Don't let me do live action

It was nice to be asked but I think I should avoid cameras for the near future. An experience nonetheless. Takes a little while to load but check me out and feel free to draw fake beard etc. on me.

http://www.cornwallbusinessweek.co.uk/podcasts.html

Right time to listen to some Jamie T, far too many blogs for one week.

Coming soon to a book shelf near you

We designed it, Eden will hold the launch party in July and Emma Mansfield from Eden wrote and researched it. So go get yourself a must have copy of the 168 page cd size Little Book of Cornwall! And as Leap were involved it's super sustainably produced, using 75% recycled stock with the remainder FSC, vegetable based inks, produced by Emma, Claire and myself at our studio which of course uses renewable electricity supplied by the lovely Good Energy folk. And just in case we purchase half an acre of the endangered Amazon forest through the newly established Cool Earth (note, we are still checking out the feasibility of offsetting through locked CO2 and endangered rainforests, we are designers afterall so are relying on some of our clients to come back with the authenticity of our idea). And we thank Emma for bringing her project to us, and for investing in having her books environmental impact reduced.

Even the display stands that will be used to sell the books are made from nicely crafted and printed rcycled cardboard.

Good luck Little Book of Cornwall and Emma Mansfield.

Playing with CDs

As an ongoing result of the awards we designed and created for the 2006 Cornwall Sustainability Awards, we have yet again been commissioned to design the above awards for the Environment Agency and The Hub in parthership with the guys at Ecoincentives. Our very talented Unlocking Cornish Potential designer, Claire England very nicely designed the 19 awards which we had made out of a fantastic plastic made from recycled CDs and our trademark acrylic offcuts from the signage industry. Again finished with wood purchased from Heligan Gardens, Cornwall and a sustainable cork base.

As you can see England did good, 19 awards in total including concept, design, make and supply fo the boxes to carry them off in. From Leap never having made an award before let alone winning awards we have now produced 36 awards of varying style and materias for 4 award ceremonies. Next we need to start winning some ourselves. Although it does make us look good when all the awards are left lying around our design studio:)

Leaped - Energy in Regional Development Learning from European Best Practice Conference

Cornwall Sustainable Energy Partnership asked Leap to pitch for the brand and all supporting design of their upcoming conference 3 months ago. They very nicely decided to work with Leap and over the last few months we've produced the logo, various print based items. FSC branded wooden pens and a very nice jute folder produced by Go Jute www.gojute.co.uk

The ‘Energy in Regional Development – Learning from European Best Practice’ conference on 29th June will showcase six major energy projects which are being very successful in supporting their regional and local economy and have been chosen by the European Commission as best practice. The event is being organized by the Cornwall Sustainable Energy Partnership (CSEP), a partnership of 72 organisations including the local authorities of Cornwall, health and private sector representatives, to create a sustainable energy future for Cornwall’s communities and businesses. The conference is being sponsored and funded by EDF Energy.

The project has been great to work on with Lindsay, Kate and Jasmine from CSEP even though Leap is not afraid to mention we seem slighly cursed on the job. We haven't had any gypsy cross out path recently, so not sure why 2 days before one of our printers was supposed to deliver the original printed conference booking form, that they phoned and said they couldn't print it. Thankfully the excellent Hannah from Peninsula Onesource stepped in and turned it around in 2 days. Then the branded pens turned out to be different from the sample we had used to cost and design with. And finally the jute folders got stuck in Columbo, Sri Lanka and arrived late but luckily we'd allowed room for delivery probelms just in case .. But we got there in the end and CSEP got all their required material in time for their big day.

