The efficiency development model helps servers that used to be assigned to only one task to now multitask and move between tasks as needed. In other words, the servers can now meet the fluctuating demand that the internet has more quickly. This model reduces the chance that a website gets overwhelmed with demand and locks up. It is also said to increase efficiency and service by 20 percent.

Georgia Tech professor Craig Tovey was struck with a curiosity of honeybee behavior in the early 80s. He realized through conversations with a colleague from the University of Oxford that “bees and servers had strikingly similar barriers to efficiency.” Bees have very inconsistent resources. Sometimes there is an abundance of nectar to collect and sometimes there is very little. Year after year the supply is different and the location of the nectar oasis’s change. Yet somehow, they always seem to maintain a fairly consistent supply of nectar in the hive. Tovey saw this as a stimulating intricacy in the natural environment that yielded very effective results. Tovey among other colleagues conducted research for decades on how they work and how to use their brilliance in our built environment.

The greatest breakthrough was the discovery of the waggle dance. Australian zoologist Karl con Frisch won a Nobel Prize for this. When bees that hit an oasis return to the hive, they do a dance at the hive floor, wagging their tail back and forth. Each movement of the dance indicates location, scent, sound and gives other foragers clues about where the oasis of nectar is.

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Sara, why is it so important to rest and disconnect?
“Life is about balance, and I know first hand that life can be extremely busy. Sometimes you have to be able to react and work at that busy pace. In order to do that and avoid burnout you must take time to relax. For me, I can have eight extremely busy days on the road, but then it has to be followed by a few days of rest at home or somewhere else.”

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With the portfolio of commercial and urban green building projects happening across the globe right now, how is it possible to see them all? For those of us who are construction fanatics we like to see them in person but flying to location is definitely not the most or even a sustainable way to do things. Well, as with so most everything these days, there is a solution. To increase our remote access to ongoing and completed green building projects nationwide, Building Green Inc. has teamed up with Google and the Department of Energy to bring us an interactive way to view these projects.

The information is presented in Google Earth (must be downloaded) through a layer called the High Performance Building Layer, which is something that you have to download as well. Once you have both of them, you can choose from the 96 different projects they have highlighted thus far through the collaboration. Most of the projects selected reside in the United States, but there are a couple others around the globe. The models are created in Sketch-up and are completed with a full project description. Each building in the High Performance Building Layer also provides links to detailed case studies on the buildings performance. These studies are located on the web through different databases- AIA, USGBC, Building Green…

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The information is presented in Google Earth (must be downloaded) through a layer called the High Performance Building Layer, which is something that you have to download as well. Once you have both of them, you can choose from the 96 different projects they have highlighted thus far through the collaboration. Most of the projects selected reside in the United States, but there are a couple others around the globe. The models are created in Sketch-up and are completed with a full project description. Each building in the High Performance Building Layer also provides links to detailed case studies on the buildings performance. These studies are located on the web through different databases- AIA, USGBC, Building Green…

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Director of Design Continuum, Mark Bates opened the event with a presentation of the design firm’s overall footprint. He estimated that they’ve added about 500 million parts to the world during their 25 years of practice. These parts are anything from screws to Intel processors to cellophane package display windows- anything included in the overall manifestation and presentation of a product. Considering these facts coming from a design consultancy that tends to take a conscious, all encompassing design analysis approach to everything they work on, it makes me wonder about the impact of the companies designing toys for McDonalds.

He sent us with the message of- think of design in terms of aiding the efficiency and health of our earth and future. To begin to understand the perceptions of “sustainability” and “green” to the average consumer, Design Continuum has launched an internal study project called Color Blind. They are obtaining comments from everyday consumers about products and life to hopefully design from both sides- sustainability and the consumer.

The day long conference was broken down into hour-long presentations during which Q&A was included. “Their approach was a model other conferences could learn from - one day, comfortably paced, intimately sized, focused on one topic, inviting speakers with different views, and …free,” says Joe Gebbia.

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If you’ve ever seen a termite mound you should still be impressed by these built by African termites in Zimbabwe. The termites build mounds reaching multiple feet in order to farm a fungus that feeds them. The finicky fungus must live at exactly 87 degrees F. While temperatures outside the mound walls vary by about 70 degrees F, they had a problem to solve. “The termites achieve this remarkable feat by constantly opening and closing a series of heating and cooling vents throughout the mound over the course of the day. With a system of carefully adjusted convection currents, air is sucked in at the lower part of the mound, down into enclosures with muddy walls, and up through a channel to the peak of the termite mound. The industrious termites constantly dig new vents and plug up old ones in order to regulate the temperature,” describes Abigail of Inhabitat.

