Design for Sustainability

1998

Institute for Georgia Environmental Leadership, 2008

"Riding my bicycle from New York to California."

Who's Who Among America's Teachers, New Voice Fiction Award, Nantucket Writing Award in Fiction, Pushcart Prize nomination, Sandstone Prize in Fiction finalist

U.S. Green Building Council, Georgia State Board Member; Chatham Environmental Forum; Emergent Structures, Founder and President; AIGA

• "Designing Sustainable Packaging," Laurence King LTD
• "Creative Solutions for Unusual Projects," HOW Design Books
• "Young Creators for Better Life and Better City," Shanghai, China
• "The RIT Hale Ethics Series," Rochester Institute of Technology
• "AIGA's Social Studies Conference: Educating Designers in a Connected World," Maryland Institute College of Art
• "EcoEdge2: The Urgent Design Challenge in Building Sustainable Cities," Melbourne, Australia
• "The Third International Conference on Environmental, Cultural, Economic and Social Sustainability," Chennai, India
• The W.M. Keck Initiative on Leadership Across the Liberal Arts Curriculum, keynote address
• Jepson School of Leadership Studies, University of Richmond
• Insight & Inquiry: Distinguished Voices Lecture Series, University of North Florida

"Witnessing those moments when students are struck by a sudden ability within themselves to glimpse into the complexities of life in a way that provides them with some new understanding. Such moments can be earth-shaking, but they can also be modest - small epiphanies that help them make sense of their curiosities, their motivations, their surroundings and their future. And the professor's role might be more geared toward the cultivation of a relatively consistent rhythm of the modest moments, with the hope that the doors to the larger ones are nudged wider and wider."

• GRDS 374 Publication Graphics
• GRDS 386 Package Design
• GRDS 400 Graphic Design Studio Two
• GRDS 715 Print Studio I
• GRDS 726 The Role of Design in Social Awareness
• GRDS 748 Graphic Design M.A. Final Project
• GRDS 759 Print Studio II
• GRDS 760 Poster Design
• GRDS 773 Portfolio Design
• GRDS 791 Graphic Design M.F.A. Thesis

"There are many ways of presenting a vision of a more equitable future. Art, design, writing and facilitating are all creative acts that require determination and humility, and they all have the potential to create that vision in meaningful ways. Applying your creativity for a purpose bigger than yourself doesn't have to be a chore, or a burden, or too serious or controversial. In fact, when creativity springs from such a well, it sets demands upon the individual that illicit a sense, not of dread or obligation, but of wonder within that realm of engagement. Wonder and the desire for a world with more equality are not incompatible."

emergentstructures.com

1995

Photography instructor, Cape Fear Technical College, Wilmington, North Carolina; editor/manager of communications for international architectural associations, Berne, Switzerland; planner/architect, Suter + Suter International Consultant Corporation, Basel, Zurich, and Berne, Switzerland; architectural intern, F. Carter Williams Architects, P.A., Raleigh, North Carolina; architectural intern, National Park Service Internship Program, Cape Hatteras, North Carolina; architectural intern and project renderer, Suter + Suter International Consultant Corporation, Basel, Switzerland; photographer/owner of photography studio, Wilmington, North Carolina

"The relationships that have grown out of the work done in the Gulf Coast communities since 2005 - when Hurricane Katrina destroyed buildings, neighborhoods and whole towns - have contributed meaning and life-long value to the architecture, interior design, historic preservation and industrial design students who have accompanied me on annual visits to the region affected. Students have played significant roles in the recovery and rebuilding processes, working very closely with various neighborhood associations and community leaders, as well as individuals who were in urgent need of design services such as housing, community centers, schools, fellowship church halls and more. The integration of SCAD design students into the vast network of organizations who are engaged in the rebuilding of these communities has been especially rewarding and has led to a number of employment opportunities for graduates."

