Sustainable Brands meets Sustainable Design

Alumni in Action

The end of the semester usually brings a welcome break for students, but the ever-eager students, alumni, and faculty of the MA in Sustainable Design (MASD) program are not slowing down.  Instead, they are interviewing over 40 speakers of the upcoming Sustainable Brands conference to learn about the inspiring people behind the bold sustainability movements.  You can find these interviews posted on the SB18 Updates page.  A few already posted:

An Audacious and Bold new Mission from Interface
Interview by Dawn Keene with Erin Meezan, Vice President and Chief Sustainability Officer, Interface

Scaling Our Positive Impact Now, When It’s Needed More Than Ever
Interview by Shanna Ruyle with Simon Mainwaring, Founder and CEO, We First

Finding New Forms of Shared Value
Interview by Denise DeLuca with Atlanta Mcllwraith, Senior Manager Community Engagement and Communications, Timberland

In addition to the interviews, 9 of our faculty and alumni have been invited to the conference provide design thinking expertise.  The theme of this year’s Sustainable Brands conference — their flagship annual event — is Re-Designing the Good Life. MASD designers will be catalyzing design thinking in a set of intensive Innovation Labs, which will focusing on topics ranging from Good Earth to Good Workplace to Good Supply Chain.  Come join us!

Look for updates from Vancouver June 4-7!

[image from https://events.sustainablebrands.com/sb18vancouver/activation-hub/ ]

Denise DeLuca / Former Director

Denise DeLuca is the Director of MCAD’s Sustainable Design program. She was co-founder of BCI: Biomimicry Creative for Innovation, a network of creative professional change agents driving ecological thinking for radical transformation. Denise is author of the book Re-Aligning with Nature: Ecological Thinking for Radical Transformation, which was illustrated by MASD alum Stephanie Koehler. She also teaches with the Amani Institute.

Denise’s previous roles include Education Director for the International Living Future Institute, Project Manager for Swedish Biomimetics 3000, and Outreach Director for The Biomimicry Institute. Denise is a licensed civil engineer (PE) and holds a master’s degree in civil and environmental engineering with a focus on modeling landscape-scale surface and groundwater interactions.  In addition, Denise is a Biomimicry Fellow and a member of the Advisory Council of The Biomimicry InstituteBoard Member of the International Society of Sustainability Professionals (ISSP), on the editorial board of the Journal of Bionic Engineering, and an Expert with Katerva. Denise is based in Oregon.

contact:  [email protected]