At San Francisco International, California, new water fountains shaped like soft-drink dispensers have been unveiled, making SFO the first major US airport to install the water-refill stations.
The question mark-shaped fountains, costing US$3,000 each, allow passengers to reclaim any water lost in security lanes, where TSA agents empty out bottles containing more than 3.4 ounces of liquid. It leaves the travellers with two options: refill their bottles at a regular fountain or sink or buy a new bottle for US$3.
With the new dispensers, passengers put their bottle under the spigot, press a button and watch tap water flow into the container. The company that supplies the machines, called Globaltap, has even thought to put a drain at the bottom of its GT1000 Bottle Filler so any excess water can be washed away (passengerterminaltoday.com)
I just bought my ticket to Intersections 2011 and is trilled about the conference. It’s all going to go down at Eden project in Cornwell (what a location!)
About Intersections: Groundbreaking experts from different disciplines will tell stories at Intersections about what they have learned lately, what they expect to learn next, and why. The conference will also feature lively debate between path-finding designers and thinkers with different views on how businesses should prepare for the future.
If you’re in Denmark, near Kolding, take a look at their amazing library. It it’s nicely design and with functions that suits a modern information-house. (I’m sitting at one of the library’s many computers posting this post!)
The INDEX: Design Challenge is a biennial call to design and business students worldwide, inviting them to address global challenges that represent not only crucial issues in today’s world, but critical steps to our survival in a world students will one day inherit. In close collaboration with UNICEF, the theme of “Designing for Education” has been chosen for the challenge.
The 7 finalist has been found. You can browse the project here
I think a lot of the project is quite good, but are surprised that the project KNITTING FOR EDUCATION (by Maria Albertsen, Sidsel Rudolph & Anja Wejs Phigalt) wasn’t selected since i love the concept behind it.
The Big Design Challenge is a project where the public can address problems and come up with solution trough help from designers. I love the way The Big Challenge interact with the user and make them co-designers.
I’m a big fan of the Index: award. The deadline for uploading projects for Index:11 is in about two weeks… So go ahead upload your project or a project that you think deserves the honour.
When I decribe where I want to work after my studies (a place with idealistic design that improves life – and not big brands), people says that no such thing exist! But it6 does; take a look at Thinkpublic - a social design studio that work with the public sector! Inspiring!
I just found this really interesting webpage design-thinkers.co.uk/. The Author Paul Davies describe why he stated the page: “ I started this site after getting increasingly frustrated with the graphic design industry after over ten years working in the sector. My frustration stemmed from the attitude that design was primarily focused on beautification or just ‘making thing look nice’ and the view of ‘if it looks nice people will react well to it’. Undoubtedly the look of a piece of communication is an important factor but shouldn’t be the only factor when considering [graphic] design projects. A piece of graphic design is a piece of communication that is made with the express purpose of achieving a desired result. Often the thinking part of design was either decided by teams of non-designers before the designers were commissioned (i.e. client teams) or not considered at all. “
Following the huge success of the first limited edition SIGG bottle designed exclusively by Vivienne Westwood, SIGG launches the second design in June 2010 at the Vivienne Westwood SS11 Menswear Show in Milan.
As a girl from Copenhagen, I bike to Uni and the studio. The last couple of months I have noticed blue public bikes for hire has popped up along my way. Now they are up and running, and I’m actually surprised to see how many that use the bikes. That’s good design!
London are also campaigning to get more people to ride the bike:
In the movie “Tapped” Captain Charles Moore (Founder of Algalita Marine Research Foundation) is interviewed and I found his viewpoints extremely interesting.
Quotes from capt. Charles Moore in Tapped:
“If you eliminate the scourge of bottled water, you’ll be eliminating one of the biggest problems facing our environment.”
“In 1999 we did a survey and found 6 times as much plastic as plankton. In 2008 we went back and did the exact same survey and found 46 as much plastic as plankton”
“Our trash is filling up the ocean turning it in to a plastic soup and those plastic particles are poison pills for the millions and millions of fish and invertible eating it”
“Bottled water may have a place in disaster relief – but there are issues around bottled water that make it unsuitable for regular use and those issues need to be emphasised because bottled water is becoming a big contaminant of our environment”
The Great Pacific Garbage Patch, also described as the Pacific Trash Vortex, is a gyre of marine litter in the central North Pacific Ocean. The patch extends over a very wide area, with estimates an area the size of the state of Texas.
The Patch is characterized by exceptionally high concentrations of pelagic plastics, chemical sludge, and other debris that have been trapped by the currents of the North Pacific Gyre.
I have just watched the movie “Tapped” (buy it online here: Amazon.co.uk). It is a great documentary about the problems with bottled water. Unfortunately it doesn’t point out many solutions.
The Royal Parks Foundation and the Tiffany & Co. Foundation, in partnership with the Royal Institute of British Architects, are challenging all design disciplines – including architects, engineers, product designers and artists – to create a low-cost, attractive, drinking fountain suitable for the Royal Parks and other public spaces around the world.
