Design 21: Social Design Network

Daniel,

I've been invited to give feedback to all Parsons students, regarding your thesis projects.

Congratulations on addressing an important manufacturing issue. I have the feeling you've been inspired by Cradle to Cradle! The Next Industrial Revolution is definitely upon us and we need more thinking like this to move it forward.

It's good that you've considered all steps of the product's life-cycle, from material extraction through to transportation, use and re-use. You've hit all the key markers, but you haven't made clear how in fact the inefficiencies will be addressed - both environmentally and economically. You've mentioned both, which confirms your awareness of these factors, but maybe you could give a few examples of how in fact you'd propose solving for them.

I like how you've factored in carbon cost into product cost though. And how you've considered local economies. For this to happen, surely we won't revert to a manufacturing economy in the US (we've outsourced the infrastructure)...but perhaps a newfound manufacturing economy can certainly be born - one that isn't mass-scale and centralized, but one that's small-scale and distributed. This would also cut down on fuel costs and introduce work to local economies, etc.

Good job. Just elaborate a little more on the details of HOW your manufacturing/distribution cycle takes shape. J.