Sustainable Interiors Materials Online Workshop

SD/VS-1977-10
Sustainable Interiors: Material and Product Selection
Feb. 18 - March 21 (5 weeks)
Your instructor for this class, Douglas D. Pierce, AIA, LEED(c) AP, chairs the board of the Clean Water Action Alliance of Minnesota and the AIA Minnesota Committee on the Environment. And has been on the pushing for green side of industry for a very long time.This course provides conceptual frames and analytical tools and focuses on simple methods and spreadsheet-based tools to guide the green novice or veteran in analyzing and benchmarking the sustainability of a wide range of products and materials. This course also covers key conceptual frames (biomimicry, anthropogenic nature and others), greenwash awareness, LCA and material rating systems (C2C and SMART(c)). Participants will source and analysis materials with the help of product manufacturers, representatives, suppliers and free or low-cost information. The class will be beneficial to architects, designers, facility managers, purchasing agents, product manufacturers and product representatives. The tools provided will help in selecting and analyzing materials for high-performance sustainable residential and commercial interior build-outs, sustainable furnishings, LEED for Commercial Interiors (Ci), New Construction (NC), Core and Shell (CS) and more.
For more info check this link.

sustainable Living Festival

When you are in Melbourne in February, please visit the Sustainalbe Living Festival AND join the biggest green drinks ;) The program looks great and there are heaps of interesting exhibitors.

Federation Square Melbourne 15-17 Feb 2008
The Sustainable Living Festival showcases a huge range of exhibitors, talks, workshops, art, films and performances celebrating and inspiring sustainable communities.

World Biggest Green Drinks

o2Melbourne are joining The Worlds Biggest Green Drinks attempt at the Sustainable Living Festival 2008 and you should join them.

WHAT: A night to celebrate sustainable thinking
WHEN: 6:00pm 15th Feb 2008 To coincide with the Sustainable Living Festival
WHERE: BMW Edge, Federation Square, Melbourne
COST: Free* Organic drinks at bar prices

Design Victoria

Design Victoria is a new Victorian Government initiative designed to increase industry awareness and utilisation of Victoria’s world leading design capability to grow their business, improve competitiveness, find new markets and increase the competitive skills for Victorian designers to succeed in local and global markets.

They have heaps of interesting free (!) lectures and seminars so if you are in Melbourne try to go there! I wish we had something like this here in Perth!
Coming up:

Design, Innovation, Opportunities and Dilemmas –A view from The Netherlands
Wednesday 6 February 2008 6pm to 7.30pm (followed by drinks)
Carillo Gantner Theatre, Sidney Myer Asia Centre,
University of Melbourne
Professor Han Brezet Head, Design for Sustainability (D4S), Technical University of Delft; City Innovator, Rotterdam; TV Judge, 'Best Ideas of the Netherlands' is giving a lecture. He is also the creator of the dance floor I wrote about on this blog.

Seminar Sustainable Packaging Trends and Opportunities
Wednesday 13 February 2008
10.00am - 1.00pm
Village Roadshow Theatre, State Library of Victoria
Entry 3, La Trobe Street Melbourne
Sustainable Packaging Trends and Opportunities.
Designing packaging that is functional, cost effective, has no harmful side effects on human health and minimises the impact on the environment is an increasing priority for industry and consumers. This seminar brings together a panel of international and local expert speakers across the latest and emerging trends in packaging design for sustainability to answer the question:What role can designers play in designing sustainable packaging?

The eco system of an ants colony

Green Cities conference 2008

Dr Michael Braungart is confirmed as the keynote speaker at the Green Cities 08 conference, to be held 10-13 February at the Sydney Convention and Exhibition Centre Darling Harbour. Michael is the co-founder of MBDC (McDonough Braungart Design Chemistry) in the US, and prompted worldwide academic and scientific enquiry into the adverse environmental and physiological impacts of industrially produced goods and the cradle to cradle strategy. The conference provides insight into a broad range of sustainability issues affecting the property industry. Central to the conference’s agenda will be discussions on building beyond sustainable design, emissions trading in the built environment, and incentives and policies to create greener cities.

Deeper luxury

"What are you made of"?
The global wave of awareness...
WWF (World Wide Fund for nature) in the UK has come with an interesting report on deeper luxury, for everyone involved in the luxury industry (jewelry, accesories, cosmetics, clothing, etc.) this is an interesting read. WWF-UK ranked the world's largest luxury groups on their social and environmental performance, as well as analysing relevant attitudes in the luxury industry. Luxury is about being and having the very best! It's not about following a brand because everyone else does!

