The box that is no box at all. fuseproject, working with Puma, have redesigned at one element of shopping in the shoe world. Check out fuseproject’s other designs, it’s all pretty beautiful, and always under the helm of Yves Behar:

Béhar brings a humanistic approach to his work with the goal of creating projects that are deeply in-tune with the needs of a sustainable future, connected with human emotions and which enable self-expression.

Behar/fuseprojects is notable for his work in the design of the laptop in question for the ‘One Laptop Per Child’ project, among other projects which he discusses here:

As with any occasion on which a designer discusses their work which is aimed at being environmentally and socially sustainable, especially when discussing projects aimed at ‘developing nations’ he makes many points both intentional and inadvertent which point out the good and the bad aspects of Rich White Designers doing work “for” the Poor Brown Folk of the world.

But as i said: it’s all pretty beautiful, and coming from an honorable impetus. Perhaps i’m over critical because he’s doing something very similar to what i would like to be doing.

incidentally, is there anybody out there? comment on this post if you’re reading. i see the stats, and it seems people are still looking at this thing, but i wonder who you are (probably just my mommy).

Thanks Mark.

Some amazing photographs of abandoned buildings in Detroit by Yves Marchand & Romain Meffre Photography.

via Joyengine.

Read and watch more at Rob’s website: Transition Culture.

Dear Old People Who Run the World,

My generation would like to break up with you.

. . .

You wanted big, fat, lazy “business.”

We want small, responsive, micro-scale commerce.

+

You turned politics into a dirty word.

We want authentic, deep democracy — everywhere.

+

You wanted financial fundamentalism.

We want an economics that makes sense for people — not just banks.

+

You wanted shareholder value — built by tough-guy CEOs. We want real value, built by people with character, dignity, and courage.

From Umair Haque on Harvard Business. Seen it on Joyengine.

Really interesting film coming shortly from Lauren Greenfield exploring the culture of wealth and excess and it affect on children. The film focuses specifically on LA. Put out by Wholphin.

An article in Business Week caught my attention recently, one on ‘The Girl Effect.’

First a bit on the concept: the phrase is one of practical wisdom well known by many on the outer edges of economics, social sciences, and human rights movements, but it has been recently codified, organized, and brought to the the mainstream of the business world by, of all groups: Nike.

A lot of ill can be said of Nike, in both their business practices and their human rights effects, but a lot of good can be said of their efforts in sustainable design as well, and so too of this: their efforts with the Girl Effect. (The company would seem to be one of deep ambivalence about it’s place in the global community. But i would argue that that’s better than the alternative of completely disregarding the good that the company can do, as so many do.)

A video from the organization, explaining the concept:

And an excerpt rom the article:

There are 600 million adolescent girls in developing countries, but they are largely invisible to the world at large. Included among them are girls affected by armed conflict, domestic violence, HIV/AIDS, sex trafficking, and internal displacement, as well as girls in child-headed households or locked in early marriages. To ignore them is to miss the “girl effect,” which could be an unexpected answer to the global economic crisis.

Consider the situation in Kenya. Some 1.6 million girls there drop out of high school every year. If they finished their secondary education, they would make 30% more money and contribute $3.2 billion more to the Kenyan economy every year. Instead, many take their place among Kenya’s 204,000 adolescent mothers and cost the economy $500 million a year.

[ . . . ]

In Ethiopia, if you are a 15-year-old girl, you have a 43% likelihood of being already married. A pilot program run by the Population Council gave families a $25 goat as an incentive to allow their daughters to go to school instead. Within two years, some 11,000 girls, or 97% of the participants, had stayed in school, gained confidence, and delayed marriage and childbirth.

The article mentions another organization, BRAC (an NGO founded in Bangladesh in 1972), a group offering, among other things, micro-finance opportunities for us in the affluent west, to support our friends in the south. Remember that estimates (by the likes of Ashraf Ghani) are that 1 dollar invested in the ‘developing world,’ can be roughly equal to 20 dollars of ‘foreign aid.’ That is, with a minimal investment, each of us, can have a major impact.

Back at the Girl Effect website, they have a 72 page PDF you can download, for more information.

(and John Podesta, but watching his part is not so necessary, nowhere near as focused, and i dare say, less interesting.)

A Green World is a Safer One from National Building Museum on Vimeo.

Now, this is a recording of a museum lecture, which means (for those of you who have never been to one) there’s about 10 minutes of introduction and thank you’s to supporting organizations, et cetera, ad nauseum. Just skip ahead. Also, it is a longish talk (Ed’s part is about 35 minutes long).