When Steve Jobs of Apple debuted the MacBook Air, iTunes movie rentals and software updates for the iPhone and iPod Touch this year, Sascha Segan of PC Magazine praised Apple's focus on launching software that requires no new hardware, and the green possibilities of this approach. In the article, he wrote a short sentence that we've come to love: "Products are brown, platforms are green."
This is a great statement of one of Tricycle's core philosophies: that by focusing on the creative DNA of a product, rather than any single manifestation of the product itself, we are able to reduce waste and increase profits all along the product's lifecycle.
At what point does a carpet become a carpet? When it is conceived in a designer's imagination? Created in CAD? Sampled? Tufted? Sold and used?
By looking at the question "What IS a particular brand, pattern and colorway, at its core" - we have opened new doors for using the same textile in new ways. As bits and bytes that help product designers explore creative options. As a digital model that reduces wasted time and yarn for tufting machines. As a realistic image that can be installed into a room virtually - and then marketed and sold - before it is ever physically manufactured. As a paper sample that helps an interior designer narrow down choices.
Old process = make a physical product, and make as few representations as possible to save money.
New process = Make one core model platform, then provide multiple representations to increase revenues without waste.
There are countless examples. Here's a long lovely video created earlier this year by the Cambridge Nanoscience Center and Nokia Research Center that takes the same approach to nanotech materials and electronics, showing how they view the material of which electronics are made as a platform rather than a product. Launched alongside MOMA's “Design and The Elastic Mind” exhibition, the Morph concept device is a bridge between highly advanced technologies and their potential benefits.
Because - like Tricycle - they care less about the material itself than they care about the possibilities its opens up for the end user.
We love talking about ourselves and the
benefits of Tryk sampling. We also love to recognize achievements by our clients and friends in the interiors industry.
Tandus’ newly opened showroom and design center in Atlanta’s Westside has achieved LEEDs Silver certification. The building, constructed in 1904 by the Atlanta Railway Company for use as a trolley barn received a major renovation while keeping most of the original structure intact.
The interior combines a flexible product display area with comfortable, productive work spaces that can be easily configured for industry events or training.
According to Tandus, the LEED
Green Building System Silver Certification was awarded based on the design center’s energy use, lighting, water and materials use as well as other sustainable strategies. Some of those strategies include access to public transportation, using locally manufactured materials, diverting 75 percent of construction waste from landfill and using Tandus carpet products with recycled content and low VOC.
Tandus was also recognized last month by The Georgia Chapter of the Air and Waste Management Association with its 2008 Company Environmental Award for its efforts in waste reduction.
This month Tandus will reveal a new design and updated content for its innovative Blink studio. New Tryk product formats, like the Tryk Split and Tryk Mod, combined with improved online features make it an even more powerful tool for speeding the design process and eliminating unnecessary waste.
Check back for a link to the new Blink.
...here it is, a link to Blink, Tandus' online Tryk Studio.
What's better? The Think - a 95% recyclable electric car built in Norway and coming soon to America - or a Hummer running a modified jet engine?
Before you get out your list of pros vs. cons about Prius vs. performance, consider one more factor. What if the Hummer is a hybrid electric/biodiesel, gets more than 60 miles per gallon and does zero to 60 in five second flat?
The answer of course is "Yes, please."
An article in the New York Times earlier this month started with a Think and went on to talk at length about how green innovation is being driven by private venture funding and entrepreneurial capitalism. More on this article to come in a future post. Because the piece reminded me of a Fast Company article from this time last year, which featured a Detroit mechanic/ professional car hacker named Johnathan Goodwin who not only tricks out the cars of celebrities to get 100 mpg, but has also created a $5,000 bolt-on kit which transforms any diesel veh
icle to burn 50% less fuel and produce 80% fewer emissions.
Just how widespread this sort of innovation becomes depends in part on resistance from the automotive market. Which, of course, depends in part on upcoming days at the polls and how well promises are kept once candidates become incumbents. Democracy: one more reminder of the value of challenging assumptions.
Our blog is mostly about sustainable design in the interiors industry,
especially carpet. Sometimes it's just about us. Updated when we've got something good to say.
There are countless examples. Here's a long lovely video created earlier this year by the Cambridge Nanoscience Center and Nokia Research Center that takes the same approach to nanotech materials and electronics, showing how they view the material of which electronics are made as a platform rather than a product. Launched alongside MOMA's “Design and The Elastic Mind” exhibition, the Morph concept device is a bridge between highly advanced technologies and their potential benefits.
