Changes - News Grabs

News Grabs

iPod Problems
According to a recent SMH article by Brigid Delaney, one in 15 iPod owners are complaining about the short life of the rechargeable battery. The battery only lasts for 18 months and cannot be replaced which is leading to lawsuits against Mac in the U.S. Mac's response is that it's the users' fault: people are loving their iPods too much - using them around the clock. Johnathan Ive, vice-president of industrial design at Apple whose innovations include the iPod and iMac won the London Design Museum's Designer of the Year award last year. The award of £25,000 went to 'the person who contributed the most to design in the previous year'. Good work, Johnathan. Change Design recommends a new award for good design: got any products that still work and look good after ten years? Please see our DecaDesign Challenge for more on this theme.

Brendan Rooney, a final year student in Industrial Design at the University of Western Sydney is taking on Change Design's DecaDesign challenge. He is working on a mobile phone that is built to last psychologically, aesthetically and physically for ten years. The average life of a mobile phone is up there with the iPod - 18 months. By extending the life to ten years, Brendan hopes to slow down material throughput by 80%.

Power Assisted Bicycles
If anyone is looking into PABs for a graduating design project, be sure to read a recent report from the Institute of Transport Studies at Monash University. Although its primary aim is to open up the debate into Australian regulations that limit PAB power output to 200watts, it is an excellent introduction to this emerging design field. It includes a comprehensive literature review of international PAB initiatives, describes current local and international markets and introduces the various technologies and vehicles now available. What is particularly interesting is the potential for PABs to offer affordable and more sustainable mobility choices for our aging population (the largest market segment in Australia is retirees (55 plus)). The report can be downloaded from the Cycling Promotion Fund’s Website.
The Sydney University Institute of Transport Studies has also been busy. They’ve published a review of NSW Bus services.

New Eco Material Developments
Change Designer Claudia Bonifer has tracked these new ecomaterials from German Design media:
Ecoware
British designer Tom Dixon has exploited an innovative compound. His
crockery is made of ecologically-sound plastic called Eco-plastics
produced by using a new technique. He takes the fibers that arise as a by-
product during bamboo processing, pulverizes them, mixes them with water-
soluble plastic and then presses the mass into a mould at a high
temperature. According to the designer the plates, dishes and mugs are
elegant enough to be used for official occasions. Furthermore, they are so
robust, that they withstand daily use just as well as a picnic outdoors.
And, should they break at some stage, they can at least be composted with
an easy conscience.(Article by Gwendolyn Kulick, published in form 193/194)

Disguised Plastics
Fasalex is a plastic made of biologically degradable raw materials: wood residues such as saw dust bonded with maize. The third component is natural resin or biologically degradable plastics. These three components are processed to form pellets that can then be worked by using various plastics processing methods including extrusion. Fasalex products can also be
processed with all the technologies customarily associated with wood
working. Furthermore, they can be lacquered, powder-coated, veneered or
dyed using food-dyes. Since all types of raw fibrous materials can be used
for this purpose, local sourcing and production is possible. (Article by Nicola Stattmann, published in form 193/194)

Some recent snippets on the impacts of Air Travel
The average tourist uses as much water in 24 hours as a villager in a developing country uses in 100 days. Before we even get there, our flights add to the 600 million tons of carbon emissions that come from aircraft each year. If you multiply those indicators by rising tourist numbers, the result is yet another grim eco trend. In 1950, there were about 25 million international tourist visits; by 2020,1.6 billion of us will go lemming-like on our hols each year - carbon emitting and water guzzling as we go. The good news is that many of us wish to travel lightly: eco-tourism already accounts for about one in five trips worldwide. As with "organic" food, tour operators tend to play fast-and-loose with definitions of "eco" - so before you book, check out this informative site: http://www.responsible-travel.com
(Doors of Perception)

Greenleap recently ran this article: ‘Air Travel 'Of Enormous Concern' For Global Warming’ By Amanda Brown, PA News / The Scotsman March 30, 2004.

