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Compostmodern 09

January 24, 2009
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Compostmodern 09

  If you’re interested in sustainable design, check out the Compostmodern 09 conference. The event will be available as a webcast, so you only have to worry about the long commute to your office, living room, kitchen table, or bed to get there.   Feb 21st is the big day/40$ webcast registration   This years scheduled speakers: Eames Demetrios/Eames Office Saul Griffith/Makani Power Allan Chochinov/Core 77 Nathan Shedroff/MBA Chair, California College of the Arts (CCA) Michel Gelobter, John Bielenberg and Pam Dorr/Project M and HERO Housing Resource, Alabama Emily Pilloton/Project H Design Dawn Danby/Sustainable Design Program Manager, Autodesk  ...

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new book investigates the ‘do good’ potential of design

January 19, 2009
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David B. Berman wants design professionals to take his pledge, and commit to use 10% of their design efforts to ‘do good’. In his new book, Do Good Design: How Designers can Change the World Berman links design as the cause of environmental and social concerns today: How did design help choose a president? Why are people buying houses they can’t afford? Why do U.S. car makers now struggle to compete? Why do we really have an environmental crisis? If you are interested in investigating the social responsibility of design, this book should prove interesting.  Read more on the book and the Berman’s design pledge...

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ZARA and the right to freedom of association

December 17, 2008
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  A recent campaign from UNITE HERE Canada claims that the right to freedom of association is at stake for employees at ZARA, in Montréal, Quebec. According to a recent press release, “ZARA has engaged in conduct which may have violated the Québec Labour Code. This has included demoting two employees who led a union drive at ZARA’s downtown Montreal store, firing four employees who supported the union at ZARA’s Rockland Mall store, and holding anti-union meetings at three Montreal stores, in one case telling employees that joining a union is ‘treason’ against the company.”   Click here to...

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feeling fashionably overweight?

December 17, 2008
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The “Household Textile Environmental Impact Calculator” wants your closet to think about going on a diet. The calculator asseses you based on annual water usage, energy usage, use of non-renewable resources, and pollution. Unfortunately the calculator doesn’t account for non conventional fabrics, such as hemp. What is impressive however, is the fact that the calculator takes you through the lifecycle of your garments: purchasing, care, and disposal. The year is almost up, so Dec. marks a perfect time to start calculating and re-calculating to think about consumption practices for the year ahead. It doesn’t take long to calculate your annual...

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Message from the Asian Human Rights Commission on the 60th Anniversary of UDHR

December 17, 2008
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Many textile and apparel companies boast a commitment to operating within the legal frameworks of the countries in which they manufacture. It would seem only reasonable to expect as much (Congratulations! You didn’t break the law!). Considering the standard of human rights within such countries, should this fact be celebrated? December 10th marked the 60th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. In this video, Basil Fernando, CEO of the Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC), highlights the issue of “non-rule of law”. According to Fernando, the last 60 years of Human Rights has only worked to establish the...

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