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For the past five + years my family has been practicing different ways of sharing gifts for the holidays. We made gifts a couple of years. Then we decided to pool our funds and purchase one big gift for someone in the family that would inspire their lifestyle, creativity, and passion… This year we decided that no one really need anything and we would prefer to do something together as a family to improve the lives and economies of others- invest in a micro-fund.

Microfinance creates social lending networks that gives us lenders the opportunity to connect directly with borrowers who normally wouldn’t get the support of a bank. This allows people in poor countries and rural areas who don’t have access to traditional banks or don’t have the credentials necessary for a bank loan, to start a business. The neat things it that in all circumstances (weather your money is controlled by the organization through which you lend or you choose who your money goes to) you can more or less track your loan. This type of investment has already made profound impacts on developing nations as it funds businesses that support their local economies. Instead of weaving baskets to be sold in the global market, people are able to start water distribution businesses to improve quality of life in their own communities.

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On Tuesday November 27 Google publicly announced the terms of a new initiative called RE<C (Renewable Energy Cheaper than Coal).  Google will invest hundreds of millions of dollars on research and development by hiring engineers and energy experts to lead R&D work.  This research will begin with solar thermal technology, geothermal systems, and wind power technologies. They also plan to spend more hundreds of millions in breakthrough renewable energy projects, which will generate positive returns.

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The HYmini is a personal wind turbine meant to be attached to the handlebars of your bike (when you are actually out riding it), to the roof of your car, or just to be held in your hand on a windy day. It harnesses wind current, charges a battery to ultimately power your 5V devices such as an iPod, MP3 player, digital camera…

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Designers today are thinking up new ways to make everyday products out our recycled materials. They are taking advantage of this new market not only because it is an opportunity but because they care. Much of the infrastructure in place for recycling materials into new materials is quite energy intensive. Good design minimizes steps, maximizes efficiency and utility, and invests beauty that will sustain over time. This type of new market gives designers an opportunity to develop new materials, experiment, design, and create. With advances in tools and processes, and an excess of waste we have a clear and direct opportunity.

Cohda Design is a UK based design group has developed a new process for recycled plastic called U.R.E.- Un-cooled Recycled Extrude. “The URE process is a conclusion of a 2 year research project by Cohda Design on the use of waste plastics in design, the associated environmental problems, and the design limitations imposed since the early 1990’s by pre-manufactured recycled sheets and lumber.” The three main qualities of this new process are that it utilizes packaging waste as a material resource, it takes advantage of the embodied energy in waste plastics, and it creates a new recycled plastic aesthetic. In addition, since the process takes raw trash and creates the new material on site, the recycled plastics don’t have to get sent all the way to China to be formed into recycled sheet material. This cuts down on transportation and production waste. The result is an extruded tube of plastic that Cohda is using to make chairs and other furniture that are surprisingly lightweight and strong. The Cohda chair is called the RD4- Roughly Drawn Chair. When the material is still soft, they wrap it around a mold to create the form of a chair.

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The mission is to spread ideas and this is wholeheartedly what they do. The TED conference is held in Monterey, California every year. Since the first in ’84, the content has expanded to include science, business, the arts, and the global issues facing the world. The speakers are challenged to give their most compelling speech and pose an engaging argument in only 18-minute slots. During the 4-day conference, all the attendees share the same experience. This means there are no breakout groups or small work sessions.
“It shouldn’t work, but it does. It works because all of knowledge is connected. Every so often it makes sense to emerge from the trenches we dig for a living, and ascend to a 30,000-foot-view, where we see, to our astonishment, an intricately interconnected whole.” Quotes the TED website.

The 2008 conference will be held February 27- March 1. The content is said to be the most ambitious yet- the defined topic is “The Big Questions”. Additionally, due to the high attendance request, TED will host a live broadcast of the conference in Aspen, Colorado in collaboration with the Aspen Institute. The schedule, format, and content remain the same.

The most interesting aspect of the TED network is that the conference isn’t the end result. Often times these events are closed to all who don’t attend and the exclusivity makes it distasteful to those who can’t attend. Well, TED wants to accomplish the contrary. While the actual event remains small to keep it special, all talks are recorded and free for viewing on the website.

