greengaged, the sustainability hub of London Design Festival 2008 was a programme of exhibitions, talks and barge trips which shared best practice case studies, sustainability big bang moments and cross-disciplinary discoveries.
![Sophie Thomas co-founder of thomas.matthews, David Kester CEO of Design Council, Sarah Johnson of [re]design and Anne Chick Director of the Sustainable Design Research Centre, Kingston University](/DCImages/Directory Listings/Events and Competitions/[GHI]/Greengaged/GreengagedOrganisers_339x25.jpg)
Held at the Design Council in Covent Garden - you couldn't miss it with a green skip complete with lawn and tree outside the building - greengaged was organised by Sophie Thomas of thomas.matthews, Sarah Johnson of [re]design and Anne Chick of the Sustainable Design Reserach Centre at Kingston University.
The first day started with a bang, when designers from Cisco Systems, Dragon Brands and Expedition Engineering were joined by sustainability experts to debate whether design was responsible for saving the planet.
'We have to come up with some really big, strong ideas to solve the environmental problems we face, and I think that's where designers will come in', said Dorothy MacKenzie of Dragon Brands. Designer's abilities to create scenarios of what the world could be like, to combine pragmatic realism with optimistic vision [from Ezio Manzini] and to think before and around as well as through a problem mean they have the skills to effect broad systems level change she argued.
Clive Grinyer from Cisco systems said, yes designers might have the skills, 'Design is a toolbox for ways of making better decisions' he argued, but so far they have had to wait to be invited to the sustainability party by clients who don't yet think sustainable thinking is worth celebrating.
Ed McCann of Expedition Engineering quoted Darwin, but reinterpreted his famous 'survival of the fittest' ideology. He said Darwin emphasised that it is 'the one most adaptable to change' that survives and that designers are adaptable to change, should be making others adaptable to change or giving them the tools and systems to effect change themselves. He quoted Herbert Simon, an American political scientist who said design was already a human behaviour: 'Everyone designs who devises courses of action aimed at changing existing situations into preferred ones.'
Communication, product and service designers shared some of the projects they've worked on, with the sustainability lessons they've learnt along the way.
Sophie Thomas of thomas.matthews talked about the design agency's work for the British Council - a pavilion at Glastonbury 2005 made out of sweet chesnut coppice and an eco-friendly printed fabric skin. It was their first chance to broaden the sense of what communication design was all about and they collaborated with furniture designers and structural engineers to achieve a piece that can be reused and easily tailored for other situations.
Then there was the case of the Good Design Plan invite. The Design Council launched its Good Design Plan earlier this year and thomas.matthews made sure it wears its sustainability aims on its sleeve when it designed an invite for the launch events which re-uses paper from old Design Council publications overprinted with a soys-based metallic silver ink - the first time thomas.matthews had been able to find an environmentally friendly metallic ink.
Design agency Provokateur has set up its own business to address one environmental issue it is passionate about: the amount of bottled water drunk when tap tastes just as good. We want tap is a consumer campaign and a set of sustainable products that are also a fundraising tool run by an ethical business. There's a video that explains more on the We Want Tap website.
Remarkable pencils are UK manufactured from UK waste. They're made out of used plastic water cups and there's a range of pens made out of bits of computers which can't be recycled. The eco-entrepreneur company used design to break out of the niche eco-market and instead focus on creating well-designed, great quality products that are fun to own and a joy to use.
Anglepoise showed that sustainability for it has always been a core company value. The company's engineered lighting designs have always been long-life but rewiring kits have recently been designed for customers who want to refurbish their own vintage lamps. For them 'Necessity may be the mother of invention, but play is certainly the father.'
Keep an eye on the greengaged website for the latest news and pictures from the events on its blog.