[Pil-pc-oceania] interesting examples of conscious-design becoming mainstream in the UK

[Ian Lillington]

WHAT MIGHT LIFE IN A SUSTAINABLE REGION BE LIKE?
And what design steps are needed to get us from here, to
there? Make a note
of the Dott Festival dates: 16-28 October 2007, Baltic
Square, Gateshead,
UK.
http://www.dott07.com/ 

+ More below...

-----Original Message-----
From: doors-report-bounces at list.doorsofperception.com
[mailto:doors-report-bounces at list.doorsofperception.com] On
Behalf Of Doors
Report
Sent: 02 July 2007 11:56
To: Doors Report
Subject: Doors of Perception: Doors of Perception Report
July 2007

Doors of Perception Report
Design steps to a one planet economy. 
July 2007
By John Thackara

READERSHIP SURVEY
Thank you, you 299 wonderful respondents. First results are
at the end of this newsletter. 

HOW HIGH IS THE CLIMATE CHANGE BAR?
This sounds dry but I have a feeling it 's an important
development.
Carbon Trust and the UK's Environment Ministry, Defra, have
joined
with the British Standards Institution (BSI) to develop a
standard
method for measuring the embodied green house gas (GHG)
emissions in
products and services. Once completed, a "Publicly Available
Specification" (PAS) will ensure a consistent and comparable
approach
to supply chain measurement of embodied GHGs across markets.
There's
a way to go, of course, before the problem of "greenwash"
disappears.
But PAS creates an important part of the architecture for a
global
system that will enable people to make a meaningful
comparison
between whole-system enviromental performance of competing
products and services. 
http://www.defra.gov.uk/news/2007/070530a.htm

RESOURCE WARS
Clashes over resources, both major and minor, are often the
unseen
factor behind chaos and violence and we need to develop
fairer systems
the distribution of resources. A new book by Wolfgang Sachs
and other
specialists from the internationally renowned Wuppertal
Institute
explains what is involved in resource conflicts and the new
regimes
needed to eliminate them. Resource Conflicts, Security, and
Global
Justice, London: Zed Books, 2007. 
http://www.zedbooks.net/fairfuture

SLOW TRADE, SOUND FARMING
Agricultural trade policies pursued in the last decades have
contributed to price instabilities for agricultural goods
and an
increase in market concentration and the industrialization
of
agricultural production at a global level. A two-year
dialogue
among farmer representatives, trade analysts, policy
advisors,
and researchers from Southern and Northern countries led to
this
proposal for a new system. Wolfgang Sachs/Tilman Santarius
et al.,
Slow Trade - Sound Farming. A Multilateral Framework for
Sustainable Markets in Agriculture. Aachen/ Berlin:
Misereor/ Heinrich Boell
Foundation, 2007.
http://www.ecofair-trade.org

SUSTAINABLE TOURISM AND DESIGN
In terms of someone's carbon footprint, a single holiday in
New
Zealand is equivalent to 60 short domestic visits to the
North East of
England by a UK citizen. But those sixty trips are not
sustainable if
they stimulate a wasteful use of finite resources by
visitors and
their host businesses. This is a pressing dilemma: Tourism
is
fundamental to the North East's economic strategy and in
many other
regons around the world. So how might we re-shape tourism to
be
consistent with sustainabiity? Designs of the time (Dott07)
has asked
expert speakers to address this queston on 12 July in
Newcastle. Chris
Little heads Tourism Development Unit at One North East.
Leandro
Pisano and Alessandro Esposito develop ICT strategies for
development
of rural areas in South Italy. Beth Davidson is the mapping
creative
lead on Mapping The Necklace. And Ross Lowrie is a project
leader of
the Tyne Salmon Trail. The event is free but you need to
reserve a
place with Beckie Darlington:
beckie.Darlington at dott07.com

WHERE'S MY PHONE?
Thirty per cent of people who keep their phone in a pocket,
and 50
percent of bag carriers, sometimes or always miss incoming
mobile
phone communications. Ace street researcher Jan Chipchase
ran a study
in eleven countries across four continents to find this out.
He
extended the study to include the carrying of keys & money -
the
so-called mobile essentials (but did not include the reading
glasses
which I also have to locate in order to send a text
message). Before
long we'll be able to distribute the functional components
of a phone
around our bodies and clothes - so what will a "phone" look
like then?
Answer, says the report: a Japanese bondage bunny.
http://www.janchipchase.com/wheresthephone

THE LOST INNOCENCE OF DESIGN
If you read Italian, I wrote this piece for La Stampa's new
magazine.
http://www.lastampa.it/_settimanali/specchio/editoriale.asp

FREE INFORMATION INFRASTRUCTURES
The traditional meeting for the free civil networks in
Catalonia (SAX)
has been extended to new participants worldwide affiliated
to the
WSFII (World Summit for Free Information Infrastructures).
Registration is free and everyone interested in developing
non-proprietary networks is invited.
http://guifi.net/ca/SAX2007En

DON'T INVENT, SEARCH
In a new book the economist William Easterly emphasizes the
role of
'Searchers', groups throughout the world who are
experimenting with
piecemeal interventions and altering them in response to
feedback.
A project in Ethiopia run by Water Aid concentrates on a
single
objective: providing clean water to some very poor villages
in
the Rift Valley and involving local villagers in direct
management
of the work. GlobalGiving.com promotes decentralised
methods of distributing aid.
http://www.adb.org/Economics/speakers_program/easterly.pdf 

READERSHIP SURVEY
Thank you (x10) for your 299 thoughtful and incredibly
helpful
responses to our readership survey last month. For the
record: 53% of
you are male and 47% female; your ages range between 20-70
(spread
pretty evenly across the decades); 27% of you are designers,
but no
other occupation exceeds 10%; 33% of you are self-employed,
10% are in
a micro-enterpise, 21% are in education (as a student or
teacher). You
live all over the world, with 31% in North America and 31%
in Europe.
When asked, "how does reading this newsletter leave you
feeling?" you
answered: "inspired" (38%) "thoughtful" (41%) "im gonna be
rich!" (2%)
and "irritated" (2%). To the question, "If we set up a group
for your
fellow readers on Linked In, or similar, would you join it?"
79% of
you answered yes. And 79% answered yes to the question "If
monthly
Doors get-togethers were organised by volunteers on a local
basis,
would you attend them? You proferred many suggestions about
ways we
might improve this newsletter. A lot of you requested a
clearer
organisation of content and better usability. Quite a lot of
requests
for podcasts. We need to keep the width to 70 characters.
We'll act on
these asap. 25% of you said you would donate between $2 and
$25 per
month to help pay for the changes (OK, OK: 23% said $2).
Hmmm.

AAA! THE WINNER
I fed all the responses into random.org and the winner of a
free lunch
is someone called "aaa_matrix". I'm eager to hear from
her/him/it. 

WHAT MIGHT LIFE IN A SUSTAINABLE REGION BE LIKE?
And what design steps are needed to get us from here, to
there? Make a
note of the Dott Festival dates: 16-28 October 2007, Baltic
Square,
Gateshead, UK.
http://www.dott07.com/