On @Nest, Personal Sustainability, and Simplicity in form and function

At The Green Radar, we're big fans of firms that put design first. Our belief is that design -- when used as an intrinsic function of the overall product,  when it is educated by human insight and a keen understanding of a given problem -- can scale up to alter behavior itself.

And with matters of personal sustainability, we feel it's going to be products like Nest's thermostat (pictured here) that will go a long way in helping achieve this.

Nest is a smart meter that learns your energy usage habits and can help you optimize and minimize any losses in energy use. It knows when you wake up, when you leave for work, when you get back, and adjusts the temperature accordingly. They also have other products in the works, like* a humidity control mechanism called Airwave.

It also helps to know that Nest was designed by Tony Fadell, the guy who designed the first iPod. A firm to watch for the future, certainly.

More here.


*Correction: Airwave is a part of the Nest thermostat, and not a separate product. Thanks to the Nest team for confirming this!

The @DesignObserver looks at the Evolving Narrative of Sustainability

We love this article by the Design Observer, which looks at the evolving narrative of sustainability over the years.

There is a technological progression towards efficiency, towards creating smaller or lesser polluting systems. But that's not necessarily the solution, and in fact can perhaps get in the way of every achieving true sustainability.

The article implores us to differentiate between technologically-driven sustainability, which is where a lot of what we're talking about lies, and instead also pay attention to the broader questions of ecological sustainability. To look at and develop new models for consumption itself, not just more efficient ways of producing and consuming as we always have, being cognizant that there is a broader ecological impact of iterations within the narrow field of "efficient products".

This is a conversation we hope to have on The Green Radar over the next few weeks, and would love for you to participate.

“Ever bigger machines, entailing ever bigger concentrations of economic power and exerting ever greater violence against the environment, do not represent progress: they are a denial of wisdom. Wisdom demands a new orientation of science and technology towards the organic, the gentle, the non-violent, the elegant and beautiful.”E.F. Schumacher