Read the rest of INTERVIEW: 8 Questions with Starbucks Global Responsibility VP Ben Packard

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Post tags: ben packard, coffee farming, coffee house, corporate social responsibility, ethical farming sustainable agriculture, leed certified stores, leed for retail, recycled packaging, renewable energy credits, social responsibility, starbucks global responsbility, starbucks leed, U.S. Green Building Council, water scarcity

This portable water filter from Aquaovo is a fantastic alternative to buying bottled water. The Canada-based team has launched a new campaign to get their new Alter Ego filter system off the ground, and they’re even tying its profits to socially responsible water access charities. As a follow-up to their previous OVOPUR water filter back in 2009, Aquaovo has combined a stylish design with a sustainable concept in order to create an appealing brand.

Read the rest of Aquaovo’s Portable Alter Ego Water Filter is a Stylish Alternative to Buying Bottled Water

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Post tags: alter ego, aquaovo, clean water, eco water, green design, portable water filter, social responsibility, sustainable design, water access

Read the rest of Mine Kafon: Wind-Propelled Bamboo Sphere Designed to Clear Landmines

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Post tags: "wind power", Art, biodegradable plastic, Design Academy of Eindhoven, green materials, humanitarian design, Massoud Hassani, moma, Recycled Materials, renewable Bamboo, social responsibility, The Mine Kafon, Zero energy

Read the rest of PLEASE HELP: Desperate Lower Manhattan Struggles For Water, Food, Communication

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Post tags: humanitarian aid, hurricane aid, hurricane rebuilding, hurricane relief, Hurricane Sandy, lower Manhattan, manhattan, natural disaster relief, new york city, social responsibility

Read the rest of Richardson Apartments: David Baker’s Affordable Housing Project in Hayes Valley Wows Design Enthusiasts at AIA Homes Tours

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Post tags: "sustainable architecture", affordable housing, architecture and the city, architecture in the city, david baker, David Baker + Partners Architects, design events, Drs. Julian and Raye Richardson Apartments, green architecture, Green Building, hayes valley, San Francisco, sf aia, SF AIA Homes Tours, social housing, social responsibility, Sustainable Building, sustainable design

Cheap fashion often comes at a high price for the sweatshop workers who create the garments, which is why activists from the Clean Clothes Campaign took to clothing stores throughout Europe last week and staged “faint-ins.” Appearing to pass out on the floors of Zara, H&M and the Gap, members of the campaign sought to highlight instances of mass fainting in sweatshops in Cambodia. In just two days last month at least 284 employees collapsed at a the M&V International Manufacturing in Kompong Chhang province. Workers in the Southeast Asian nation are regularly exposed to unsafe working conditions, experiencing poverty pay and malnutrition as they produce the ever-popular garments.

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Post tags: cheap fashion, clean clothes campaign, corporate responsibility, eco-fashion, gap clothing, garment industry, h&m, social responsibility, sweatshop labor, working conditions, Zara

Read the rest of Bambu’s Renewable Ideas Fuse Design and Social Responsibility

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Post tags: "natural materials", 100% organic, 100% vegan, 2012 New York International Gift Fair, 2012 NYIGF, Amanda Coen, Amanda Silvana Coen, animal free, Bambu, china, cork fabric, cork fabric placement and coaster set, eco design, eco-friendly, Environmentally Friendly, ethical design, Fair Trade, gift fair, Green America, Green America’s Gold Seal of Approval, green business, green design, green gifts, green home, green office, green products, home products, inhabitat, Inhabitat.com, ipad case, kitchen products, manhattan, new york city, new york international gift fair, New York., Northern Vietnam, nyigf, office products, organic bamboo, pesticide free, product design, Qin Ling Mountains, renewable design, renewable resources, Singapore, social enterprise, social responsibility, socially responsible, SustainAbility: Design for a Better World; 2012 NYIGF, sustainable bamboo, sustainable coconut, sustainable cork, sustainable design, sustainable soy, sustainably harvested, trade show, Vegan design, Vegan products

Americans may produce more municipal waste per capita than any other country in the world, but improving our recycling rate is one major way we can turn the tide and become a more sustainable society. According to a new report released by As You Sow (AYS), an environmental and social responsibility-focused advocacy group, a significant source of the problem lies in our failure to recycle packaging made from recyclable materials.

Read the rest of $11 Billion Worth of Recyclable Packaging is Buried in American Landfills

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Post tags: As You Sow, carbon emissions, end of life, extended producer responsibility, green jobs, green materials, landfills, Packaging Design, packaging materials, post-consumer content, social responsibility, Sustainable Brands, total life cycle

The Aging in Africa Project, designed by architecture firm HWKN for the Foundation Saint Joseph d’Arimathie, aims to be the first retirement community in Africa dedicated entirely to caring for those without family. According to the project’s founders, Catholic priests are a group often excluded from care in a family-based society. HWKN’s design for the center provides a modern, safe, efficient facility where the retirees can enjoy a healthy and comfortable lifestyle.