As TED’s slogan is “Ideas Worth Spreading”, TED encourages everyone who is inspired by what they see to spread the word. With suggestions such as holding a viewing session and discussion in the office at lunch hour, emailing videos to friends, share videos with students or classmates… As the TED mission is not exclusive to upper economies, they are also reaching out to media or tech companies who have ideas of new, innovative ways to spread the content worldwide. As a matter of fact, with the growing interest in the TED content, they began holding an international conference every year. The content for these events are a bit more specific to issues (political or environmental) facing the chosen location.

Developed by MIT Media Lab students from the Concept Car Design Workshop sponsored by GM, the key behind this concept is the redesign of the wheel and axel. Rather than having a rigid axel, it will actually fold in a way that will allow the car to rotate upwards 90 degrees. In this, the long dimension of the vehicle is perpendicular to the ground while parked. Since each car has the same form and design, they perfectly nest together to reduce surface space consumption. The stackable car will be able to reduce required curbside parking space by about a third to a half. This allows for more sidewalk space, biking lanes, and comfortable city conditions.

Due to the small dimensions, the stacks of cars will be conveniently placed in locations all over the city- where you would normally come out of a building and hail a cab; you can jump in an electric city car and advance to your next desired location. The concept City Car system includes solar paneling on the rooftops of buildings adjacent to the stackable parking depositories. These panels will be the power supply to charge the electric cars while parked.

This car-sharing concept is a solution to the missing link between public transportation and the front door. Often people don’t use public transit due to the time necessary to switch from the subway to the bus to the next bus. Now people can commute into the city, get off the train, jump in a city car, and drive that extra three to ten miles to the office. This is a reasonable solution to a very prevalent problem. Instead of unnecessarily consuming a parking space while in the office all day long, you can use a city car in the morning and evening, while others use it all afternoon; and the convenience of hopping in a city car is what will make this work. In addition, since these cars aren’t personal vehicles and people will be in them on an average of five to thirty minutes, hopefully the new system will encourage people to share rides across town thus influencing our sense of community, status, and ownership.

The first innovative step towards stacking cars was the parking structure, where layers of cars could be stacked upon each other. The next innovative step is to actually stack cars up against each other to reduce the absurd amount of space we require for vehicular parking. The concept is a hybrid of car sharing systems, spatial planning, alternative fueling systems, and personal convenience.

Developed by MIT Media Lab students from the Concept Car Design Workshop sponsored by GM, the key behind this concept is the redesign of the wheel and axel. Rather than having a rigid axel, it will actually fold in a way that will allow the car to rotate upwards 90 degrees. In this, the long dimension of the vehicle is perpendicular to the ground while parked. Since each car has the same form and design, they perfectly nest together to reduce surface space consumption. The stackable car will be able to reduce required curbside parking space by about a third to a half. This allows for more sidewalk space, biking lanes, and comfortable city conditions.

Due to the small dimensions, the stacks of cars will be conveniently placed in locations all over the city- where you would normally come out of a building and hail a cab; you can jump in an electric city car and advance to your next desired location. The concept City Car system includes solar paneling on the rooftops of buildings adjacent to the stackable parking depositories. These panels will be the power supply to charge the electric cars while parked.

This car-sharing concept is a solution to the missing link between public transportation and the front door. Often people don’t use public transit due to the time necessary to switch from the subway to the bus to the next bus. Now people can commute into the city, get off the train, jump in a city car, and drive that extra three to ten miles to the office. This is a reasonable solution to a very prevalent problem. Instead of unnecessarily consuming a parking space while in the office all day long, you can use a city car in the morning and evening, while others use it all afternoon; and the convenience of hopping in a city car is what will make this work. In addition, since these cars aren’t personal vehicles and people will be in them on an average of five to thirty minutes, hopefully the new system will encourage people to share rides across town thus influencing our sense of community, status, and ownership.

Recycling requires additional energy consuming steps to transform a product into something new that reuse escapes. A new service based out of southern California called usedcardboardboxes.com (the title quite simply speaks for itself) has embraced the concept of reuse and is escaping the steps involved in recycling cardboard to Asia by sending them straight to your front door.

Founder Marty Metro piloted usedcardboardboxes.com as a neighborhood project four years ago. The company rescues quality used, new overrun and misprinted boxes from manufacturers, distributors, and retailers. With the ability to lower the cost, ensure quality, and promote environmental responsibility, Metro is achieving traction in family, wholesale and retail markets. Since the company motivation is so simple and the service doesn’t require any additional work from the recipient, it is a clear way for retail and wholesale markets to boost their environmental profile while saving some trees and consuming less.