Lots and lots and lots

Well its been a while and things are getting nicely into shape. This is just a quickie to update all who are interested and have been asking. By September we will be six, six very talented and totally brilliant passionate people. We are alredy 6 but this won't be official until September and then an exciting change will happen in October (more to come). So whose new, we have Claire Willcocks whose remit is to free up my creativity, make sure Leap operates in the most sustainable way for staff, clients, environment and financially. And she's already taken a weight off my shoulders an its soooo good to instantly have trust and faith in some one and to know Leap is safe in her hands. Plus she's a total talent and used to much bigger things than Leap

Then there is our Unlocking Cornish Potentila graduate Claire England whose doing lots of good design as well as looking after the creative side of Leap whilst I'm out on projects or visiting existing and new clients of which there are lots.

And then in the wings but with mucho talent and ideas is Mark and Darren who you will see and hear more from soon.

Plans, relaunch of Leap in October with a much broader creative and environmental offering based on a sudden shift in what clients are asking us. It goes way beyond design and print now with Leap writing companies environmental policies, sorting carbon offsetting, consultancy, sponsorships, management training, and ofcourse design, branding, illustration, copywriting and a myriad more. And it will also mean we get all our fab clients in one place so they can all meet each other. I think there will be a lot of interesting conversations and partnering. And it's way past time we partied as it's been such an incredible couple of years.

What else, well next week I'm a spokesperson for Cornwall business week and we've just had a podcast done to tie in with it. Which will do it's rounds on the net I guess and it talks about the hows, why and who Leap are involved with and going beyond. With a host more talks and interviews lined up where we talk about good, the bad and the greedy sides of green business and companies we've interacted with.

Design wise, 29/6 sees the launch of RESOURCE, and excellent reuse centre based in Cornwall. Leap has done brand and all supporting design work from interior design, to furnishings made from recycled materials, toilet signs from yogurt pots and lots of fun and funky graphics. 6/7/07 sees the launch at Eden Project of The Little Book of Cornwall, a 172 page cd size did you know and more of all thats Cornwall. 2 websites for Good Energy, with more in the pipeline. Sponsorship project with the BBC, yet more award design and make for the Environment Agency and The Hub (recycled cds this time are used and our well loved locally sourced and sustainably managed Heligan woods), we've consulted for the Wembley Live Earth concert, lots of fun happenings with St Austell Brewery who were already well clued up on the environment and what they can do but Leap has just rewritten their paper policy and is looking at all their paper based business consumables. As well as many other projects bith design and environment. NAtional Trust we've just completed their Climate exhibition which is made from 100% recycled card and is 100% recyclable. We've even lined up the stand to go to another client a new one at that Shreddy Bed. Thye make animal bedding out of recycled card and then wehn thats finished it becomes compost. So an entire life cycle concept, designed and thought about. Loads more but sure you are bored.

Its a great time though and we have been consulting and advising lots of other design agencies, clothing and jute companies, we advised and sponsored the recent Falmouth students MIlan Furniture show display that is now at Eden. Oh and I'm missing my girlfriend and 2 beautiful daughters Bo and Gracie who have been on holiday in France with the grandparents for the last 3 weeks.

Right I'm done... for now. Keep up the good happenings
matt

The same but different

It's not rolled out yet but attached are two images showing the new Leap logo. It's the same in everyway except the rings are now full of stuff that represents us, our love of life and fight to protect what is around us. The logo contains everything from a mammoth (downer side, extinction), surf board, spray can (I used to do the odd wall spray), bottle of cider (always my main social drink), pencil, eco-bulb, birds, waves, a goat (for my pal and Eden Project boss Ben Luxton for the 3 years I worked there - he has an un-natural love of all things goatish), bicycles and so much more. Each with a positive and occassionally negative meaning but all on a common theme about what Leap and its people are about.

Its also to show that Leap is so much more than graphics, print and consultation, it's everything, the way we talk, interact, act, enjoy and of course create.

I hope you like it as much as we do.

matt
(right back to my nippers now, food and play then a walk to the beach..perfect)

It's coming

It's taking a while to show its sel! Whilst in Sinai, Danny who runs the Makhad journey's said that it can be instant or take a year or more for the experience to really show itself .... so I'm still waiting to write what happened. It was good, it was an honour to have been invited and I met some wonderful people, in an amazing place where we were very priveleged guests and it all happended on the Edge ... more to come:)

The picture was one of my many vistas! THe dark scar in the land midway through the picture was the oldriver gully that was my home whilst I spent 3 days and nights on my tod. I chose well.