Artist-Designed Public Drinking Fountains
Public Art Project
In 1858 the people of Minneapolis voted to become a town, with our first Town Council meeting on July 20, 1858. It was the river that attracted people to this place and we celebrate the role water has played in our history. Water is a building block of our past and an essential resource for our future.
In honor of the city’s 150th anniversary, the City of Minneapolis Art in Public Places Program and the Department of Public Works are commissioning ten public art drinking fountains to be installed at different locations in the City. The vision of this project is to celebrate the role water has played in Minneapolis history and to foster a commitment to honoring and protecting water as fundamental to all life.
Responding to the urgent need for sustainable living, Above magazine calls upon the environmentally conscious and everyone else interested in the future by sharpening its focus on the endangered beauty of the world.
It is our firm belief that photography, the plastic arts, fashion, architecture and design can be instrumental in raising awareness about the need to preserve nature and we aim to share our opinionated, yet aesthetic vision, with our readers.
Our team is composed of people who believe that the evolution of our world and the people in it matters deeply; who value respect above all, for themselves, for others and for their surroundings, wherever they may be.
Above magazine is made by and for those who recognize that the true appeal of beautiful objects and places derives from their inherent rarity and fragility. For them, desirable often means simple rather than extravagant, and living more responsibly without succumbing to self-righteousness is one of the greatest forms of sophistication.
Above is a new kind of lifestyle magazine. Our inspiration lies in the ever so diverse beauty of men and women, the preciousness of the earth and the challenges and opportunities of the future. We are committed to promoting an art of living that improves the environment without depriving daily life of its intrinsic pleasures. Our contributors are among the world’s great photographers and writers, who freely showcase here the splendours of a vanishing world and remind us of the immediate, vital, need to safeguard what remains of it.
Because, like Dostoyevsky, we believe that “beauty will save the world”.
Nicolas Rachline
Editor
Green Thing is a public service that inspires people to lead a greener life. With the help of brilliant videos and inspiring stories from creative people and community members around the world, Green Thing focuses on seven things you can do – and enjoy doing. Join people from 205 countries doing their green things and making a difference.
Launched in 2006 to critical acclaim, the GREEN Awards were set up to recognise and reward creative work that communicates the importance of Corporate Social Responsibility, sustainable development and ethical best practice in any sector and across any marketing discipline.
Water is a right, not a commodity
More than a billion people today do not have access to safe drinking water. Corporations are viewing this crisis as a cash cow opportunity. Yet the threat of privatized water schemes can be difficult to wrap your head around. Enter Think Outside the Bottle.
The Corporate Accountability International campaign is drawing attention to the most visible symptom of the problem: bottled water. We’ve held Tap Water Challenges across the U.S. to make the case for protecting water as a common good,
not a commercial commodity.
We’re working with state and city governments to stop purchasing their bottled water contracts and with popular restaurants to drop bottled water from their menus.
We also “culture jammed” our corporate targets by distributing postcards and coasters — created by the Polaris Institute — that play off popular brand names and highlight their misleading marketing, especially considering the fact that up to 40% of bottled water uses municipal water as its source. Coke’s Dasani became “Daphoni,” Nestlé was twisted into
“Nasty,” and Pepsi’s Aquafina became “Aquafib.” Our efforts paid off. As a first step victory, Pepsi agreed to provide consumers with more information about the source
of the water used for Aquafina. In direct response to a national day of action in July 2007, Pepsi agreed to spell out “Public Water Source” on the Aquafina label, admitting that its valuable brand is tap water.
About the UNICEF Tap Project
In 2007, the UNICEF Tap Project was born in New York City based on a simple concept: restaurants would ask their patrons to donate $1 or more for the tap water they usually enjoy for free, and all funds raised would support UNICEF’s efforts to bring clean and accessible water to millions of children around the world.
Growing from just 300 New York City restaurants in 2007 to thousands across the country today, the UNICEF Tap Project has quickly become a powerful national movement.
During World Water Week, March 21-27, 2010, the UNICEF Tap Project will once again raise awareness of the world water crisis and vital funds to help the millions of children it impacts daily. All funds raised support UNICEF’s water, sanitation and hygiene programs, and the effort to bring clean and accessible water to millions of children around the world.
Household water consumption accounts for around two-thirds of water in the public supply (excluding leaks). In 2004 households consumed an average of 150 litres per person each day compared with only 10 ml of bottled water.
Neither the plastic nor the glass bottles used by producers today are re-used as both would have to be made much thicker for that purpose. Apart from the fact that re-usable vessels would typically weigh twice as much as current bottles, the impact of collection and cleaning would also have to be factored in, both of which have a cost to the environment. As in previous decades prior to the introduction of mass recycling, the bottles would have to be extensively washed to make them fit for re-use and life-cycle assessments show that it is much more environmentally sound to recycle than to re-use.
If you’re in Denmark, near Kolding, take a look at their amazing library. It it’s nicely design and with functions that suits a modern information-house. (I’m sitting at one of the library’s many computers posting this post!)