The website allows individuals who are planning a move… to purchase kits online based on their needs. The moving kits include tape, markers, and packing materials to minimize trips to the store (yet one can opt to not receive these materials if one does not need them). Beyond household supply, usedcardboardboxes.com fills orders of 3000 boxes+ for companies like Guess Jeans, American Apparel, and FAO Schwartz.

After four years of private/personal financing, usedcardboardboxes.com received is first public investment/funding from Funk Ventures, a Santa Monica based venture capitol firm that funds “highly promising companies that can significantly impact people, society, or the environment in a positive way.” As the company rapidly grows, Metro plans to expand by establishing distribution centers nationwide. Currently they have the ability to serve 42 million households in the west, but with a new financing plan, they expect to provide service to cities including Seattle, Denver, Chicago, Philadelphia, and New Orleans.

Usedcardboardboxes.com was a top-ten nominee for Co-op America’s 2007 Peoples Choice Awards. They have received quite astounding press reviews and in my opinion it s because of the profoundly simple benefit. There is no trade-off involved here. Why use a new box when you can reuse an old one? The answer is simply- I don’t know; I guess I’d rather save a tree and the energy than kill one.

Dr Adam Best, project leader and employee of the CSIRO Energy Technology Division “predicts that the first power shirts - or flexible energy devices- could be developed within five years,” states a Sydney Morning Herald report. Their concept includes the technology of piezoelectrics as the energy generating material. This popularly researched material produces a charge displacement when it is flexed. It naturally occurs in soft chrystalline structures like quartz, and Rochelle salts.

The idea is to develop a fabric woven with piezoelectric material so that any movement on, in, or around your body would stimulate the fiber to generate power. The clothing would be woven with flexible batteries that could act as storage unit series for your devices. The next step is to figure out how to wirelessly transmit that power collected in your t-shirt to your mobile phone without damaging your body due to intense exposure to electro-magnetic fields.

Dr. Best believes that the development of this concept could revolutionize the form and usage of daily appliances. “With printable flexible circuit boards, the day may not be far off when people could make phone calls simply by talking into their collars.”

Interestingly, defense programs and departments are commonly funding projects that develop the potential for remote electrical energy generation. The Australian Defense Department sees this as an opportunity to power “back-to-base” medical monitoring equipment, radios, and other such powered devices used in the field. As it could revolutionize battle in the field, it could also serve as a highly effective tool in field research and remote backpacking trips to power gps devices, emergency radios, data recording and transmittance devices…

There are many similar ideas out there along the lines of energy generating wearables. A collaboration team with members from Michigan Technological University, Arizona State, and NanoSonic, Inc., is developing a backpack with piezoelectric fibers integrated into the straps. Alberto Villarreal, a young San Francisco-based designer, has gained recognition for a concept shoe that harnesses electricity from your step. With the development of these concepts into real products we could be actively moving towards an energy revolution.

"Was it a conscious decision or a momentary lapse of reason? How did progress take priority over humankind? Could harnessing the world’s energy that allowed our ascent now be the ledge pan of our down fall?" These are the questions addressed in the PBS ongoing series e2. The most recent episodes, narrated by Morgan Freeman, focus on energy. They look at transportation infrastructure, the auto industry, fuels and renewable fuels, alternative energy solutions and infrastructure, etc. As a result of examining such critical topics, the network was able to land a high-profile guest list for this 6-episode series including Samuel Bodman, the US secretary of energy; Brian Boldemberg, Brazil’s former secretary for the environment; Amory Lovins, founder of the Rocky Mountain Institute; and Muhammad Yunus, Nobel Peace Prize winner. These began airing October 12, 2007

The next set of episodes, narrated by Brad Pitt, will focus on design and innovation. This high profile guest list features designers, architects, and other enthusiasts dedicated to changing the world though socially and environmentally conscious design. Some of the architects include Thom Mayne, architect of the new San Francisco Federal Building, and Adriaan Gueze, the lead architect of the Borneo Sporenburg development in Amsterdam. Other architects and sustainability enthusiasts include Ed Mazria, architect and founder of the Architecture 2030 organization, and William McDonough of Cradle-to-Cradle design.

These projects, among many others, are leading the way in fabricating sustainable design solutions. Whether they work with system management, future projections, or actual structures, these folks are dedicated to creating better design solutions that will last longer. It isn’t only about eliminating the bad anymore. It is about streamlining processes, and creating structures that will last and can multi-function. These architects and designers take you inside processes and reveal involved truths about good and bad design and how they leverage decisions. These episodes begin airing November 23, 2007.

