Eco Design + Living

Ok, so I have a confession about this blog. I believe I have unintentionally mislead searchers and my readers into believing this blog was going to provide ideas for designing a green home or the answers to what green products to purchase to ease one’s guilty eco-conscience. If you landed here looking for tidbits about what car to drive, household cleaners to use, or clothes to wear - I apologize - but only for misleading, not for the content of the blog.

Design is ubiquitous; from condiment packaging to the cities we inhabit, design IS everywhere. Its seemingly innocuous being has an effect on every aspect of our lives. Good design can improve the quality of human life, restore the natural environment, and bring economic and social prosperity. Design is about problem solving and designers solve problems. Unfortunately, designers often create more problems due to the limitations of the imagination or regulatory constraints.

Instead of focusing on “products” and being consumers, this blog takes the position of exposing individuals to non status quo ideas and concepts that will lay the groundwork for the fundamental changes that need to occur in order for our society to begin living within our ecological means. The redesign of how we live is crucial to our success as a sustainable species. Preceding this monumental redesign project we must first reach critical mass of awareness, then begin a radical transformation of the way we perceive and define prosperity.

Confessions aside - here, fluff is kept to a minimum. You won’t read about the new eco grocery bag, recycled carpet, or the latest Energy Star rated techno gadgets. These things simply won’t make the structural changes needed in a meaningful human time scale. I will add that I encourage everyone to continue doing the small things, but we need to keep the big things at the forefront of our actions for creating truly sustainable communities.

With that in mind…live well!

Chandra