Community papers

Western Suburbs Weekly:
(Click on picture to read the story)

Calling all green designers and engineers!

Have you already heard of Dell's "ReGeneration" contest for green computing / IT design?
Check here!
"I'm not going to rehash the official announcements about it, but as one of the jurors, I want lots of people to submit good designs! There is no entry fee, and you retain intellectual property rights to your design. No prototypes necessary, a concept is all you need. Be brilliant, be visionary, be bold. Or be subtle and practical but persuasive. Either way, build a clear case why your idea will make a big difference. "
Jeremy Faludi
Principal, Faludi Design

World Changing

WorldChanging.com works from a simple premise: that the tools, models and ideas for building a better future lie all around us. That plenty of people are working on tools for change, but the fields in which they work remain unconnected. That the motive, means and opportunity for profound positive change are already present. That another world is not just possible, it's here. We only need to put the pieces together.
Worldchanging:
A Users Guide for the 21st Century is a groundbreaking compendium of the most innovative solutions, ideas and inventions emerging today for building a sustainable, livable, prosperous future.
600 pages of emerging innovations and solutions for building a bright green future, from disaster relief to sustainable business, community gardens to climate change.

Ashden Awards

Ashden Awards reward and promote excellent local sustainable energy solutions in the UK and the developing world. By rewarding the best, they raise awareness of the huge potential of local sustainable energy to both tackle climate change and improve the quality of people's lives. They aim to encourage its wider take-up across the world. This website is inspiring and contains full details of the Awards, including detailed summaries and photographs of all past winners’ work.

One of the winners of 2007 is the Dutch engineer Auke Idzenga who started AIFDI, with his 'water ram' a cheap water pump which runs on running water (no electricity is involved) and locally manufacturered.

Ecological footprint of two girls

Which of those two room mates are you?

Third Perth Green Drinks

The weather yesterday was perfect; sunny with a little breeze. Ideal to meet other people, have a drink and talk about green things in the park. Although a lot of people are still celebrating their holidays we had a nice small group of about 25 people.
And when Glenn Clarke of Envious Landscapes was introducing himself and his company Envious Landscapes we even got an interesting group discussion afterwards. Glenn is definitely a passionate garden designer and sustainable gardens is his specialty although people also like his designs and the water wise benefits are just an extra bonus for them. As a lot of people still have the non attractive native gardens of the seventies in their minds Glenn assures that the possibilities are endless and quite beautiful. And you can still add non native plans in a sustainable garden. Thanks Glenn, for this interesting information.
This reminds me to mention that you can buy native plants for a low price in winter, I bought about 20 plants last year; flowers, bush and a few trees.
To support the Western Suburbs Greening Plan, specifically the "Greening Private Land" strategy, the City of Nedlands offers subsidised seedlings to its residents at the start of each winter. Call the Bushcare Officer on 9273 3575 to register for an order form. Or check your local council if they have similar projects.

Facebook

The national group, o2 Australia, has a group at Facebook, called Green Grubs. If you are active on Facebook you can become a member and see what is going on at o2 Australia and Green Drinks in all states.

Greener Gadgets Design Competittion

Got this email today via the o2 network:

We know our lowly $ is less of a prize these days, but at least it's great visibility!

Greener Gadgets has partnered with Core77 to seek out design innovations for greener electronics. This design competition will engage established design firms, emerging designers, and design students to come up with new and innovative solutions to address the issues of energy, carbon footprint, health and toxicity, new materials, product lifecycle, and social development.

The top entries will be showcased live at the Greener Gadgets Conference for judging by a panel and the audience, and awards will be given out at the end of the night.

Winners will also be showcased on GreenerGadgets.com, Core77.com, and Inhabitat.com

PrizesGrand Prize: US $2,500

Two Runners Up: US $1,000 each

Schedule & Rules December 26th

Submission begins January 27th 11:59pm EST

Entry Deadline (competition closes) January 29th

Finalists notified February 1st

Finalists showcased at Greener Gadgets Conference. Winner and runners up selected.

On Borrowed Time

I've read parts of this book and I can advice you to have a look at it, because it covers a lot of interesting issue's. It's about all the things we know, but written in an interesting way, to the point.
On Borrowed Time describes:
- The uniqueness of Australia's biodiversity and environments — Australia is the only megadiverse nation with a developed economy
- The state of Australia's ecology after 200 years of white settlement — the continent has the worst biodiversity loss record of any place on earth and rates of land degradation that are virtually unparalleled elsewhere
- The 10 key issues that must be tackled urgently :

ISBN / Catalogue Number: 9780143006961