Matt

Climate Radio

Recently we did a brief interview for RIchard Hoggett of Friends of the Earth who is running the Climate RAdio campaign. My radio career is very short and definitely not a vocation I should ever ever think about, btu good to have been asked and alos interesting trying to fit who I am, Leap, why we do what we do and how we fight climate change through our work in to a whole 25 seconds... I know I talk fast but wow!

If you want to read more or hear the interview follow the link....

Hi Matt

Thanks for helping with the climate radio campaign. Your interview is being aired on Pirate FM from this week and the website has now been updated with your story – the direct link is http://www.foecornwall.org/CLIMATE_CHAOS/Stories/21%20LEAP%20Media.html

There is a listen again facility on this web page so you can hear your edited interview.

Best wishes

Richard

Seasalted

Just a quickie as I'm supposed to be on a non-work weekend doing family stuff and not thinking about my laptop and the various projects to work on this week!

The above images are shots of the recent boarding cards we produced for those super Seasalt organic people. Neil form Seasalt saw some the ScillyWaste ones we produced when Lepa branded the Isles of Scilly based waste awareness initiative, and liked them so much he asked if he could have some too branded of course.

The cards are great as the reverse of each one has a reduce, reuse, recycle tip and an image with the front being functional for use in handing out to people before boarding the helicopter to the Isles of Scilly. And even better, they are made from recycled foamex/pvc, so look good, start conversations (hopefully) and help raise environmental awareness. We now have 300 of these in circulation at British International and they are viewed by over 100000 visitors a year. Not bad for a small and simple design project spend. Even the holders are made from recycled board.

Isles of Scilly Travel are the latest company to want some, this time part sponsored by Seasalt as well as Isles of Scilly Flowers. The latest set will be encapsulated recycled card to do a comparison on usage, print and longevity.

Happy times.
Matt

Another Leap

So far in our 2 year history we've done alot of varied projects, utilising, recycled paper, christmas decorations from recycled materials, pitch pine dredged from the Thames, solar interactive signage and our latest creations are above you!

It seems we've turned into a sustainble trophy design agency! After winning one award and being SME finalist in 2005 at the Cornwall Sustainability Awards, Leap was asked if we would sponsor the 2006 CS Awards, which of course we did (even though it meant we couldn't enter) through design. We designed everything, logo, paper based graphics, certificates and to top it off we tried our hand at making an award that would have a story and create conversations.

To do this we called in our long time super signage creating company Parc and between us we designed the 'flame or leaf' like awards made using local Yew from Heligan Gardens, recycled banknotes set in a resin made from melted car headlamp lenses, off cut acrylic and recycled PVC. Now how much fun is that, and marketing manager for Cornwall College Business, Tracey Johnsons (who organised the awards) commented:

Oh my god they are so sexy!!!!! Thank you so much.

Ok, I wouldn't call them sexy more distinctive.

And at the award ceremony, they were liked so much that local promo company Ecoincentives commissioned us to design and produce a further 16 in partnership with them for the Environment Agency, 6 for their recent Water awards (see close up above) and 10 for an award ceremony in July (still to be designed). Our paper based design days could be numbered ..tee hee:) which my girlfriend will be really happy about as she'll actually see me.

Powercast - wireless charging!

I came across a reference to this on the Howies site and found some more info, it could be interesting.. maybe not. We have two laptops and 2 imacs and the latter have wireless keyboards and mice which use rechargable batteries. However it's always slightly peeved me that although they no longer have wires they still need replaceable batteries! Hopefully this might mean the problem will soon be over. I'm sorted on my mobile and Ipod though as we have a solio solar charger in the office for those...

