I was connecting through the Atlanta airport last week and noticed the Recycle Runway special exhibit as I moved between terminals. Atlanta is the country’s busiest airport, with over 43 million passenger boardings in 2010, so I imagine a lot of you have seen the exhibit as well. Recycle Runway is the work of artist and environmental educator Nancy Judd. It features clothing—dresses, coats, shoes, and … More
I love well-designed space, which for me marries form and function and is simple, elegant, and pleasing to the eye. I have been following the Tumbleweed Tiny House Company for several years and specifically like owner Jay Shafer’s series of small homes built on utility trailers. They are beautifully crafted and every inch well used. My favorite—the Fencl—is the largest at 130 square feet of … More
The brand new School of Visual Arts MFA Product of Design Program created a video to solicit interest in the program. In 2005 I was seriously considering attending SVA because of the way the program is structured to think ahead about the field of design and its intersection with business, science, and ecology. Doesn’t this program look amazing? The faculty are obviously thinking about design in … More
We’re pleased to announce that GreenBlue was awarded third place in the nonprofit category for our brand identity in the international AIGA (Re)designAwards 2011. The award recognizes the new GreenBlue brand and website, which launched in June 2011. There were 162 entries from 14 different countries so it’s quite a honor. Special congratulations go to our External Relations team, particularly the dynamic duo of Communication … More
“Should design be environmentally responsible?” asks design critic Alice Rawsthorn in the New York Times. “The only sensible answer to that question is ‘yes.’ But if you asked a group of designers to define what that term means, each would be likely to give a different answer. Though there is one thing on which they might agree: that the most successful examples of environmentally responsible … More
I have been really impressed by the AIGA’s The Living Principles community. The site is chock full of new design thinking, critique, and resources, and it offers a window into what designers are saying about their own sustainable practices. We noticed that GreenBlue’s Design for Recovery Guidelines for Paper Packaging were recently highlighted on the site, so it was exciting to see that piece going … More
Many environmental organizations focus on improving consumer habits, an important approach that can have a tremendous influence. For example, if every American used only the most energy-efficient products currently available on the market, domestic energy consumption could be reduced by 75 percent, according to studies. But what about the products that are not available yet? We can change what people buy, but we also can … More
Since I joined GreenBlue, my mission has been to try to understand what happens to packaging when we, as consumers, are done using it. Does it get recycled? Composted? Sent to a landfill? And why? Several years later, my findings can be boiled down to the fact that the fate of packaging at end-of-life is a really complicated topic. And that if my job is … More
The Sustainable Packaging Coalition® (SPC) has released a new version of its COMPASS® web application, which allows packaging professionals to compare the environmental impacts of package designs. Version 2.0 includes the ability to model the transportation impacts associated with packaging distribution and an enhanced user interface. More