March 2008

Posted by
David Gravina
March 31, 2008
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Nett magazine showcases Digital Eskimo

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This months, Nett magazine includes an article on Digital Eskimo’s day to day operations as a (hopefully inspiring!) example of how to run a green business. We’ve been dreaming up and implementing a unique set of approaches for years now so as you can imagine we had a bit to say.

The article mentions an initiative we are very excited about which is our decision to buy carbon credits to neutralise the entire footprint of the agency since we began in 2001. We see it as a way to cleanup the mess we’ve left in the atmosphere (albeit while doing mostly sustainable projects!) rather than just offsetting recent or current emissions and we’ll be challenging other companies to do the same.

Go buy the magazine or Download the article (PDF).

Posted by
admin
March 9, 2008
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We’re off to talk (and do) design, technology and sustainability….

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We are happy to see a definite theme emerging this year as design, technology and sustainability gets picked up (finally) as part of the bigger picture across the board. Digital Eskimo has quite a few opportunities lined up already to share and engage in our design and sustainability conversations (and hopefully actions).

First up is the greening of CHI 2008 where I have been invited to be part of the panel Beyond the hype: Sustainability & HCI in April. The growing interest in sustainability at CHI, and as part of conferencing in general is exciting, and I hope to participate in this one remotely and save some air miles.

Closer to home …

May brings us the Pervasive Persuasive Technology and Environmental Sustainability Workshop at Pervasive 2008 here in Sydney 19-22 May. Duncan and myself both hope to attend this local one. Our submission, “Understanding Motivation and Enabling Action Towards Change” focused on how Considered Design enables us to both understand what motivates people make change, as well as design technology to support that.

We will be spending the air miles (offset of course) to attend Ezio Manzini’s (a true leader in the field) Changing the Change conference in Torino, later in year. The conference focuses on the role and potential of design research in the transition towards sustainability – we hope this marks a major step in the re-defining of designers as facilitators of significant, positive change.

Posted by
David Gravina
March 4, 2008
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Apartment in a box gets Deskimo thumbs up …

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Now the Casulo Mobile Living Furniture project is one fine piece of design! It meets the needs of people who move around regularly (probably half the younger population of cities like Sydney!) and should see the wasteful practice of throwing out cheap temporary furniture that’s too hard to move minimised.

Whilst we love the design and elegance of the execution we’d be keen to know more about the sustainability of the materials (sourcing and toxicity issues for instance). We’d also want answers to our questions on durability as well as full life-cycle (who is responsible for the product after its serviceable life?) before rushing out and ordering one.

Having said that a big Deskimo thumbs up to the designers at the Casulo project for a fantastic prototype design.