Read the rest of HWKN’s Aging in Africa Will Be a Sustainable Retirement Village in Côte d’Ivoire

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Post tags: aging in africa, elderly care, Kimbyyung Kyun, marc kushner, Marc Perrotta, Matthias Hollwich, residential care home, Robert May, social responsibility, sustainable care home

Concerned about the unethical practice of child labor throughout the world, artist Cynthia Sibley has created an installation piece entitled “Shadow Children.” The intention is to help bring to light the suffering of millions of children worldwide who must endure a life of enforced labor and poverty. The installation consists of a structure that is a 10′x10′ room with walls made out of old musty tents. Visitors enter the structure, and their movements set off a series of triggers that illuminate the life-sized silhouettes of children. The action of setting off sensors by the viewer, corresponds to our actions in daily life that are often a catalyst or at least play a role in the plight of these children.

Read the rest of ‘Shadow Children’ is Moving Installation About Child Labor Made From Recycled Materials

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Post tags: artist cynthia sibley, child labor, cynthia sibley, green art, Recycled Materials, shadow children, shadow children installation, social responsibility, social responsible art

Read the rest of Swags’ Ultralight Waterproof Backpack Bed Provides Aid to Homeless

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Post tags: aid, australias homeless, backpack, backpack bed, backpacking, best of the best, camping, charitable acts, charitable organization, Charity, community, compassion, convertible bed, debt, eco design, eco habitat, eco-conscious, eco-friendly, emergency shelter, Ending Poverty, Environment, environmental design, exterior pocket, functional design, germany red dot award, green design, green infrastructure, green living, green transportation, hiking, homeless shelter, infrastructure, international aid, minimalist, minimalist design, mosquito net, portable shelter, Poverty, powerhouse museum, public policy, red dot, roll out bed, sheepherding, single person shelter, sleeping bag, Social Justice, social responsibility, sustainable design, sustainable living, swag, swags australia, swags for the homeless, unemployment, waterproof backpack, waterproof sleeping bag

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Post tags: "green furniture", Art, bamboo light, corian, Decorative Objects, DIY, eco gardening, fruits and vegetables storing, FSC wood furniture, Gardening, Green Appliances, Green Design Events, green lighting, green materials, green products, Interactive Objects, islington, LED bicycle, London, london design show, new designers 2011, no glue no screw, recycling / compost, social design, social responsibility, twitter public bench

New smartphone apps are a dime a dozen but few can have a life changing — or life saving — impact. But the San Ramon Valley Fire Protection District outside San Francisco has created an app that does just that. Aptly named “Fire Department,” the application empowers iPhone users to provide life-saving assistance to someone suffering from a sudden heart attack. Any user who indicated that he knows CPR will be notified if someone nearby is having a heart attack and needs help.

Read the rest of ‘Fire Department’ iPhone App Could Save Heart Attack Victims

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Post tags: aed use, cardiac arrest, cpr assistance, Design for Health, fire department iphone app, fire department smartphone app, heart attack saving iphone app, iPhone, iphone application, iphone apps, life saving design, life saving iphone app, san ramon fire department, San Ramon Valley Fire Protection District, smart design, social responsibility

Read the rest of LEED Gold Community Springs up in Hunters Point, SF

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Post tags: aia sf home tour, architecture and the city, architecture and the city festival, Armstrong Senior Housing, david baker architects, green design, hunter's point, LEED gold, San Francisco, social housing, social responsibility, sustainable design

Times flies when you’re helping out humanitarian efforts. Okay maybe that’s not quite how the saying goes, but this Epigram Clock by Botanist gives us a little poetic license. Designed by celebrated graphic designer Milton Glaser, the clock is made of aluminum which contains up to 70% recycled content, and a percentage of the proceeds goes directly to the International Rescue Committee, an organization that responds to the world’s worst humanitarian crises and helps people to survive and rebuild their lives.

+ Epigram Clock

Via Econesting

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Post tags: aluminum clock, botanist, Charity, epigram clock, green clock, green products, International Rescue Committee, social responsibility, sustainable clock, time flies clock

Mexico is one of the largest producers of cacao in the world, cultivating this ancient currency for over three millennia. But while it’s the birthplace of chocolate, any production of this lucrative product domestically remains quite scarce. Designed by Héctor Galván, founder of Mexico City-based design studio Omlette, BOOM! is a tasty bit of artillery-shaped political commentary that aims to educate Mexican locals on the economic potential that lies in producing chocolate as purely, organically and domestically as once before.