And Alan Pears had this to add: the GreenFleet site now has a 'Tree Totaller' calculator that allows you to estimate the greenhouse impacts of air travel and to buy trees to offset those emissions.

And from Guy Lane (SEA O2 Sustainable Development): Aviation accounts for about 6% of global greenhouse emissions, so its worth a look. See the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change report (pdf) on aviation greenhouse emissions.

Alternatives for getting around the state?
There’s always the XPT? The Carr Government released plans this week to axe the return Casino-Murwillumbah XPT. Great.

Well, you can always hitch a ride online with needaride.com.au - the website that will make the life of anyone who wants to travel cheaply around Australia a lot easier.

And Getting around Town…
According to Doors of Perception, a poll of Amsterdammers asked: how do you go to work? The answers were: public transport: 26.7%, Car: 28.3%, Bicycle: 29.8 %, Walk: 4.8%, Scooter: 2.7%, "I don't work": 7.7%.

And just for fun I thought we’d compare it with Sydney Census 2001 responses: How did we travel to work on census day? Public Transport: 14.8%, Car: 57.7%, Human power: 4.3% ABS

Thank you Western Australia for banning GM crops!

TV Turnoff Week April 19-15
TV Turnoff Week is all about the mental environment – the idea that, like our oceans and air, our shared mindscape is littered with distractions, irritants, and pollutants. The goal is simply to get people thinking about the clutter in their mental space.

blackSpot sneaker
Adbusters have also been busy with the world's first grassroots anti-brand, with a ground-breaking marketing scheme to uncool Nike. If it succeeds, it will set a precedent that will revolutionize capitalism. For years, Nike was the undisputed champion of logo culture, its swoosh an instant symbol of global cool. But this is all about to change with the simple little blackSpot sneaker.

Web Tracking
Good Stuff? A Behind-the-Scenes Guide to the Things We Buy
The Good Stuff traces what goes into the production, use, and disposal of 25 common consumer items, including compact discs, mobile phones, baby goods, and cars. It doesn’t exactly encourage the radical cultural change that Change Design demands, but has a few interesting statistics worth pilfering to support your arguments against your parents’ or partners’ purchasing choices. We wouldn’t want anyone feeling better about themselves for merely changing brands instead of changing their behaviours so please take the Good Stuff in with its companion, the Worldwatch Institute’s State of the World 2004 Special Focus: The Consumer Society.

Australian Marine Conservation Society: Australia's Sustainable Seafood Guide
Another nice little purchasing guide to give the fish a break.

FabPrefab: Modernist Prefab Dwellings
An interesting web resource dedicated to tracking developments in the realm of ‘modernist prefab dwellings’. Some very nice, small, mobile, folding and affordable homes with the odd geodesic dome (of course). And for an article about architects converting old shipping containers into dwellings, see Nick Mamatas' Contain Yourself!: When it comes to housing, can thinking outside the box mean living inside a box? March 10 - 16, 2004 The Village Voice

Sustainable Homeservices
(This came in through O2)The project Sustainable Homeservices - 'Benchmarking Sustainable Services for the Housing Sector in the City of Tomorrow', funded by the European Commission Research Directorate-General, within the framework of the program 'The City of Tomorrow and Cultural Heritage' has completed it's first year of implementation.

The study focuses on Sustainable Homeservices, as services that are offered to residents at their home, directly or via an intermediary organisation, that contribute positively to sustainable development in its three dimensions: environment, social, and economy. The main goal of the project is to stimulate the introduction of sustainable homeservices in Europe.

Degrees in Sustainable Design
Change Design member, Dr Mariano Ramirez is compiling a list of international universities which offer degrees in sustainable design, both at undergraduate and postgraduate levels. If you know of any around the place, please let us know so that we can pass the details on: tea@edf.edu.au

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Changes is the Newsletter of Change Design, the student branch of the
EcoDesign Foundation, Sydney | Questions & Comments Welcome
Last Updated April 2004