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Not your typical field trip: One of Nate Bastien's ID professors at RISD brought the class to see a landfill. Why? To remind them "that everything they made would eventually end up in a similar location."

The experience impacted Bastien and inspired a project:

"Industrial designers have a responsibility to pay attention to what we're designing, what materials we're using and what products are intended to be used for," said Bastien.

He began to work on a project combining both his awareness of the difficulties facing homeless individuals and environmental responsibility as a designer.

"I wanted to come up with a product idea to alleviate some of the pain and frustration experienced by marginalized communities," he said.

Bastien strove to find a balance of functionality and affordability. What he came up with is the Street Pack, a bag made entirely of recycled materials. It is waterproof, can double as a pillow, holds water bottles and is made out of ultra-durable billboard vinyl scraps.

For his Street Pack design, Bastien has been designated one of Timberland's Earthkeeper Heroes as part of a program between Timberland and eco-organization Changents.

Read his story here, and read more about the Street Pack, which is being prototyped by Samsonite for field testing, here. (As you can see by the updates, Bastien has even taken the extreme R&D step of living on the streets with nothing but a Street Pack!)