Note to self...

Listen to this...

Trite, Expensive or Impossible

As I'm in the process of reading a few more books on sustainability - I realized one thing.  All of the books seem to offer solutions that are either Trite, Expensive or Impossible.  I hope there is some better theories to come.  I doubt I'll come up with any, but I will certainly continue to read them.  I think I'm going to start classifying the main theories with those labels... Oh, I must be in a horrible mood - I'll have something more hope-filled for you to read tomorrow, I promise!

Contemplation

After all this study, use and contemplation of waste, I still have no solution, I wish I did.  I do have one thing though and that is a bit more insight than before, but no more than most people.  One of the small but important observations I've made is that there is no away - there is a somewhere else... but there is no away.  You can't throw anything away - you can throw it somewhere else - but never away.  Everything will continue existing in one form or another - more beneficially or less, but it will never go away, and so we must be increasingly cautious on how we use our resources and how we think about waste.  I've been thinking about waste not as I used to, but it has opened the door to the contemplation of using it again and again and again.  Seeing it as a raw material, not something to be discarded.

Get a Haircut and Get a Real Job...

I have to get a real job now.  No more cardboard weaving, or dumpster diving... time for a bit of reality. If anyone has any tips or tricks or knows of anything cool that might be related to Textiles or Sustainability - it would be great to know about!  And I need a haircut... I'm thinking of getting bangs (fringe), but I'm worried about the up keep...

A day at the museums

Spent a little time yesterday going to the museums.  I went to the Wellcome Collection for the first time... Great museum!!!  Their exhibit on From Atoms to Patterns was awesome.  Science and design... right up my alley.  I'm going to have to make it a regular haunt!  They even had an interactive game that used your biometric data to create a pattern - how could I not LOVE that???  Oh yeah, and I went to the V&A for a bit of a jaunt yesterday also.

Kind of glad other people are a bit confused...

Was trolling some of my regular haunts this morning and I found this great article from WorldChanging. If you don't feel like reading it basically its about a new computer system called BIMstorm which goes through possible scenarios in order to determine the possible downfall of any given urban planning scheme or building proposal from several different angles (urban planning, building and project managment to name a few). Strangely that's not why I'm writing about this article... I really liked this beginning paragraph, as it seems to sum up a great deal of what I've been encountering lately...

"Although we find ourselves in what has been described as a 'technology gap', I would argue that it is better understood as an implementation gap. Companies, governments, and citizens are rallying and attempting to 'solve' global warming. But the dizzying array of potential solutions is intimidating, as they are mostly untried, often politically difficult, and are sometimes proposed and debunked before decision makers had learned what the hell we were talking about, a la the recent biofuels debate. It is an incredibly challenging climate (sorry) in which to formulate policy, fund untried technologies, change behavior, or restructure our bureaucracy."

It really is quite difficult to find an answer to all of the problems we are faced with - but I just try to keep in mind that starting somewhere is key - it may not be perfect but its a start. Which reminds me - we need to stop being so critical about companies that are doing "something" that others think is "not enough", getting going in the right direction is so very important, and we will kill any future improvements if we keep being overly critical. Question policies and greenwashing - certainly, but do praise companies for beginning... its all going to have to start somewhere...

The Crack is Now Closed

Doris Salcedo's crack closed last month. Here's a photo...



People are still looking at it, they just can't get very close anymore... I wonder what they are going to do to pull it out... New floor or patch it up? I'll let you know next time I go back.

Notes from a nice Day

I went to MADE's event on Textiles and Clothing Sustainability last week (Thursday). It was a really great event with speakers from many diverse fields - it was great to see such a mix! I've scanned in my notes and if you would like to read them in their utter flawed manner (don't use any of the figures I'm sure some of them are wrong). I also met Mark Liu - one of last year's graduates of Textile Futures. He makes some very beautiful pieces all cut with zero fabric waste in the cutting process. I'll write another post about his work as soon as I find all the of the pertinent links. Back to the original reason I'm writing... notes... here they are...

Another Random Top 10

I haven't posted a Top 10 in awhile... So here's a new one on The Top 10 Renewable Gadgets via CleanTechnica...

Catching up on my Treehugger Reading

I've been out of the loop for a bit (focusing on my work I guess).  And I just saw a really cool article on Thermoelectric Textiles made by GMZ Energy... The original treehugger post is here.  I wonder if they'll send me a sample???

nau...

Nau is closing up shop... How unfortunate... I think I might be one of the last to know about it.  Its rather quite sad as they had a wonderful business model and seemed to be doing everything that the sustainable market was looking for - beautiful outdoor clothing made with ethics and sustainability in mind.  Well hopefully this will just be a mini hiatus and they will be back with a vengeance once the economy picks up again.  Thanks treehugger for the heads up!

Another one to the Pile

Sustainabilitiy labels... Here's another one.  This one is called Pharos - a great idea of putting all of the criteria on a scale.  They focus on building materials and its based on a wiki model.  It was launched in 2006 - I found it on coolhunter - so it really shows how much momentum is being created.