Innovation for sustainability

A NESTA Hot Topics event for Climate Week

About

Sustainability is an overused word - but what happens if you think differently about it? At NESTA's last Hot Topics event Adrian Bowyer, developer of the open-source 3D printer, said "the greenest thing we could do would be to print out plastic products that incorporated CO2 and then throw them all away".

This event explored how we should think about sustainability not just in terms of low carbon, but about using minimal resources, considering disposal and waste, buying local, building new business models and generally looking at products from a new angle.

Speakers included Arthur Potts Dawson, founder of sustainable restaurants Acorn House and The Waterhouse and Co-founder, Executive Chef of the people's supermarket, Professor David J.C. MacKay FRS, Professor of Natural Philosophy, Department of Physics, University of Cambridge, Peter Madden, Chief Executive at Forum for the Future and Paul Vickery, founder of two solar cell start ups and former director of 3iplc. The event was chaired by Philip Colligan, Executive Director - The Public Services Lab, NESTA.

Watch the videos and get the full recap from the event

TED talks

Arthur Potts-Dawson A vision for sustainable restaurants, July 2010

William McDonough on cradle to cradle design, Feb 2005

Mitchell Joachim Don't build your home, grow it, July 2010

Eben Bayer Are mushrooms the new plastic?, July 2010

Projects and publications

Arthur Potts-Dawson runs Acorn House and The Waterhouse restaurants, which each take a different approach to sustainability.  

David MacKay has published a free e-book called 'Sustainable energy - without the hot air' http://www.withouthotair.com/

This book outlines ways to compare different approaches to saving energy, so we can identify the most effective ways to take action. He argues that only by working out which activities have the greatest impact can we make sensible decisions about the changes we make.

The Telegraph have published a series of Green Growth case studies: including one on Marks & Spencer's Plan A programme. 

NIKE CEO Mark Parker wrote an open letter about applying design and innovation to sustainability goals at Nike. 

We Are What We Do creating stuff that makes it easier for people to do small, good, everyday things. They are the creators of the 'I'm not a plastic bag' campaign with Anya Hindmarch. 

PepsiCo have won an award for their use of sustainable technologies, including new approaches to rice planting that reduce water usage.