Interested in Sustainability? Get Trained in 13 Weeks

by Mario Vellandi on November 10, 2009

Bootcamp Logo Interested in Sustainability? Get Trained in 13 WeeksSustainability in a vast field covering multiple topics in operations, marketing, design, innovation, and new business models. While articles, books, and conferences (if you have the budget and time to attend) can be great, nothing beats having professionals giving you the inside scoop.

The creators of the Sustainable Brands Conference, with whom I work as their community engagement manager, are organizing an online training seminar for 13 weeks. In order to help further this movement along, we’ve recognized many smart business people need to get up to speed - and we’ve done so by getting some of the world’s leading practitioners to teach the subjects they’re passionate about for 90min - available live and on-demand for a very affordable price.

If you’d like to learn more, go ahead and check out the speakers, session descriptions, and dates here. I’ve included the titles of the sessions here for you to see. P.S. - I’ll be speaking on the last session in February on public relations and social media :)

  1. Introduction to Opportunities in Sustainable Innovation
  2. Innovation Opportunities in Response to Today’s Environmental Hot Buttons: Climate Change, Water & Waste
  3. The Changing Consumer Marketplace
  4. Organizational Models for Integrating CSR with Brands
  5. Building a Balanced Sustainable Brand Strategy
  6. Sustainable Product Design – An Overview of Prevailing Approaches
  7. Building Collaborative Supply Chain Partnerships
  8. Transforming Your Company Through Sustainability – and Engaging Your Customers and Employees in the Process
  9. Introduction to Life Cycle Impact Assessment
  10. Business Metrics: Dashboards, KPI’s and other strategies for Goal Setting and Measurement
  11. Building Credibility/Avoiding Greenwashing
  12. Designing Communications that Resonate
  13. PR/Social Media and Alternate Community Building Strategies

Hello Reader! If you’re new here (and like my writing!), you may want to subscribe in order to get the freshest doses of business & design. Choose from either the RSS feed or get an email subscription (daily or weekly option). Thanks for visiting!

{ 0 comments }

Tim Leberecht of Frog Design gave a presentation earlier this year at the Next09 conference in Berlin on how societal changes in regards to both the economy and people’s interactions with eachother and brands online are creating a convergence of services offered by the marketing and design agencies, and why “Meaning” has become sought after and a key deliverable. The video and slides are available below. See also his table of 5 attributes of meaning and the mediums/tactics to address them.

[Video Link for Email/Other Subscribers - 30min]

[Slideshow Link for Email/Other Subscribers]

{ 0 comments }

Multi-Dimensional & Sustainable Product Design, by John Edson

October 15, 2009

[Video Link for Email/Other Subscribers - 18min]
John Edson of Lunar Design discusses sustainable product design approaches and ideas within the context, in the introduction and ending, of bottled water. I saw John give this presentation live at Sustainable Brands 09 and must say that it was refreshing to listen to and experience, given his calm […]

Read the full article →

Inspiring Sustainability in Skeptics, by John Marshall Roberts

October 8, 2009

[Video Link for Email/Other Subscribers]
Yes, it all comes down to communication and framing the topic in a way that’s relevant to them based on their values. For example, some people care about saving money in their actions; others may care more about doing the right thing. What are the triggers? Know your audience - or […]

Read the full article →

Living Climate Change, by Tim Brown and IDEO

October 3, 2009

[Video Link for Email/Other Subscribers]
IDEO recently built a new web presence with short articles and videos called Living Climate Change, that describes itself as:
“a place where the most defining challenge of our time is explored through design thinking. It’s also a place to show, discuss and share compelling and provocative thoughts and ideas about the […]

Read the full article →

12 Basic Truths in Word of Mouth Marketing, by Andy Sernovitz

October 1, 2009

Having come across a bookmark I saved with 12 tips on word of mouth marketing by Andy Sernovitz, I thought it might be a good idea to share them with you:

Happy customers are your best advertising. Make people happy.
Marketing is easy: Earn the respect and recommendation of your customers. They will do your marketing for […]

Read the full article →

Movements v. Campaigns in Social Media Marketing

September 26, 2009

Neat presentation from Spike Jones of Brains on Fire, on the qualities of movements in social media marketing. While Awareness, Interest, and Action are the traditional steps of an engagement process, it’s always good to ask how a continual movement is being built and sustained. In my opinion, the campaign is not dead, but rather […]

Read the full article →

World Habitat Day

September 25, 2009

The United Nations has chosen the first Monday in October to be World Habitat Day - a day to stand up and let it be known that affordable, adequate housing should be a priority everywhere. The theme for the event on October 5th is “Planning our Urban Future”
What can you do?
ADVOCATE for decent housing for […]

Read the full article →

Using Autodesk Inventor and Sustainable Minds LCA Software

September 15, 2009

Neat demonstration by Rob Cohee of Autodesk on using Sustainable Minds LCA software for making environmental impact assessments of a wine bottle opener, using Okala data scores.

[Video Link for Email/Other Subscribers - 6.5min]

Read the full article →

The Sustainable Wheel by DesignBoost

September 14, 2009

Described as a tool that Swedish firm DesignBoost uses to create innovative products with a holistic view on sustainability, the wheel is comprised of seven aspects as described from their website and in the following video. On a personal note, what struck me was the mention that we don’t have an emotional connection to many […]

Read the full article →

Persuasive Design or The Fine Art of Separating People from Their Bad Behaviours

September 13, 2009

Great presentation that is a must read for looking at different aspects of marketing, economics, design, and sociology. I’ll warn you that it’s a lot of slides and notes to read, but the material is as deep as an HBR article but light-hearted enough to be enjoyed.

[Slideshow Link for Email/Other Subscribers.
- via Martin Koser

Read the full article →

Sustainable Product Design Lecture by Seos

September 12, 2009

Neat handout to a presentation by Janne Korhonen from Seos Design, describing some methodologies that Seos uses for sustainable design including a discussion of Life Cycle Assessment (LCA).

[Slideshow Link for Email/Other Subscribers]

Read the full article →

Innovative Materials and Processes with Andrew Dent

September 12, 2009

Andrew Dent is Vice-President at Material ConneXion, a research consultancy focusing on materials innovation and knowledge. In this speech for Design Green Now, he covers biopolymers, advances in natural materials, and better recycling among other topics.
[Video Link for Email/Other Subscribers - 15.5min]
See also Andrew’s series of slides and explanations on various materials at BusinessWeek.

Read the full article →

Media and the Continuous Path Toward Sustainability

September 8, 2009

After speaking with various individuals in sustainable marketing and design, and having spent the last 20 months immersed in better understanding the fields, I’ve come to some conclusions that I’d like to share with you.
News can be great for environmental scanning and sometimes better understanding a market, bit by bit. But just reading the news […]

Read the full article →

Business Models Beyond Profit, by Alexander Osterwalder

September 7, 2009

Alex Osterwalder is one smart cookie and co-author of a collaborative book I pre-ordered called Business Model Generation. In this slideshow presentation below, he gives a few examples of business models based on social/environmental welfare. The process of mapping a potential business model and the various interrelationships therein is quite valuable.
The new challenge that […]

Read the full article →