Word out:)


A Pennsylvania start-up says it has the answer to one of the biggest problems in mobile phones: battery life.

After three years of keeping its technology under close guard, Powercast has come to CES 2007 to get consumer and manufacturer attention. Powercast is a radio frequency that is transmitted over a small area, and its energy is "harvested"--wirelessly--to give power to small devices like cell phones.

While it's presented as wireless power, Powercast isn't just a replacement for a universal charger. Instead, it's meant to either continuously charge a battery or replace the need for them altogether.

It works like this: a transmitter can be placed anywhere--in a lamp, for example, that is plugged into the wall and sits on a table. The transmitter in the lamp sends out a continuous, low RF signal. Anything with either AA or AAA batteries set within its range--and equipped with a Powercast receiver, which is the size of your fingernail--will be continuously charged.

"Our solution is, if talk time (on a cell phone) is 5 1/2 hours, by trickle-charging (it) at work, now talk time is 10 hours because the battery never gets to dead," John Shearer, CEO of Powercast, said in an interview.

There are many applications for Powercast, said Shearer, but the company is making the PC peripherals market a priority. Think a wireless keyboard or mouse with no battery, or a hermetically sealed battery that the customer never need access again.

Major CE and IT manufacturers will have to agree to build Powercast capability into their products, and thus far Powercast is revealing only Philips as a future partner. The first Powercast product will come to market by the end of 2007, the company says.

Hidden Art

I saw this (online not in real life) and I love it, goes by the name of Blu.

Woo hoo

Just how good is this weather! After a lush longboarding 2 hour surf at Watergate on Saturday (followed by an excellent Pheonix burger with my nippers, pals and Clare), the suns just kept up the good vibes. The last couple of morning walks to work have felt really good (not that my usual walks or cycles are bad, even in the rain it's ace to just have the freedom that my walks give), short shirt and jeans and it's as good as summer. I'll take some snaps soon of what my walk/cycle looks like.

Other news, off to the launch of the Sexy Green Car Show at Eden tomorrow, should be interesting. Last night at my old pad Eden again for a great little show and tell session by Tim and Tony with some great insights in to Eden's hopeful next build phase. Make sure you vote for them when the time comes.

It was also interesting as Eden's new build will be titled the Edge and has a lot of basis in dry arid regions of the world. Exactly where I was 6 weeks ago in Sinai! And the edge is a fitting title for similar regions and peoples around the world and was one of two aspects that filled my thoughts whilst I spent time in the desert. The other was the memory of water that surrounded me.... but I will write fully about Sinai and my time there in the near future.

Right time to work, it's been another lightning paced day with time spent talking to St Austell Brewery about design and sustainability and Leap will be consulting with them in the future - which is nice. Artworking the June Energy in Regional Development conference work that Leap have just branded and a few other tasty projects. One day I might actually do the portfolio so you can see some of the 300 projects we've been part of in the last two years instead of all my old work currently shown!!

Bye bye, enjoy sunny tiimes.
matt x

Fallujah - one to watch

http://www.fallujah.co.uk

This is based on the case study done by Scilla Elworthy of what really happened in Fallujah. I was lucky enough to be on the same journey party as Scilla on my recent time in Sinai (which will appear on our blog in another week, 1 month after my return). If you can, book seats now! And let us know what you thought of it.

Matt

ps Snow swirled around me as I did my daily walk (sometimes cycle) to work today! I soooo wanted to run back home and grab my two under two daughters Bo and Gracie and show them. It's gone now, as quick as that, swirling cold life then gone. The sun is out now and blue skies abound.. I love not having to use a car to get to work:)

Think before you offset...

...and definitely minimise before you think about offsetting:)

We use www.co2balance.com they do good, they think responsibly have great projects and we've had the great if short (babysitter) fun of meeting them at the wonderful Lewinnick lodge in Newquay and they are passionate about what they do and that counts big time at Leap.