As noted on the website, "The decisions in Washington affect the mountain glaciers in Peru, deforestation of the Amazon affect the heat waves of Paris, the power plants in China effect air quality in Los Angeles …" — we are faced with a lot of global issues that we collectively can have an influence on. PBS has sought out those who are leading others in aiding this progress. "It’s about facing what seem to be insurmountable challenges for what they really are — opportunities to reinvent and redesign." I have yet to see a TV series that touches on so many critical global topics and educates consumers about what is occurring in our energy and construction industries.

In its second year, digital software manufacturer AutoDesk sponsors this PBS project. e2 challenges you to live smarter, live greener, and live with the future in mind. PBS has also build a resource for you to research projects featured in the program. And just for you, they’ve made their own dictionary for the environmentally conscious, as well as a resource for additional independent research.

The UK’s Paul Curtis, also known as the "Moose," and Brazil’s Alexandre Orion are taking a new approach to graffiti to convey a sense of "clean," and to inspire pedestrians to keep it that way. Their cue comes from the "Wash Me" message commonly wiped away from the back of dirty semi trucks. They call this reverse graffiti, and they create their work by removing soot, sludge, carbon from exhaust, etc., from the wall to reveal a message.

Moose generated a message in a transport tunnel that reads "Go Gently" to remind drivers of the impact their cars have on the planet. "Once you do this, you make people confront whether or not they like people cleaning walls or if they really have a problem with personal expression."

Orion created a work in a Sao Paolo transport tunnel; his is a series of skulls that also depicts the impact drivers’ emissions have on the planet. As a result of this project, the transit authority washed the wall to remove the public expression. In reaction, Orion created the same artwork on the other side of the tunnel. This resulted in the transit authority cleaning the entire tunnel on both sides. They then continued to resist the public work by cleaning every transport tunnel in the city. Not such a bad idea on all accounts.

Another artist, Edina Tokodi, recently created a work of green graffiti in Brooklyn, New York. Edina saw the idea of graffiti as an opportunity to stimulate positive green thoughts and encourage city dwellers to resurface their connection to nature. She decided to maintain the venue while changing the medium. Her work consists of moss installations adhered to the wall where spray paint might commonly be seen. Using this much less harmful medium, she creates images such as prancing animals, and uses existing imagery to create trees and objects found in nature. The beauty of this medium is that it can continue to grow. As moss receives water from the air, condensation, and rain, it continues to grow as the artwork remains fixed to its site.

Voting has been open to the public online since mid September. As it is too late to cast your vote, it isn’t too late to congratulate the winner and find out what people consider excellence in design. The most exciting part of this year’s ballot is that many of the nominees were for projects geared towards sustainable progress. Social sustainability is one of the most important attributes for the public to consider, our responsibility towards sustainability and global issues shows promise.

Last year the public chose the Katrina Cottage by designer Marianne Cusato. Designed with similar dimensions and attributes to the FEMA homes, this project is the alternative. The 308 square foot cottage is constructed with fiber reinforced cement siding and a metal roof to withstand hurricane force winds. Since the launch of the project it has grown to attract habitants for multiple purposes. The cottage itself isn’t necessarily a sustainable edifice, but as it will live through intense natural forces and sustain its structure over time.

Also, similar to this year’s nomination for the LifeStraw (a $2 straw that purifies water while drinking for those who don’t have access to safe drinking water), the Katrina Cottage highlights the need for alternatives regarding current issues. When these alternatives are designed with sustainability, necessity, and in this case affordability in mind, we get closer to practical solutions and functional design for a sustainable, safe and healthy future.

This year’s winner is TOMS shoes. TOMS shoes is a simple project- with every pair of shoes bought, a pair is donated to a child who doesn’t have any. TOMS mission is to simply make life more comfortable. Currently TOMS is running a pledge to get 50,000 pair of shoes to take over to South Africa on November 1. These shoes will be divvied out to children in need. The shoes are not necessarily constructed with sustainable (recycled, reusable) materials, but the project does indeed socially sustain communities by enabling a more comfortable, and healthy lifestyle.

Other nominees on the ballot this year geared towards social sustainability and massive change were Good Magazine, Design Can Change, and Global Green Efforts in New Orleans. Good Magazine is a new San Francisco based publication highlighting projects geared towards social activism and sustainability. Design Can Change is a global campaign put together by SmashLAB geared towards bringing designers together to fight climate change.

Finally, Global Green was nominated for their work in New Orleans geared towards using the opportunity to rebuild in a way that is more beneficial to the environment and the community. Based on these nominations we can say with confidence that there are a lot of design efforts taking place to improve the condition of our health, safety, relationships and environment. Now it is your turn to participate.