seattle, Portland, Chicago, St. Paul, Boston, Austin, Salt Lake City, Tampa, and Miami (for more info to get involved or add you city… click). Additionally, a slew of international cities are lined up to participate on this monumental day including: London, Paris, Barcelona, Valencia, Munich, Toronto, Melbourne, and others.

So in response to this information, ReBar, myself, and our community are calling on you — artists, activists, and citizens — to temporarily take over private city parking space and turn them into ephemeral public parks. Get in touch with your local coordinator, invent your perfect mini park, and build it on September 21 along with other enthusiast worldwide…and don’t forget to invite you friends!

It is that time of year to get on the bus and head back to school. Preparing for class and back-to-school activities is not our most sustainability-focused time or year. We want to buy new clothes, new supplies- a new look. This Fall, some students will be living in style out of an old container.

As some college students in Amsterdam move into their brand new housing, accommodations will be a hip combination of new and old. Rethinking the way we use things, Keetowonen, a student housing project in Amsterdam, is transforming shipping containers into 1000 units for college students. Each container block has one building services container that supplies the block with electricity and Internet. Atop the roof is a different container system that collects rainwater, while providing equal heat dispersal and insulation for the units below.

Our perception of a shipping container might not be of something very spacious since they’re usually packed full of non-perishable products from across the globe. Yet, when emptied and tidied up, they can be made into a quite accommodating space. Each 40 square-foot unit is equipped with all the amenities a college student might need- sink, shower, toilet, kitchen, a boiler for hot waster, electricity, heat, and even balconies. Some end units have windows on the side to allow more sunlight to penetrate their space. The box-in-box construction means that the floors, walls and ceilings don’t come in contact with the external structure of the container. Therefore, the interior space in insulated from thermal change and sound disruption.

Also on the campus, Tempohousing installed a café-restaurant, a supermarket, office building, laundry-mat, and a sporting area- all made out of shipping containers. So, for those of you who simply can’t resist now, here is the skinny on the cost and availability of the containers. The units are rented out by the De Key housing corporation. Additionally, in 2005 the Dutch ministry of Housing, Spatial Planning and the Environment (VROM) presented Keetwonen with a formal notice that the units are eligible for housing subsidies. "The amount of subsidy tenants can claim depends on their personal (financial) circumstances." Belastingdienst is the provider of this subsidy contract

The first block of 60 units was completed by September 2005 and was rented out. The last was finished in April 2006. This past April 25th, the project received the Funda Award for "best executed innovation in construction."

"At the award ceremony the jury acknowledged Keetwonen to be ‘bright stars in an otherwise dimly lit market which is acting slow on innovation.’ In the report produced by the jurors fast construction and the fact that the Keetwonen habitats are ready for habitation on arrival were the main focus. The low construction cost was also mentioned as a big plus."

Also on GO:

Urban Options: Group 41 Offers Free Custom Container Architecture