Compost Modern is an interdisciplinary, one-day design conference dedicated to promoting sustainable design as an everyday practice and mode of thinking, rather than a niche way of working. This event will explore the current and future potential for ecologically sustainable and socially responsible design. Attention will be focused on real word and real time solutions for the graphic design and industrial design communities. Unlike any other design/sustainability gathering, Compost Modern differentiates itself through its tagline, We Have Answers. Past gatherings have discussed the problems associated with sustainability and defined the problems designers face in creating two and three-dimensional products. By focusing on theoretical issues designers still have limited resources for providing client based solutions to the question of environmental sustainability versus cost. Compost Modern bucks this trend by offering a full day targeting existing sustainable solutions for the design community. These include presentations on:

Compost Modern will provide resources, tools, and strategies for promoting sustainability in participants' work and working environments. We will consider the role of designer/citizen and examine opportunities for applying sustainable design in support of civil society. We will show examples of projects that have integrated sustainable solutions while paying attention to design excellence. We will coordinate a hands-on, interdisciplinary brainstorming session to generate new ideas for sustainable projects. We will provide information on resources, clients, grants and funding for sustainable design initiatives. We will create and distribute a far-reaching resource guide for designers to source sustainable products and manufacturing solutions. Compost Modern will invite two keynote speakers (invitations to Robert Kennedy Jr., Yvonne Chouinard, Paul Hawken, Arianna Huffington, U.S. Congressman Tom Hayden, Philippe Starck, U.S. Ambassador Richard Swett, William McDonough and others) as well as 10-15 industry leaders to run two or three parallel tracks of content during the day. Confirmed speakers include Laurens van den Acker, Chief Designer of Ford Motor Company’s Model U sustainable vehicle project and Karl Rabago, Sustainability Alliances Leader at Cargill Dow LLC., makers of compostable, corn based plastics and corn based fibers.

Expected Outcomes

We expect that the Compost Modern conference will result in the immediate specification of sustainable solutions within the design profession.

Additional outcomes include:

The dissemination of information about sustainable practices and valuable resources to designers throughout the United States through participant word of mouth and via our resource guide made available to designers free of charge.

A critical understanding on the part of manufacturers that increased specification of sustainable manufacturing processes will require a change in existing practices in order to stay competitive in the marketplace.

Economic incentives for manufacturers that offer sustainable solutions and a call to action for those that do not offer same.

An increased knowledge on the part of designers that efforts to increase use of sustainable materials and manufacturing will have a positive effect on the cost basis analysis of future use of these materials and processes.

A willingness on the part of designers to discuss sustainability with their clients.

Client side education.