At the beginning of October 2012, an article by GreenBiz’s Joel Makower was posted on livingprinciples.org about the U.S. Federal Trade Commission’s (FTC) long awaited release of the revised Environmental Marketing Claims Guidelines* – noting you can’t call something “green” or “eco-friendly” unless you can prove it really is “green” or “eco-friendly.” And while the →

When I try to explain to friends and family what sustainability is, I try to avoid the definition of being ‘green’ because everyone automatically assumes I am a hippie and am going to chain myself to a tree. I define sustainability in a broader sense, not just in terms of meeting today’s needs without compromising →

I love to ride bikes. I grew up in Minneapolis riding to Dinkytown and commuting on Minneapolis’ Midtown Greenway. When I moved to California five years ago, my love for bikes didn’t waiver. As I started to think about what type of company I wanted to intern for as part of my Master’s in Sustainable →

Core77 is having a design contest: Design For (Your) Product Lifetime. In addition to fame and glory, there are cash prizes. Design for lifetime includes design for recycling, reuse, disassembly, upgrade, and repair. It’s an often-neglected but extremely exciting aspect of sustainable design, because it can make an enormous impact. DEADLINE to apply is November 15, →

As designers, we understand that design has the inherent power to transform our behaviors and to shape our culture. It is why we have both a responsibility and a tremendous opportunity to use that power to ignite change and to communicate the importance of sustainability to individuals, corporations, society, the environment and ourselves. In recognition →

Earlier this month, the AIGA MN held its annual graphic Design Show at Shelter Studios in Northeast Minneapolis. This year, the practicing sustainability professionals that make up the MCAD’s Sustainable Design Online (SDO) program’s instructor list were asked to participate in the eco-award portion of the show. I led the team to rewrite the criteria →

Henry the Fifth, as characterized by William Shakespeare, is the quintessential heroic leader – bold, manly, inspiring, strong, passionate, ready to bravely battle against all odds, ready to lead all of those that believe — heart and soul — in what he proclaims to be right and true. Phew. That sort of leader is great →

Suddenly Bucky is everywhere. The Buckminster Fuller Challenge, a show at the Whitney, books evaluating his work, and an overview in Wired. What is going on? The time is ripe for his ideas. Sustainable design was a new concept when he started in the 1930’s, and even by the 1970’s it was part of the →

Michelle Holliday posted a blog recently entitled, Using Improv to Save the World, which was inspired by a workshop presented by Belina Raffy. Holliday does a nice job of explaining how, well, you can use improv to save the world. More specifically, Holliday notes that, “We never really know what’s coming at us next …,” →

For decades, people believed that the concrete jungles of dense cities were unsustainable, because they feel so divorced from nature. But they were wrong. Density is efficient. However, it isn’t necessarily fun. More livable neighborhoods have both nature and high density, not only providing streets where people can walk, but where people want to walk. Many urban planners and property owners know →