Bresslergreen

ECO-Rating System

 

EPEAT has been around for a while serving in the capacity of eco-labeling for industrial products. For example, if a government institution wants to purchase a series of low energy computers or the like, EPEAT would rate systems for them. They are now expanding their functionality to serve the consumer market.

As mentioned in a recent Core77 post, their rating system consists of a gold, silver, and bronze ranking. Amazon is a major partner in implementing this rating system so expect it to get a lot of advertisement.

Keep the ratings in mind when you make your next purchase. If you can save the environment and some money in the process. It's a win-win.

Cardboard Baby Furniture

This is absolutely brilliant. A baby seat made by Paper Tiger (who makes additional disposable furniture from cardboard.) As this article on Treehugger.com suggests, just think about the intelligence of this design. Kids outgrow their clothes and furniture in no time at all. By the time you have another child, technology has changed and safety laws have been updated.

Cardboard is rigid and durable, and with some treatment or disposable wrapping, it can withstand pretty much anything a baby can throw at it. Also, it folds up along convenient lines for collapsible and easy storage, unlike some rigid hard plastic monster baby seats. It's also lightweight, which is nice. It's cheap to boot, and recyclable. 

 

Saving Power...by Using Power??

This article on Treehugger.com caught my eye. Designers Lai You Cheng, Liu Kai Ping & Liu Chen Guang have come up with a power saving device, which uses power. Sounds wrong, but let me explain. Suppose you are using a shaver with a plug. When the device is turned on, it's business as usual. When the device is turned off but plugged in it emits an irritating noise.

This is a cool idea, but maybe there is a better way of doing it. I really like how simple and obvious the idea is. Why hasn't someone done it before? Then I begin to think just how much would I hate using this device? Could I come up with a better design? 

From a does it work perspective, it certainly would. Although, suppose you ignored the noise, or were not present for it, then it would draw additional power and waste more power than just leaving the device plugged in would. 

The Treehugger article brings up the point that the design lacks universality; ie, what about a deaf person? And in terms of simple design, why not just cut off power entirely? Food for thought.

 

ConocoPhillips Energy Prize Award

Scott Andersen, Mike Graham and team from Smart Product Innovations won the ConocoPhilips Energy Prize for their Eco-Auger developed with the participation of Bresslergroup.

The Eco Auger™ was judged the best Creative, Scaleable, Sustainable, and Innovative  concept that can be commercialized in the shortest time.  

ECO-Auger™ is a hydrokinetic machine that converts moving water from river and ocean currents to renewable electric energy. Its hydraulic storage pressure compensation system guarantees constant energy output regardless of tidal current strength. Designed with tapered helical leads on each end rather than sharp edges, the machine does not impact marine wildlife.

The ConocoPhillips Energy Prize is a joint initiative of ConocoPhillips and Penn State to recognize new ideas and original, actionable solutions that can help improve the way the nation develops and uses energy.
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http://www.conocophillips.com/

Different Worlds, Common Issues - Sustainability & Design Panel Discussion

In the beginning of this month Bresslergroup's Peter Bressler, Peter Byar, and Elysa Soffer teamed up with Gary Sorin of NRG Energy for a panel discussion called "Different Worlds Common Issues - Companies Find Common Grounds on Sustainability," at the Innovation Philadelphia Global Creative Economy Convergence Summit. 

Mike Flanagan, the moderator started the group off pointing out how times have changed and "back then" sustainability was endorsed by hippies, but now it's accepted as a major business topic in a Levi's vs Brooks Brothers mentality. 

Gary spoke about his experience with sustainability in the corporate world. He covered observations, the Walmart Sustainability Index effects, barriers to true sustainability, a what's next for business and sustainability as well as suggestions for getting started.

Peter Byar discussed how we as design consultants have the unique ability to guide and cajole clients regarding new product sustainability.

Next up, Peter Bressler spoke about innovation opportunities in Sustainability and founding his latest venture, SRS Energy and their integrated Solar Roofing Systems technology.

Lastly, Elysa Soffer spoke about how companies can calculate their carbon footprint and devise strategies for reduction, using Bresslergroup's internal efforts as a case study. 

You can download the Different Worlds Common Issues presentation here.

