Energy Conservation and Inspiration

By the looks of recently released data from New Energy Information Administration (eia.gov), the US has a long way to go in terms of residential energy conservation. And this chart doesn't account for the past few years' rise in consumer electronic consumption. Comparisons of total energy consumption would seem to indicate that we might learn something from the EU (especially Germany and its government's leadership), as well as force us to begin considering which cultural shifts in emerging economies might best align with conservation efforts in those parts of the world.

Across the world, total primary energy consumption rose 2.4 percent last year. China, which in 2007 consumed 7.7 percent more energy than in 2006, is responsible for half that increase; India a third. Overall, energy consumption in emerging economies rose by 5.5 percent. By contrast, European Union member states managed to cut their use of primary energy by 2.2 percent. The US, however, consumed 1.7 percent more energy in 2007 than in the previous year.

Drop Ship Urban Gardens

London: "VACANT LOT on Chart Street N1. A formerly inaccessible and run-down plot of housing estate land has been transformed into a beautiful oasis of green. Seventy 1/2 tonne bags of soil have been arranged to form this allotment space. Within their individual plots, local residents are carefully tending a spectacular array of vegetables, salads, fruit and flowers."

From London Festival of Architecture

Systemic Thinking and Promise of Cultural Landscape

Lately my thinking about sustainability has been shifting toward the ways in which we might best design for enabling sustainable behaviors on a scale larger than green activism or green consumerism.

Although I believe we can’t mandate behavior change through design, I do believe that if we pay very close attention to current behavior patterns that are most likely to show promise for adopting design solutions/interventions that support and encourage values and behaviors best aligned with sustainability, there is some hope for large scale change. As an anthropologist, this is largely a methodological question. For instance, how might the growth of social networking better facilitate systemic thinking? From my previous work, I’ve seen that narrative and personal connections to choices people make (including those that aren’t necessarily green, but can result in sustainably-aligned behaviors) are also promising areas of investigation. And finally, there is a great deal of promise in George Marcus-inspired ‘follow-the-flow’ methods that can help us better understand the spaces between people, material objects, cultural influences, etc. in ways that might identify opportunities to design for systemic thinking.

For me, investigations of social networks, narrative, and the spaces between people, material objects and cultural influences converge interestingly within considerations of cultural landscape as expressed through visual culture. So, I've started another blog. Actually, it's just a place where I'm collecting thoughts on cultural landscape and visual culture. However, I may eventually begin to build some theory on the connections between cultural landscape, visual culture and sustainability there. Check it out if you're interested.

Tour de Fat

Check out New Belgium Beer's campaign to raise awareness for biking, especially the TDF 101 commandments. Love the adages too: walk before you talk, admit your flaws (being genuine builds credibility), transparency is the new black, go with your soul (and let the authenticity emerge), make ripples (and hope for waves), and it's not all about the sale. Most important, "It's not sustainable if it's not fun."