Design 21: Social Design Network

DESIGN 21 is proud to host this week's Carnival of the Green.

Check out Last Week's Carnival of the Green The Good Human and be sure to check out next week's Real Central VA. Learn more about Carnival of the Green at Treehugger's Website

And now, on with the show.

Enrico Forte presents RV Solar Panels 101 The Ultimate Guide on 12 volt battery charging posted at 12 Volt Solar Panels

Condo Blues presents Save Some Bucks – How to Seal Heating Ducts! posted at Condo Blues.

Phil for Humanity presents The Great Waste of Pumpkins « Phil for Humanity posted at Phil for Humanity.

Julie G from Go Greener, Australia presents How to make a no-dig garden bed posted at Go Greener Australia

Cathy Ley presents Paper vs Plastic? Or Cotton vs Canvas? posted at Gagazine.

Heather Levin presents Purify Your Indoor Air On A Budget posted at The Greenest Dollar.

Ron presents Wind Powered Hosting posted at EcoBlogs.net.

Jeff McIntire-Strasburg presents Building Bridges: What Red Communities are Going Green… from the Grassroots Up? posted at

Sally K. presents Lawn is a Dirty Word posted at Veggie Revolution

There are companies out there now making garbage bags & shopping bags out of cornstarch.

It would be amazing if this caught on and all of a sudden every store in the world was offering cornstarch bags instead of plastic bags, we'd reduce the amount of plastic in the world quite a bit.

::image credit::

One of the things I admire about older cities - say, European cities v. American cities (with some notable exceptions) - is that they're walkable. Modern cities like Atlanta aren't built around communities, they're built with efficiency in mind so there are vast suburban enclaves with no sidewalk and nothing within walking distance. Anywhere you want to go is a half hour away by car, or more.

These older cities evolved naturally based on needs- stores popped up where they needed to, farms were located close enough to the city to bring in produce and what the modern world would see as a lack of efficiency built a robust, balanced, durable institution. Modern cities have no such constraints.

Dunbar's Number says that humans work best in groups of up to 150 people - beyond that we lose the ability to interact with them meaningfully.

As we move further into the digital age, trusted networks will become more & more important - social networking sites like Facebook and LinkedIn are based largely on trusting those around you. The information you get through, say, Facebook - which is increasingly a platform for passing along nuggets - is from your peers, from your circle of trust. Sites like Digg.com put a human, community-based editorial face on the news of the day. Treehugger has taken the Digg concept and applied it to "Green" ideas with Hugg.com. Treehugger itself is like any blog is run by humans and grows or wanes in popularity by the efforts of those people. We seek out...

Michael Specter has an interesting article in The New Yorker about global warming and how "dazzlingly complex" it all is once you start to take all of the factors into account.

the calculations required to assess the full environmental impact of how we live can be dazzlingly complex. To sum them up on a label will not be easy. Should the carbon label on a jar of peanut butter include the emissions caused by the fertilizer, calcium, and potassium applied to the original crop of peanuts? What about the energy used to boil the peanuts once they have been harvested, or to mold the jar and print the labels? Seen this way, carbon costs multiply rapidly. A few months ago, scientists at the Stockholm Environment Institute reported that the carbon footprint of Christmas—including food, travel, lighting, and gifts—was six hundred and fifty kilograms per person. That is as much, they estimated, as the weight of “one thousand Christmas puddings” for every resident of England.

This passage caught my attention. We need to look at the whole picture and not just the impact of our individual actions. Remember all of the "save the rain forest" campaigns during the 1980's? My 7th grade science class wrote a letter to the Ecuadorian Embassy to encourage them to stop deforestation. It's great that carbon emissions are getting so much attention, but they're just a piece of the overall puzzle.

Just two countries—Indonesia and Brazil—account for about ten per cent of the greenhouse gases ...

When it comes to sustainable lifestyles that aren't as dependent on automobiles, America is at a disadvantage since so much of our country was populated after the advent of cars. You have cities like Atlanta, GA, which is expanding very rapidly and has suburbs that have no sidewalks, and nowhere to walk to anyway. Our towns are planned around the automobile.

So for America to move away from the dependence on cars, we'd have to re-think a lot of stuff. But for a nation that's where we were 50-60 years ago, perhaps they can learn from our mistakes & try to ensure their towns are centered around walkable activities so their citizenry at least has the choice.

Tata Motors has unveiled their $2,500 car in India. This mini monster is expected to get 54 mpg.

But one has to wonder whether or not an inexpensive and fuel efficient car is good for the world. This car will displace bicycles and scooters, not other cars, so we're effectively increasing waste & consumption, not decreasing it.

Speaking at the unveiling ceremony at the 9th Auto Expo in New Delhi, Mr. Ratan N. Tata said, "I observed families riding on two-wheelers - the father driving the scooter, his young kid standing in front of him, his wife seated behind him holding a little baby. It led me to wonder whether one could conceive of a safe, affordable, all-weather form of transport for such a family. Tata Motors' engineers and designers gave their all for about four years to realise this goal. Today, we indeed have a People's Car, which is affordable and yet built to meet safety requirements and emission norms, to be fuel efficient and low on emissions. We are happy to present the People's Car to India and we hope it brings the joy, pride and utility of owning a car to many families who need personal mobility."

via Jalopnik

Thames & Kosmos have come up with a miniature, working "off the grid" home for kids to learn about sustainable living.

With the Power House kit you can build a model house complete with solar panels, windmill, greenhouse, and desalination system. You can build and operate an electric train, windmill, solar cooker, solar hot water tank, hygrometer, electric motor, power hoist, sail car, and more! Plant watercress, prepare sauerkraut, and make chewing gum. Learn how plants convert sunlight into energy for your body and your engines.

What a fun, clever way to teach the next generation about the possibilities of sustainable living!

Check out the Power House

via Springwise

In response to Pascal's desire to see the entry that was selected, MCAI has stated that they will announce their selection as soon as they hear back from the person whose work they chose.

http://www.design21sdn.com/people/9229/posts/1185

These Come From Trees is a sticker campaign designed to help reduce paper waste. Buy a sticker and put it anywhere you think the message could be spread that paper towels, printer paper, etc. come from trees.

Amazingly, the design was donated by a group that does "Random acts of Designess"

That's a good design idea. I'm ordering a bunch.

That's a great manifesto & the author's "cartoons on the back of business cards" blog is a really good one and worth every cent of the next 5 minutes you'll spend looking at it starting right now.