Read the rest of BOOM! A Political Statement in the Form of Chocolate

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Post tags: boom!, cacao, chocolate, chocolate weaponry, Héctor Galván, Local Farming, local goods, mexico, omlette, organic chocolate, organic farming, social design, social responsibility, sustainable farming

Apple announced this news in its Supplier Responsibility Report, a report released for three years running that audits of Apple’s supplier factories. These factories aren’t owned by Apple, but while working on Apple’s goods they are contractually obligated to work within Apple’s worker’s rights rules and the laws of the country that they operate in. The violations occurred in both of those categories. For instance, workers were found to have worked beyond Apple’s 60 hour-per-week limit in 60 of the 102 factories audited and 11 workers across various facilities were found to have been hired at 15 years of age, one year below their respective country’s legal working age limit.

Apple found three factories had hired non-certified hazardous disposal agencies to do away with their waste and 44 facilities that didn’t have a proper environmental impact assessments including 11 which didn’t have air emissions permits. In the Supplier Responsibility Report they state, “when social responsibility performance consistently fails to meet Apple expectations, [they] terminate business.” In many of the cases of violations the wrongs have been righted, for instance underpaid workers have been paid for the discrepancies and the underage workers are all now at the legal working age.

Though the violations come as a shock it’s nice to know that Apple is clearly displaying their assembly line faults and laying out a plan of action to fix them — if they haven’t already. Apple also noted in their report that all of the factories audited stated that Apple was the only company to have ever audited their facility. The report highlights issues that occur when the supply and manufacturing chains are geographically removed from the business operations. Without oversight factories violations can slip under the radar. Kudos to Apple for finding these violations and laying out plans to fix them. You can rest easy knowing Apple is doing something to make sure your gadgets are made with responsibility in mind.

+ Apple Supplier Responsibility Report

Via TG Daily

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Post tags: apple, Apple Computers, audit, child labor, discrimination, factory, factory audit, human rights, mac, report, social responsibility, social responsibility report, Steve Jobs, underage workers, violations

A crowd that included actor/activist Don Cheadle gathered last week to celebrate the completion of the Upward Bound House Family Shelter in Culver City, Los Angeles, what is undeniably one of the prettiest and most cheerful homeless shelters we’ve ever seen. Once the site of a rundown motel with transient tenants, this 18-unit complex received a complete make over by an all-star cast of Los Angeles interior designers. With no budget at all, designers used their creative muscle to transform dark and dreary motel rooms into bright and uplifting spaces for homeless families in need.

Read the rest of Upward Bound: LA Designers Create Happy Spaces for Homeless Families

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Post tags: "sustainable architecture", charity design, design for the homeless, green design, green interiors, green renovation, Los Angeles, recycled furniture, social design, social responsibility, sustainable design, Sustainable Homeless Shelter, upward bound house

Spoiler alert: The Yes Men do actually fix the world– but only on paper. For years this two-man team has been pranking conferences, newscasts, and exhibitions by posing as representatives of the world’s biggest environmental transgressors. While speaking as DOW Chemical, they publicly apologized for the Bhopal disaster. While pretending to be from Halliburton, they demonstrated the Survivaball, a human disaster survival suit: prohibitively expensive and visually ridiculous. In a particularly complicated stunt, they created a fake version of the New York Times announcing everything from the end of the war in Iraq to the creation of a maximum wage law. They have provoked, embarrassed, ridiculed and shocked many captains of industry. Driven, ultimately, by the desire to address serious issues with humor and radical intervention, The Yes Men Fix the World in a documentary that pits itself against unchecked greed.

Read the rest of MOVIE REVIEW: The Yes Men Fix the World

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Post tags: activism, Art, Film, global warming, green design, movie, social responsibility, sustainable design, the art of the prank, Yes Men, yes men fix the world

Spring is off to a fresh start in New York as Harlem’s first affordable green community blossoms to life. Situated on West 153rd Street, David & Joyce Dinkins Gardens offers 85 units of affordable housing in addition to a 25,000 square foot youth center and a community garden. Jonathan Rose Companies and Harlem Congregations for Community Improvement developed the $19.5 million community to help repair the “physical, economic, cultural, and spiritual fabric of the neighborhood.” Towards these goals the project has kept costs low while integrating a noble set of social and environmental ideals governed by principles of diversity, interdependence, and environmental responsibility.

Read the rest of DINKINS GARDENS: Harlem’s First Affordable Green Housing

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Post tags: "sustainable architecture", community garden, Congregations for Community Improvement, David & Joyce Dinkins Gardens, green building in Harlem, Harlem, Jonathan Rose Companies, new york city, NYC green roofs, Recycled Materials, social responsibility, Sustainable Building