It is time to get environmental again, and I want to do that pointing out to a new video send to me by a fellow designer Bernardo van de Schepop (Valeu!!).

The video, part of the website The story of Stuff,aims to expose the inner workings of consumer culture and clarify the dangers of not seeing the bigger picture when it comes to ecology. Story of stuff is a short but powerful video on what I like to call the ecology of products. Unlike many of the videos and manifestations “pro” environment, Story of stuff puts consumer culture as part of the problem, bringing interesting insights to the Eco-Dilemma. The video is 20 minutes long and it is a definitely “must see” for everyone on board of our planet.

After watching the video and thinking about my role as a designer, I do fear of my work feeding up this system of consumption even more. But as a romantic idealistic dude, I dream of the time where create, hack and modify will be the words on the streets, a time when people remix more than buy. When this day comes you will know we have moved from the “you are what you buy society” to the “you are what you make or modify society”.

Do you think I am going too far on this? well take 3 minutes to read this great post at the ponoko blog about the GENERATION C ( “C” standing for digitaly created content) and you will maybe start to believe that this dream isn`t as far as we think.

Lets Evo.

Source:

A great blog post about Story of Stuff explains the motivations of the project.
The Story of Stuff video can also be seen in chapters on a youtube channel.

My copy of Worldchanging – A user’s guide for the 21st century has just arrived! After randomly reading their Blog and being punched in the face by Al Gore’s film An Inconvenient Truth I just felt I had to increase my sustainability level.

This massive 600 page book is a wonderful resource of sustainable examples gathered by the worldchanging blog community. Its 7 sections (stuff, shelter, cities, community, business, politics, planet) cover a wide range of applied ideas on sustainability from “water purification” to “spreading the power of café conversations” (two articles of the book)

The whole concept of small articles is just cool. This format is awesome, you don’t even have to read pages and pages in order to spice up your ecological charm. A quick read throughout one of the articles before that special date and you be sounding like a down to earth “worth a marriage” kind of dude. Could I convince you now?

Jokes aside, this book is an amazing resource and should be read by all of those citizens willing to make a change.

Got some eco strategies of your own you wanna share with? Favorite articles of the book people should know about? Write on.

I just finished out my latest project. A contribution for the DIY (Do it yorself) community. Since I love skateboards I just couldn’t start anywhere else. Inspired by the amount of waste produced by the growth of consumerism in Europe, specially here in Frankfurt, seen through the weekly dispose of old stuff in the middle of the streets. I wanted to show one way of rethinking the use of old materials in the example of a DIY skateboard.

The idea is simple: Download the DIY Skateboard Design PDF, Print it out, stick them together over any rest of wood to be recycled, cut, put on some wheels and enjoy the ride.

If you want make your own design, Download this DIY Skateboard Blank PDF (90cm long) and make it happen.

I would love to see some of your creations, so send a picture if you are proud of what you made.

a step by step of the building process can be found here.

I know most of us GUYS would preffer arriving at her place in a slick BMW, in an Escalade or in a stylo-surfbus… But I am sure there are also those out there going for the Ecofriendly “longterm-relationship-style” that would really enjoy this: The Humancar.

The rowing motion of the Handlebars powers the wheels while the two pilots at front swivel with their weight in order to steer the ride. I am sure women trying keep their husbands in shape throughout the years would also benefit from this piece of technology.

Maybe someday we can bring some freshness to the Humancar drawing some nice curves around it’s still “skelleton” configuration.

Check the video!!!
Source: Humancar
Via: Engadget