You pay for every kilowatt of energy, every gallon of water and every therm of natural gas you use in your home every month. You feel the pain when you leave the lights on, take extra hot showers, or forget to fix a leak when your bill spikes as a result of your excesses. Even the people who claim to not care about sustainability feel the financial pressure to reduce their energy and water use. So why don’t we treat trash, recycling and compost waste the same way? If we want people to reduce their waste, we need to bring awareness and financial incentives and consequences, to our waste disposal system. We can no longer rely on the “toss it and forget it” model we are using today. According to the The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, plastics amount to 13 percent of the municipal waste stream and unfortunately, only about 9 percent of plastics are recycled. The EPA also estimates that each American throws away 1.3 pounds of food waste every day and that these compostable items, along with yard …
Hitch Hikers: Carley Jacobson, Shane Chase, Isa Harvey, Christopher Krohn “Clothes the Loop” The Reformation makes “killer clothes that don’t kill the environment”. The Reformation currently has a fantastic and well thought out fabric sourcing practice including the use of deadstock, non-toxic solvents, and reusing vintage garments. Beyond these highly considered practices, Reformation has become a success because of their desirable, bespoke, and high-quality clothing. Reformation has taken several initiatives to consider the conception and use of their clothing from cradle to sale. What Reformation has not yet accomplished, however, is closing the loop of their garment cycle, beyond the point of sale. We see a great opportunity to consider the end of life of Reformation garments by adding a new point of contact from customers to company. In doing so, the company will not only develop additional interactions with their customers, but will also create a new channel of material sourcing, and incentivize addit…
I’m Here is a public service cultural sustainability project. I’m Here’s mission is to provide people the opportunity to record, share and preserve the stories of their lives in San Francisco through our digital mapping project. We do this to build and strengthen connections between people and place, and to weave into the fabric of our city the understanding that everyone’s story matters. Each resident’s footprint is an integral part of the San Francisco ecosystem. Social and cultural sustainability are just as important as environmental sustainability in creating livable cities. By capturing diverse stories we want to highlight the rich urban experience worth sustaining, voice by voice. We organize stories by locations plotted onto our map. The dialogue of all different types of people is the key to understanding anything of importance. By understanding the stories of the people that make up San Francisco, we can understand the larger opportunity of supporting a sustainable social system. Our mapping proj…
According to the Natural Resources Defense Council, “getting food from the farm to our fork eats up 10 percent of the total U.S. energy budget, uses 50 percent of U.S. land, and swallows 80 percent of all freshwater consumed in the United States.” Yet, 40 percent of food in the United States today goes uneaten. Farms, restaurants, and grocery stories throw away otherwise edible food because it is close to expiry, not aesthetically acceptable to consumers, and a host of other reasons. This is all while more than 14 percent of US households will lack sufficient food in a given year. In California alone, nearly 6.2 million people were considered food insecure in 2012. “Life creates conditions conducive to life” Life’s Principles, Biomimicry 3.8 Biorhythmics’ concept will connect and transport excess fresh foods (from senders) to excess demand through access points to food insecure populations (receivers). Considering this issue through the design lens of Biomimicry 3.8’s Life Principles, we know that our probl…
We are designing a media program for a new airline named Migration Air, a leader in eco travel and sustainable awareness. We offer specific touchpoints during the inflight media experience to encourage passengers to improve their travel behaviors and habits. Our media program encompasses a safety video, environmental documentaries, and educational lectures that bring attention to the impact that travelers have on the environment and highlight sustainable business activities in the origin & destination countries. Travelers will experience a fun and educational flight that offers progressive sustainable practices. By providing an eco-friendly in-flight media experience, our travelers will increase their knowledge and awareness of sustainable practices. This will result in more sustainable travel habits and increased engagement with social and cultural sustainable projects in local communities.