However thereare a lot of shoddy practices that are starting to be exposed. See www.robedwards.com/2007/02/from_sunday_her.html This scheme is breathtaking in its misrepresentation. They are also the organisation behind the Coldplay Forest debacle, which you may have read about. www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2006/04/30/ngreen30.xml This is what happens when a carbon management organisation sub-contracts its carbon saving projects. co2balance deliberately do not do this and only invest in projects that we have initiated and continue to control.

Matt

ps reduce and at the last offset. Oh and trees are ace and good to plant so do it anyway (but make sure you look after them - a tree is for many lives not just for a bit of climate guilt smoothing:)

Channel 4 big bollocks no respect

You may have seen, you may have believed, you may be confused.. alot of people I've spoken to are! As far as I'm concerned it is all kingsize pants and the compass network that I'm part of ran this piece which is taken from the climate denial site. So hold onto your own thoughts of repsonsibilies and values as opposed to the lapdog to commercialism that Channel 4 seem to be.

And at the end of the day even if it is all part of a global re-occuring system so what, we've become throw away hooligans of mass plastic, super CO2 guzzling mass miles and non-recycling. It's getting better and we should all be responsible for our own patch and beyond. And love your world... I bloody do:) Matt



THE GREAT CHANNEL FOUR SWINDLE
George Marshall
http://climatedenial.org/



Last night Channel Four kindly gave an hour and half and a large budget to the international network of professional climate change deniers. ‘The Great Global Warming Swindle’ was a propaganda gift to the various vested interests who seek to undermine the fragile political and social will to take action on this global action.

And it was sometimes very convincing, as strongly worded opinions often are when they are not subject to any verification or external challenge. For example, there are excellent rebuttals against the contention that global warming is correlated to cosmic rays.

There was only one scientific advisor on the programme, Martin Livermore, whose sole scientific qualification is that he is the Director of a web-based think tank, The Scientific Alliance. The Alliance was set up by in 2001 by Robert Durward, the fiercely anti-green director of the British Aggregates Association, and Foresight Communications, a Westminster public relations and lobbying company, to “counter scare-mongering by the so-called green lobby”. (For more…)

The Scientific Alliance has no affiliation with any recognised scientific body but, like most of the contributors to the programme, it does have very strong links with the US public relations and lobbying organisations that have been so effective in setting the Bush agenda on climate change.

The writer and presenter of the programme was Martin Durkin. Although it was written in a highly personal and opinionated style- speaking freely of “lies”, and the “shrill frenzy” of “scare stories” – we never saw Durkin or discovered his personal credentials. As George Monbiot has revealed Durkin is closely affiliated with the Revolutionary Communist Party which has a strong ideological opposition to environmental science (more on Durkin and the RCP.

In 1997 Channel Four was forced to issue a humiliating public apology over a previous series of anti-environment programmes directed by Durkin called “Against Nature”. The Independent Television Commission found that “the views of the four complainants, as made clear to the interviewer, had been distorted by selective editing” and that they had been “misled as to the content and purpose of the programmes when they agreed to take part.”

For this programme Durkin drew up a dream team of scientists who have built personal careers as media pundits debunking the peer-reviewed work of their colleagues. There are few of them, but they are well supported by the Washington lobbies and kept very busy with media debates, documentaries and opinion pieces. (I have personally debated with five of them in media debates).

Is it any surprise then, that they were so persuasive. Most of the people on the programme are professional communicators who are more familiar with the chat show than the lab. Of course they give good interviews - it is what they do for a living.

And let us not forget that we all want to believe them. Wouldn’t it be wonderful to believe that the science is unsettled, that all that carbon dioxide that we are pumping into the atmosphere really has no effect, and that we do not have to worry about the future.

It would be entirely possible to put together a similar programme, with a string of credible former academics, to argue that smoking does no cause cancer, that HIV does not cause AIDS, or that black people are less intelligent. However, Channel Four would not dare broadcast the programme and we would not believe them if they did. Is it not a reflection of the deep public ambivalence about climate change that these dissenters are given such a prominent and uncritical showcase and that we are so keen to listen to them?

