21.1.08

got climate porn over-exposure?

Yeah, me too.


Valery Casey at Compostmodern 2008

I'm drawn to the words "radical" and "change" though, so I've been looking at UnBeige's coverage of the event, which is pretty good. They have a great summary Casey's talk, which goes a step further than merely speculating the designer's role in all this.

She had an epiphany: designers change habits and behaviour. They create accessibility. They look to nature for inspiration. And they're suckers for detail. And they're optimists.

(I'd say this all depends on the disposable income of the person on the other end, not to mention the country that person happens to be in, but I guess this is all aimed at the US and is just me trying to dampen the blanket self-importance she's placed at the feet of designers)

Anyway, the interesting and productive thing about all this, is that she's founded the Designers Accord (no test to join!)

A treaty! One that I can abide to! Ah, I feel better already, even though I'm not at a firm right now, and won't be for a while, I can conduct my designing in my bedroom in accordance. I promise I'll try not to be smug about it, either.



The 10 guidelines of The Designers Accord range from directed to aspirational.

All adopters agree:

- Publically declare participation in this movement

- Undertake a program to educate your teams about designing sustainably

- Provide strategic and material alternatives for sustainable design

- Measure the carbon/greenhouse gas footprint of your firm
(includes operations and client engagements)

- Pledge to significantly reduce your firm's carbon/greenhouse gas footprint annually *

- Initiate a dialogue about environmental impact and sustainable alternatives
with each and every client

Advanced adopters lead:

- Publically share exemplary practices and case studies

- Advance the understanding of environmental issues from a design perspective

- Rework client contracts to favor environmental responsible design and processes *

- Contribute actively to the communal knowledge base for sustainable design *
* Will be audited/evaluated by third-party on an annual basis


1 Comments:

Anonymous Anonymous said...

It wonderfully goes well along the Fischli & Weiss 10 commandments (!) on How To Work Better I quickly wrote about lately.

22/1/08 16:36  

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