Jul 2008
Make it instructable
You have a spare hour, perhaps you fancy building a Stirling Engine? Welcome to the online hangout of the modern Heath Robinson at instructables.com
If you’ve not explored the portal of the Instructables website, some might say you’ve never lived, the reality is more that you will be amazed by the ingenuity of ordinary people looking for home cooked solutions to a myriad of problems so broad ranging it is almost untrue. Yes there are plenty of weird and wacky, with a few neat ideas rolled in to the mix.
Let awe and wonderment begin: Instructables.com
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The world according to design...
I have to admit that I was originally curious, and concerned about the principles The Designers Accord being, as it is, an uncertified denomination of designers who would like to associate themselves with the issues of sustainability.
At a time when popular awareness is starting to understand terms like ‘greenwash’ there is obviously a commercial as well as ethical demand for design companies to step towards an understanding of their impact, both positive and negative, on the issues in sustainability. The idea that signing up to the label of the Designers Accord (DA) has been criticized for suggesting your company may have taken ambitious steps towards a sustainable future, yet in an unmonitored and uncertified way.
That criticism assumes of course that the DA is like so many other ‘membership’ organisations designed to give the client a supposed confidence in the members associated green credentials. Interestingly, the DA makes no claims to be anything other than a group of designers of very different backgrounds and standards with an interest in change. Whilst it has to be acknowledged that change ultimately comes out of action, a critical first step must surely be based around communication, and developing a forum to explore pathways through an unchartered future. Perhaps the DA is a first move towards establishing a community, but is it useful if it doesn’t demand an agreed, measured, certified adoption structure for its members.
‘Movement’ and the Internet also make bedfellows that can make people wary, largely because a culture of joining and subscribing must make ‘action’ follow along way behind the click of the mouse.
Bringing sustainable design practice to your own design company requires more than membership, to go further than that, at thomas.matthews over ten years work in the field of sustainable design means that the greater ambition is to go beyond even the expectation of certification (such as the popular ISO 14001).
Point your mouse towards designersaccord.org.
Seven ways to a greener life
Do the Green Thing is a fun site designed to enthuse people about the ease of a more sustainable lifestyle, and the broader experience that results. It’s a creative exploration of the issues raised by climate change; nice design work from peepshow too.
See what you can do to green yourself up, take at look at dothegreenthing and have a smile or two at the same time.