Make up your own minds from their track records. Here is a little more information on some of the people who appeared on the programme:

Fred Singer. Despite the caption on the programme, Singer has retired from the University of Virginia and has not had a single article accepted for any peer-reviewed scientific journal for 20 years. His main work has been as a hired gun for business interests to undermine scientific research on environmental and health matters. Before turning to climate change denial he has argued that CFCs do not cause ozone depletion and second hand smoke does not cause cancer (more… ). In 1990 he founded “The Science and Environment Policy Project”, which aggressively contradicts climate science and has received direct funding from Exxon, Shell, Unocal and ARCO. Exxon is also among the funders ($20,000 in 1998 and 2000)

Patrick Michaels is the most prominent US climate change denier. In the programme he claimed “I’ve never been paid a nickel by the old and gas companies” which is a curious claim. According to the US journalist Ross Gebspan Michaels has received direct funding from, among others German Coal Mining Association ($49,000), Edison Electric Institute ($15,000), and the Western Fuels Association ($63,000) an association of US coal producing interests (more…). The WFA is one of the most powerful forces in the US actively denying the basic science of climate change, funding, amongs other things, the Greening Earth Society which is directed by Patrick Michaels. Tom Wigley, one of the leading IPCC scientists, describes Michaels work as “a catalog of misrepresentation and misinterpretation”.

Philip Stott was captioned as a Professor at the University of London although he is retired and is therefore free of any academic accountability. Stott is a geographer by training and has no qualifications in climate science. Since retiring Stott has aimed to become Britain’s leading anti-green pundit dedicating himself to wittily criticizing rainforest campaigns (with Patrick Moore), advocating genetic engineering and claiming that “global warming is the new fundamentalist religion.”

Patrick Moore is Stott’s Canadian equivalent. Since a very personal and painful falling out with Greenpeace in 1986 Moore has put his considerable campaigning energies into undermining environmentalists, especially his former friends and colleagues. Typical of his rhetoric was his claim in the programme that environmentalists were “anti-human” and “treat humans as scum”. Throughout the 1990s Moore worked as lead consultant for the British Columbian Timber Products Association undermining Greenpeace’s international campaign to protect old growth forest there. Whenever he has the chance he also makes strong public statements in favour of genetic engineering, nuclear power, logging the Amazon, and industrial fishing- all, strangely, lead campaigns for Greenpeace

Piers Corbyn has no academic status and his role in such programmes is to promote his own weather prediction business. He has steadfastly refused to ever subject his climatological theories to any form of external review or scrutiny.

Richard Lindzen. As a Professor of Meteorology at the credible Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Lindzen is by far the most reputable academic among the US climate deniers and, for this reason, he is heavily cited by sympathetic journalists such as Melanie Phillips and Michael Crichton. His arguments though are identical to the other deniers – for example an article in the Wall Street Journal (June 11 2001) he claims that “there is no consensus, unanimous or otherwise, about long-term climate trends or what causes them”.
He is strongly associated with the other people on the programme though co-authored reports, articles, conference appearances and co-signed statements.

Tim Ball was captioned as the University of Winnipeg. In fact he left in 1996 since when he has run political campaigns through two organisations he helped found: the Natural Resources Stewardship Project and the Friends of Science which, according to their websites aim to run “a proactive grassroots campaign to counter the Kyoto Protocol”; and “encourage and assist the Canadian Federal Government to re-evaluate the Kyoto Protocol”. Ian Clark is also on the board of the NRSP.

