Core77

Many thanks to Adam Reineck, guest blogger with a report from the floor of this past weekend's Compostmodern Conference:

I've been to a lot of conferences about sustainability, and two stand out in my mind: Bioneers and Compostmodern. Both leave a powerful impression because they showcase (and target) people who are committed to the issues, and often have the capacity to make an impact. Compostmodern, in particular, is special because it's small and free of cynicism.

This year's theme was behavioral change and Joel Makower emceed the day-long event. With a keen eye for what's fresh (he's a green consultant to big business), he provoked speakers throughout the day. He began, "Sustainability is like teenage sex...everybody says they're doing it, but nobody's doing it well." And then, "How good is good enough...how do we set the bars, and are we making the difference we need to make?"

Worldchanging's Alex Steffen flew through a slideshow of giant houses, airbrushed Hummers, and "home theaters, private jets, private jets with built in theaters …a flying home theater!" He asked, "What is prosperity? What are we getting sold here?" This is what the majority of Americans believe is true success, and unfortunately we're very good at marketing that to the world. Every one of the millions of souls that have ever watched Baywatch (his reference) believes this is what real living is all about. People in India and China, home to the major populations, are already trying their hardest to save up for a car--what happens when they're all driving one? The potential for 100 million Tata Nano cars (the world's cheapest, at $2500) added to the roads is a truly scary thought. According to Steffen, true to Jared Diamond's speculations, we're heading towards a "global Somalia."

Mark Galbraith of Nau shared some of the successes and shortfalls of his homegrown sustainable clothing line experience. Admirably, Nau is one of the few companies that has come out with a truly compelling product line, built from the ground-up. And they didn't settle for off the shelf fabrics; they researched the right materials, scoured the world for the best people to make them, and got the job done. According to Galbraith, "You need to start a company to show other companies what the right thing to do is." On top of putting a fresh perspective on the daily operations of their business, they've set up detailed product criteria around durability, material sourcing, fabrication, deconstruction, decomposition, waste, and distribution. Galbraith spoke in depth about how they've tweaked materials such as merino wool and hemp, which are already readily available "in hippie form," to make them truly crafted and desirable.

In contrast to Nau's start-up, along came Jane Savage of Nike Considered. A polished and direct speaker, Savage talked us through the transitions Nike has made since the political heat of the '90s: they've created a sustainability index, for example--a sustainability rating system of bronze, silver and gold levels for all shoe production. The index has been adopted fiercely by many designers, and is slowly integrating itself even into high profile products such as the new Jordan shoe (a "gold level" product). Savage admitted that in "rethinking processes, everything needs to be redesigned." They were the largest buyer of organic cotton until Wal-Mart; they developed a nontoxic glue that they shared with the entire shoe industry; and Nike Considered is quickly eliminating the use of all PVC. All good. But a large problem remains for Nike. And that is manufacturing waste, a major problem in the apparel industry, which will remain so until someone figures out how to grow fabrics to fit patterns (instead of cutting out of sheet material). Savage said, "Nike creates enough manufacturing waste to line container cars from Seattle to Portland in one year." A big incentive indeed for imagining new uses for waste.

On the other end of the spectrum, ex-Sierra Club president Adam Werbach has taken on the behemoth that is Wal-Mart to help them craft a sustainable vision for the future of mega-retail. When questioned about his controversial decision to work for Wal-Mart, he said this: "Don't be wishy-washy, take a stand. Either you want to kill all the Wal-Marts out there, or you want to play a part in making them change for the better. Don't be twiddling your thumbs in the middle ground."

Wal-Mart has clearly begun to use the lens of sustainability to focus on cost savings, too. A relatively easy first step compared to thinking deeply about restructuring a failed system. Also, only 8% of Walmart's footprint is from direct operations; the rest is by its many suppliers. But because of its buying power, Wal-Mart is forcing all suppliers to "put forth sustainable innovations" every year, and those who don't measure up will no longer be doing business with Wal-Mart. End of story.

Valerie Casey left us with ideas on rethinking design problems. She said, "I would never want to design another toothbrush, but maybe I'd want to design something that causes you to turn off the tap while you brush your teeth." Her final announcement about The Designers' Accord wrapped the day perfectly. In less than a year, she has managed to get more than 3,500 designers of all backgrounds to agree to create a powerful knowledge-sharing platform of examples we can all reference and learn from. (You can read all about it in last Friday's BusinessWeek.) But the real promise is that a conversation around sustainability will become an integral part of all design discussions. In the future, however, Casey said, "I want the Designers' Accord to disappear because sustainable design should be the same as design...This is just the beginning."

Adam Reineck is currently an Industrial Designer at IDEO, committed to changing the way we create products, services and experiences to ensure we produce less waste and more meaning. Contact him at areineck[at]ideo[dot]com.