Sustainable Innovation

(http://estimulo.files.wordpress.com/2008/09/nathan.jpg)

On Wednesday November 18th, 2009, I had the privilege of visiting UC Davis, and sitting in on a lecture entitled "Sustainable Innovation." This lecture was the last lecture of the quarter included in the Design lecture series that UC Davis hosts every quarter. Nathan Shedroff, the guest speaker, specializes in knowledgeable information about Sustainability. Nathan Shedroff received his bachelors of Science in Industrial Design with an emphasis in Automatic Design. He worked for awhile as a automatic designer, before realizing that he wanted to work with sustainability, while still incorporating work from his previous field. He has authored several books on sustainability, and made a strong point about conveying to his audience on Wednesday that Sustainability was what he was most passionate about.

Coming into lecture on Wednesday, I did not really know what to expect. I have been to many sustainable design lectures and they all usually end up being about the same thing: How we can improve our lives to make them more sustainable. However, things were different with Nathan on Wednesday. Instead of giving us ideas and tips as to how we as a community can make Sustainability "happen" Nathan, provided frame work which, which as a whole helped us to better understand the sustainable movement. Nathan pointed out that it takes more than just changing our everyday materials, but also finding alternate ways of reusing the same materials in multiple ways! Other tips from Nathan's presentation included how we can "provide more for less," how we as the consumers can find ways of providing more useful materials for less of a profit. Perhaps one of the biggest points Nathan focused on was that any sustainable design solution should be savored, meaning, not only should it make our world a better place, but the design should be valued as a whole, and put to use to make a "green" statement.

Overall, Nathans proved to be very effective. I believe he conveyed his emotions and his wishes in an effective way. Not only did he provide ways in which we could make sustainability happen, but he expressed how important these changes are, and just how much we would be gain from it in the end. He provided us with a "guide" to understanding a sustainable world. He was a "hip, and cool" lecturer who could relate to his audience, which also helped students stay engaged. Overall, I'm looking forward to hearing more from him, and how his drive for a greener world will impact our future.


(http://www.innovativeinteractivity.com/wp-content/themes/tma/images/posts/shedroff_information_interaction_post.jpg)