Huge Green News: Wal-Mart's Sustainability Index

As the October deadline for U.S. suppliers to submit their answers to Wal-Mart's sustainability assessment questionnaire approaches, it's worth noting the tremendous significance of this initiative. In their Sustainability Product Index: 15 Questions for Suppliers, Walmart asks their suppliers to address their involvement in four key areas:

Energy and Climate: Reducing Energy Costs and Greenhouse Gas Emissions
Material Efficiency: Reducing Waste and Enhancing Quality
Natural Resources: Producing High Quality, Responsibly Sourced Raw Materials
People and Community: Ensuring Responsible and Ethical Production

The fact that Walmart has confronted their thousands of suppliers with these questions (overseas suppliers have been given longer to answer) is a powerful jump-start to the spread of triple bottomline economics. (Employees, Sustainability, and $) Like many of us, Wal-Mart are finding their way to reliable lifecycle assessment and admit that they don't have a complete roadmap. However, the survey, accompanied with the public commitment to develop a sustainability index for every product sold, is a huge step forward. If you produce or design products, you need to be aware of these fifteen thoughtful questions and be thinking about their implications. 

Wal-Mart has engaged two universities to aid in the development of the index and the maintenance of the LCA database. I know that this is an area that Nike and DuPont, among many others, are working on and I hope that they will be able to join forces in contributing to the database.

IBM Sells Sustainability

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Are you still skeptical about the business benefits of sustainability?  Sustainability and profitability are engaged and will probably be married soon, though no date has been set. One indication of this, and a good reminder of some sustainability/profitability synergies, can be found at IBM's website in a three click deep synopsis that the most attention-deficit prone among us can consume. What's a CSR strategy? Time to warm up your favorite search engine! For another indicator of current trends, note the IBM homepage feature.

On a design history tangent, Paul Rand designed the brilliant punchcard logo which IBM introduced in 1956 and he designed the equally appropriate update, which made its debut in 1972.

Ecopreneurist's 19 Free (Green) Tools for Small Businesses

The thorough list of Green Tools for Small Businesses provided by Ecopreneurist is especially saavy not only because each item suggested is free, but also because a lot of the items utilize the latest technology. For example #3, Free control of your IT—“If you run a network, software from companies like Local Cooling allows the settings on computers to be controlled centrally so you can automatically turn those babies off when no one is using them.”

Also, # 7 on the list, the free iphone application called carbon tracker allows users to easily calculate their carbon footprint with a GPS feature that automatically determines the length of each leg of the trip. Users can set monthly “maximum emission” goals as well as monitor their progress.

One process item that I think designers could especially benefit from using is # 9, the free online market research tools. Sign up for a no-cost account with a company like SurveyMonkey, Zoomerang, or QuestionPro. Not that this is a substitution for meeting face to face with users to get honest feedback, but at least for the concept validation phase this would be useful.

Also included was a link to Energy Star’s small business recommendations for improving your company's financial performance by reducing energy waste and energy costs, while protecting the environment.  

TerraCycle

By now everyone has probably heard of TerraCycle, the NJ based company that was established in 2001 by two Princeton University Students who were inspired by a box of worms. They convert waste into home & garden products. Their goal was to be successful, ecologically & socially responsible. Their success story has been covered by every major news channel since last spring such as CNN and written up in The Wall Street Journal, Fast Company, and a ton of other major sources. This news video tells the impressive story. 

The latest news for Tom Szaky,CEO is the release of his book, Revolution in a Bottle (Amazon $10.20), a keynote at the Greener by Design conference in San Francisco May 09 as well as guest blogger on Treehugger. All of which are quite noteworthy accomplishments for anyone, let alone Szaky at the young age of 26.

TerraCycle's business seems to thrive on getting others involved. Even companies like Mars have teamed up with TerraCycle to help prevent their candy wrappers and Flavia's single serve drink packets from ending up in landfills and into their recycling program. They mention that you can sign up free and collect wrappers, packages and even cell phones and then TerraCycle will pay for you to send them in using their free shipping bags. You too can join the brigades.

Designer's Accord Townhall Meeting Feedback - NY 3/5/09

After attending last night's first ever Designer's Accord Townhall meeting in NY, I'm excited to report back with new resources in the eco-design community.  

 Idea Blob - is where entrepreneurs and small business owners can share and grow their business ideas – and have a chance to win $10,000 towards fulfilling them. Great ideas are generated every day by people all across the country, and now these ideas have a place to live and grow. Eligible individuals can submit their business ideas to ideablob.com, and based on votes from the online community – which includes other innovators as well as friends, family, colleagues, associates, teachers and mentors –one idea every month will win $10,000. As individuals take part, their business has the potential to grow right along with it.

