Why save energy? Peer pressure, of course!

Some eco-organizations, like Make Me Sustainable, have tried using Facebook-style networking to get people to lower their carbon emissions. But nothing, apparently, is as effective as shame -- a tactic used successfully by the Sacramento Municipal Utility District, which essentially gave 35,000 test customers a report card on each monthly bill, comparing their usage to their neighbors'. Customers who received the report cards reduced usage by 2 percent more than customers with standard bills, reports the NY Times. Meanwhile, in Massachusetts, three towns competed on a reality show to lower their energy usage. We may grow up, but it seems our inner child never really does leave grade school.

When design and politics go hand in hand

During last year's presidential campaign, I'd been planning to write a post about the superior design of Obama's campaign logo and merchandise, vs. McCain's. But while I was slacking, the Obama juggernaut rolled on to glorious victory, and the association of fantastic design with our socially conscious president has continued: with the drooling coverage of Michelle's wardrobe, the instantaneous rollout of the sleek new White House website, and now the induction (above) of Shepard Fairey's iconic poster into the National Portrait Gallery. Meanwhile, various celebs have been making appearances in Obama-wear, and Refinery29 has assembled a series of pics of Obama street fashion.

In honor, I'd like to call out a couple of nonprofits that have already seen the potential for good design to further social issues:
• Housing Works, not only for its website, but for its excellent bookstore/cafe, and for the highly professional merchandising of its thrift stores; and
• Bono's ONE campaign and Product (Red) series.

There must be plenty of other organizations that deserve to make this list - can anyone suggest any other nominees out there?

Saving the auto industry, in spite of themselves

Making good on his campaign promises, President Obama… yes, let's savor that phrase, President Obama… yesterday ordered the government to reconsider letting California implement stricter emissions laws for cars. Automakers, as usual, set up a hue and cry insisting that, according to the NY Times, "rapid imposition of stricter emissions standards could force them to drastically cut production of larger, more profitable vehicles, adding to their financial duress."

Hold on. Dealers currently have thousands upon thousands of these larger, more profitable vehicles sitting in their lots, because customers don't want them. Meanwhile, the Big Three are closing their specially-designed SUV factories, or retooling them to make smaller cars. And let's not forget that their own lobbying for lower emissions standards helped make them noncompetitive in the first place.

Remember in the '90s, when baggy jeans went mainstream, and denim giants like the Gap and Levi's missed the boat? They'd failed to realize that the baggy look was a paradigm shift and not just a passing fancy. Message to car makers: learn your lesson, already!

Farewell, despair. Hello, hope!

Photo via NY Times

The bright side of sweatshops - and the dark side of recycling

Nick Kristof, valiant bearer of the white man's burden, makes an eloquent point in the other day's NYT in favor of sweatshops as creating jobs in third-world countries. Factory jobs, he points out, are at least in the shade and not atop a steaming landfill, where junk collectors work. And as long as conditions and pay are up to reasonable standards, sweatshops can be far, far better than the alternative. This isn't news, really; in fact, it's the same principle that guides Edun's work in Africa, where they produce many of their clothes with the long-term goal of creating sustainable apparel industries.

On a related note, Kristof's accompanying photo of a Cambodian trash mountain brought to mind a video I watched last year (but can no longer find) showing the filthy Chinese city of Guiyu, where many of the West's (and the East's) outdated electronics go after they die. Here instead is the Asia Society's video on the same topic:

Soap, now as grease reincarnate.

Remember in Fight Club, how Brad Pitt made fancy soaps from liposuctioned fat he stole out of dumpsters -- and then sold it back to the same wealthy ladies who had presumably jettisoned the fat in the first place? Possibly one of the creepiest forms of recycling, it came with a sort of poetic justice. Well, Pasadena-based Further operates on a similar principle, though without the yuck factor of human-based soaps. Proprietor Marshall Dostal used to pick up waste grease from restaurants to fuel his car, then one day had a flash of inspiration: the leftover glycerin could be reused to make soap. After some tinkering with the scent, the soap is now on the market -- and being sold back to the restaurants whose grease was used to make it.

via NY Mag; photo via Further

Design Biennalé, Saint-Étienne, France

www.citedudesign.com
City-Eco-Lab section

Cult of the imperfect: Vegetables

Heritage tomatoes are some of the gnarliest-looking objects I've seen, but they're meant to be absolutely delicious. So much for the correlation between perfect looks and perfect taste, at least when it comes to food. Lately, the European Union has come to agree, ending restrictions on selling bent and imperfect food that had led to the waste of tons of innocent fruits and vegetables. Given the design world's current proclivity for intentional imperfections as signifiers of authenticity, it's high time for the food industry to catch up.

While we're on the topic of food, this week's NY mag has a beautifully illustrated guide for Gothamites on how to throw a Thanksgiving dinner made exclusively from local food. And here I was, just shopping at the greenmarkets...

Quote of the day: "Beasts of burden"

In Arizona, apparently, they see us as beasts of burden who can be dumped back over the border when we have outlived our usefulness.

-- Jesús Torres, father of legal immigrant Antonio Torres, deported in a coma to Mexico
Via NY Times

Watercycling does it better...

So I've seen plenty of mediocre, lumpy stuff made from old bike tubes, but I have to give huge props to the mysterious Watercycling, who's gotten it just right. An unnamed guy in Asia with no website makes these awesome bags out of bike tires and tubes, and recently displayed some crazy armor-fetish clothes made from tubes, at some event documented by pedalmafia that will only be comprehensible to people who read Japanese. Available for purchase at Rodafixa in Hong Kong.

Thanks to Prolly for the link!