Catching on to what we've been doing for 6 years :)

Designs for life
If style bible Elle Decoration decrees it, it must be true – eco-chic has arrived. The organic and fair trade clothing label, People Tree, is now stocked at that ultimate emporium of disposability, Top Shop. And for fashionistas who wouldn’t be seen dead in the Sinclair C5 styling of a G-Whiz, General Motors has just unveiled the Volt, the first car designed with electricity, rather than petrol, as its primary fuel source, and the most ‘normal-looking’ hybrid yet. Sustainable design even has its own celebrity poster boys in the form of Changing Rooms’ Oliver Heath and Grand Designs’ Kevin McCloud.
It’s true that the recent focus on improving the aesthetics of green products is helping to mainstream their appeal. Advocates have long talked of the need to ‘sex up sustainability’ to get away from its Heath Robinson image, and every good marketeer knows that product and packaging design play a key role in creating a seductive brand. A quick look at the latest high-end organic skincare or food products reveals luxury packaging (recycled, of course) to match the price tag - £85 for an organic cheddar truckle, anyone?
Environment into design
But for far-sighted organisations green isn’t just the latest fashion fad, and design isn’t just about making a product more superficially attractive. Martin Charter of the Centre for Sustainable Design stresses that certain sectors started integrating environmental considerations into product design and development a decade ago. 'What I call ‘eco-design’ has been driven largely by legislation, for example in the electronics industry, and has produced incremental improvements in areas such as energy efficiency and materials use,' he explains. 'But fewer companies have tried to address sustainable design, starting with a blank slate rather than a re-design, and considering the economic, environmental and social angles at the very outset of the process.' As evidence, he cites the low awareness and adoption of the new ISO/TR 14062 standard for integrating environmental considerations into product and service design and development.
As Europe’s largest electronics company, Philips has long been recognized for its comprehensive and long-standing EcoVision programme. Design sits at the heart of these efforts to embed environmental issues throughout the business, responding to customer needs and integrating other disciplines such as human sciences, technology and business. Its EcoDesign product development process encompasses the key green concerns of energy consumption, packaging, hazardous substances, weight, recycling and disposal and lifetime reliability. Top products with a significant green advantage over a predecessor or competitor product are awarded Green Flagship status, currently sported by everything from lighter heart defibrillators to longer lasting halogen bulbs to energy efficient and lead free MP3 players.
Pre-owned goods mean lower costs
And EcoDesign isn’t just about devising new greener products to replace their less efficient forerunners. Philips’ Diamond Select program offers healthcare customers pre-owned (the words ‘used’ and ‘second hand’ are carefully avoided) medical systems, refurbished, tested and installed as new. This keeps the cost down for customers, maintains standards for patients, while keeping still-useful equipment in service and away from the scrap yard.
Charter believes it won’t be long before other businesses are compelled to follow Philips’ lead. 'In Japan, materials security is a key concern as rare metals become harder to find, and in India and China they’re using design to improve dismantling and recycling, the only way to tackle their growing electronic waste mountains.' Closer to home, and the full design impacts of the EuP Directive on product energy efficiency have yet to be acknowledged. But Charter believes the biggest challenge is to get the smaller businesses on board. 'Outside the big leader companies and sectors, knowledge of the issues and the role design can play are virtually non-existent.'

A melting future gorgeously photographed

Incredible shots of Greenland ice cap, taken for Greenpeace that have caused such a stir internationally revealing the extent of seasonal melting due to climate change. The site also includes his other photo essay work which covers protest to cultures in transition to the tensions between our ongoing social, economic and environmental challenges...
http://www.nickcobbing.co.uk/

Defintely a case for everyone to do something... not nothing!

The slinky chair!! Enjoy...

The slinky chair!! Enjoy...

http://gizmodo.com/gadgets/gadgets/versatile-folding-seating-bizarre-chair-or-magic-trick-233896.php

They should talk to Leap

Inefficient printing costs mount

Businesses and the Government are wasting more than £1 billion on inefficient printing practices every year, according to the Centre for Economic Business Research (CEBR). It claims the problem is affecting business growth, productivity and the economy. The CEBR calculates that around £16.7 billion is spent annually on business and Government printing - equal to the GDP of Cuba. Using mono rather than colour printing, and setting up machines to print on both sides of the paper, would help to reduce the inefficiencies, the report said.