March 19, 2010

Ezio Manzini & The First DESIS Newsletter

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DESIS is a network of schools of design and other schools, institutions, companies and non-profit organizations interested in promoting and supporting design for social innovation and sustainability. It is a light, no-profit organization, conceived as a network of partners collaborating in a peer-to-peer spirit.It is articulated in several DESIS-Local (that are sub-networks within a specified local area). DESIS-International is therefore the framework where the different DESIS-Local coordinate themselves and where some global initiatives are taken.

DESIS aims to support foster innovation using design skills to give promising cases more visibility and reinforce the design community's role in the social innovation processes operating inside and outside the design community. Its main activities are:

1. Fostering social innovation and sustainability by taking part in support projects and programs,gathering together and offering greater visibility to significant cases.

2. Promoting design for social innovation both within and outside the design community, developing appropriate design tools and organizing cultural and didactic activities.

3. Fostering the circulation of ideas and experiences

March 4, 2010

Adam Lowry: How Business and Innovation Can Drive Social Change

Adam Lowry founder of Method delivers an interesting talk about his journey to achieve a green mission with big positive social impact through a business. His company was ranked as one of most innovative companies in the world by FastCompany in 2007.

March 1, 2010

Design for Social Innovation and Sustainability

(via @SDGNZ)

October 12, 2009

Valerie Casey on Design Thinking and Sustainability

In this video Valerie Casey, IDEO's Digital Design Experience Leader and founder of The Designers Accord, explores three tools to create positive impact through design and change the path of the creative community top to bottom: design thinking, networking and responsibility.

Casey states that the role of designers is not longer conceived as designing objects but to create consequences instead. It is in this grey zone of consequences where the opportunity for designers to make a difference lies. The impact of the design process itself is intrinsically negative since the pure creation of objects generates waste and energy consumption. If we stretch our vision and contemplate not only the beginning of the cycle as our zone of control but the consumption of our designs (distribution/use/end of life) we then can apply a continuous stream of thinking throughout the design process and reduce the negative impact of design.

A very interesting point is that sustainability should not longer be considered as an added element of design but as an integral part of the process along with the human, technological, sustainable, organisational, business and brand factors. Casey defines sustainability as "the marriage between environmental and social impact".