Designer's Accord Web Community - This beta community is a source for designer's to share and discuss materials, case studies, techniques for measuring environmental impact, life cycle analysis and other resources. It's broken down by topic with sections in the product, package and service design fields.

Energy Hub - technology start-up company that aligns the interests of utility companies and consumers. They give consumers the ability to monitor and control their home energy use, reduce their electricity consumption, and save money. They give utilities the ability to better manage peak loads, extend demand response to residential customers on a wide scale, and engage their customers in the process. By combining information with automation, EnergyHub's system reduces home electricity usage by up to 20%. 

Design Green Now- A series of FREE panel discussions exploring the integration of innovative tools in the greening of consumer products. These sessions inspire and empower emerging designers to build a sustainable future NOW! They are currently organizing DGN 2009 events in NYC throughout April. For  speaker recommendations in the categories of Energy, Waste or Materials or interest in sponsoring one of our events email: andrew@ecosystemsbrand.com

More on Greener Electronics

 
In addition to the information provided by EPEAT, the results of the second annual Green Electronics Survey have been published by Greenpeace. The results indicate that manufacturers have made significant gains in lowering the environmental impact of their greenest products in the span of one year. The ratings might be said to have gone from bad to mediocre, but there is a promise of better to come.

The Lenovo L2440x monitor scored highest. Some of the characteristics which made it a winner can serve as examples for good product design. It is PVC and BFR free and, due to the use of l.e.d. backlighting, mercury free. It uses almost 30% post-consumer recycled content in its plastic parts.

The fact that the Lenovo unit scored 6.9 out of 10 points and the fact that only particularly "green" products were submitted, indicates that everyone has room for improvement. I would give kudos to all the companies who participated, because they at least had the courage to enter the arena. For whatever reasons, Apple, Asus, Microsoft, Nintendo, Palm and Philips all declined to participate.

Photo from itechnews.net, which somehow managed to have a better image than the Lenovo website

REI adds Bluesign

Outdoor equipment manufacturer and retailer REI announced they will use the Bluesign standards in their design process.  The standards will help to influence supply chain choices for many of the materials REI uses in their products.

As stated on their site, the mission of Bluesign is to:

"The declared objective of the independent bluesign® standard is to put a reliable and proactive tool at the disposal of the entire textile production chain – from raw material and component suppliers who manufacture e.g. yarns, dyes and additives, to textile manufacturers, to retailer and brand companies, to consumers."

To read more and get all of the details check out their site.

The Google Impact

You can use Google to search for terms such as "sustainability and "carbon footprint" and you will probably learn ways in which you can make a less harmful environmental impact. However, a new study conducted by a physicist from Harvard University which is posted on Telegraph shows that making two internet searches through Google produces about the same amount of carbon dioxide as boiling a kettle. A typical search is thought to generate about 7g of carbon dioxide. Boiling a kettle produces about 15g.

 

You may think twice about your favorite, quick method of gathering information. This article on Tech Crunch also sheds some light on the impact of Google searching and argues the benefits as well. I also appreciated the emphasis on the harm of other things besides Google, such as eating cheeseburgers - with carbon footprint of around 3,600 grams, and the recommendation to cut at least one out of your diet every week. I'll have to put that fact in my pocket for the next time we are deciding where to go for lunch.  

PET Plastic Wine Bottles

Red wine Beaujolais Nouveau, hits shelves in the US annually in November after France’s grape harvest. However this year’s Beaujolais will ship in plastic PET bottles. Resulting in cases that weigh 16 lbs less than the cases that shipped with the glass bottles, which is actually a significant savings in jet fuel consumption. Boisset Family Estates estimates that they will save millions of pounds of greenhouse gas emissions from entering the atmosphere.

It will be interesting to see how this bottle change impacts sales, if wine snobs snub such a change in the market preferring typical glass bottles and if the overall taste is affected. We may need to do some taste testing. The best part is what it means to the consumer, the retail price has actually decreased about $2 to each bottle costing only $12.99.

Doing some old school shipping

A European shipping company has recently chartered the triple-masted Kathleen & May to ship nearly 30,000 bottles of wine. The company is Compagnie de Transport Maritime à la Voile (CTMV) basesed in France. Shipping using the wind most likely is no a financially viable option for everything, but the decrease in environmental impact has to make you think.