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 Crystal - Another milestone in developing the Green Enterprise District in London

In 2010 London decided to launch a low carbon enterprise district in the East of London with the goal to serve as a role model example of sustainable urban development - and to also prove to the world, that it is possible to achieve growth in a sustainable way.

Electrical engineering company Siemens recently announced that their Siemens Urban Sustainability Center, a 30million Pound exhibition center in the heart of the Green Enterprise District, will open in the summer of 2012.

The Crystal, as the building will be called, will serve as permanent showcase for new sustainable technologies from around the globe and sight for educational learning as well as meeting point for city decision makers, planners and architects.

Besides, innovative features of the building include the use of recycled steel, photovoltaic panels, energy efficient lighting, rainwater harvesting, ground source heat pumps and many more.

The involvement of Wilkinson Eyre Architects, which are renowned for bringing together sustainable architecture with cutting edge design, is adding to the fact that there might be yet another reason besides the Olympic Games to visit London this summer.

Picture provided by Siemens