Today’s Compostmodern conference in San Francisco didn’t disappoint, with a design-star-studded line up of speakers from Alex Steffen of Worldchanging to Marc Alt (co-organizer of our Greener Gadgets Conference!), Adam Werbach of Act Now Productions and Scott Stowell of Open. Discussions centered around sustainable innovation in design, what it really means to design “green,” and the future of environmental responsibility in the design world. Highlights included Joel Makower’s morning introduction, which likened sustainability to teenage sex: “Everyone says they’re doing it, but not many people really are. And those who are, aren’t doing it well,” to Jane Savage’s overview of Nike’s “Considered” program which combines a forward-thinking corporate responsibility plan with innovative design.
Emily and Piper
Other speakers included Valerie Casey of IDEO, whose recently launched Designers Accord is gaining momentum as a pledge in which design firms and organizations commit to environmental responsibility and social innovation. Alex Steffen also spoke, always a crowd pleaser, and Marc Alt and Phil Hamlett of the AIGA’s Center for Sustainable Design spoke about design thinking, and opened the q and a session to suggestions from the audience on how the Center for Sustainable Design can further serve the design community. Adam Werbach of Act Now Productions closed the day with a controversial discussion of Walmart’s recent efforts to “go green.” And our favorite sustainable homewares retail outlet, Branch, was rockin’ their pop-up store selling great green goods.
All in all the day was jam packed with exciting subject matter. We can’t wait for next year!
+ Compostmodern 2008
For those of us who do not live in San Francisco or New York (where most of the green stuff seems to be happening) it would be wonderful if there were videos available on Inhabitat, AFTER the conference, of the speakers so that we could all benefit from what these leaders have to say. Is that a possibility?