Vulcan Excellence in Teaching award; nominated for the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement and Support of Education "U.S. Professor of the Year" Award; AIAS "Most Valuable Foundations Teacher" Award; AIAS "Most Valuable Teacher" Award; AIAS national award for community service project "ArchiPetTure"; Who's Who Among America's Teachers

U.S. Green Building Council - Savannah Chapter, American Institute of Architects, Georgia Historical Society, Christ Church-Savannah Building Committee

• Hurricane Katrina Relief Design Studios, exhibited New Orleans, Louisiana
• Eight student works published in "Architectural Drawing: a Visual Compendium of Types and Methods," Rendow Yow, 2007

"For teaching, I am inspired by every great teacher I have had in my past.
"For art, by every artist, known and unknown, whose work I have seen, touched, tasted, felt and experienced.
"For design, by nature."

• ARCH 300 Architecture Design Studio I
• ARCH 302 Architecture Design Studio II
• ARCH 303 Architecture Design Studio III
• ARCH 404: Architecture Design Studio IV
• ARCH 707 Architecture Design Studio VII
• ARCH 708 Architecture Design Studio VIII: Thesis I
• ARCH 709 Architecture Design Studio IX: Thesis II
• DRAW 115: Graphics for the Building Arts

"A natural critical learning environment is essential in the educational process of an architect. When students can engage with the design problem on a level that is personal, they begin to learn to think critically: make decisions, defend those decisions, receive feedback, rethink their decisions, in a repetitive looping cycle. They learn to reason using evidence, to critically examine the quality of their reasoning, to ask the questions that matter, and to make improvements all along the way. In developing an interesting problem, I take into account that the design question is the essential first step. It becomes part of my job to help the student put that question into a larger, broader context, how it relates to some issue that already interests you. The engagement of the student in some higher-order intellectual process comes in the form analyzing, comparing, assessing, and synthesizing: questioning always. Through this process, the student is empowered to answer the question. And when that particular design question is answered, it should leave the student already asking the next one."

2005

Initiator, lead faculty author and program coordinator of the interdisciplinary design for sustainability master's and minor program until Fall 2010; developed new industrial design class on sensory awareness; founded SCAD Sustainability Council; taught at Ohio State University and at the University of Applied Sciences Postdam in Germany; worked in research and development department at the VisionWorks division of Lear Corp. in Southfield, Michigan, developing concepts that incorporated new technologies for passenger cars; freelance designer; designer with iDS Hamburg, developing interior designs for the Fairchild Dornier 728 jet

Founder, SCAD Sustainability Council; initiator and lead faculty author of design for sustainability degree program until Fall 2010

Presentations

• "The Diffusion of Sustainability Through Design," Greening of the Campus VIII, Ball State University, Indianapolis, Indiana, September 2009
• "Sustainability in Art and Design," at the Georgia Science Teacher Association conference, Savannah, Georgia, February 2009
• "Breaking Sustainability Ground In Art and Design," Association for the Advancement of Sustainability in Higher Education conference: "Working Together for Sustainability, on Campus and Beyond," Raleigh, North Carolina, November 2008
• Lecture on sustainability at the department of industrial, interior and visual communications design, Ohio State University, April 2007

"Diffusing the capabilities of design beyond its traditional perception."

• IDUS 100 Introduction to Industrial Design
• IDUS 215 Contextual Research Methods
• IDUS 221 Human Factors in Industrial Design
• IDUS 316 Portfolio and Résumé Development
• IDUS 321 Industrial Design in the Marketplace
• IDUS 355 Sensory Awareness
• IDUS 401 Prototype Project Conceptualization
• IDUS 402 Prototype Project Construction
• IDUS 421 Commercial Practices for Industrial Design
• IDUS 431 Industrial Design Senior Studio
• IDUS 490 Special Topics in Industrial Design
• IDUS 713 Industrial Design Studio I
• IDUS 718 Industrial Design Studio II
• IDUS 748 Industrial Design M.A. Final Project
• IDUS 770 Professional Practices in Industrial Design
• IDUS 790 Industrial Design M.F.A. Thesis
• SUST 384 Design for Sustainability
• SUST 713 Interdisciplinary Studio I
• SUST 748 Design for Sustainability M.A. Final Project
• DMGT 720 Design Innovation Development and Marketing Strategies
• DMGT 748 Design Management M.A. Final Project

"There are no boundaries for learning."

2010

Studied architecture, product design, industrial design and specialized in sustainable and eco-design; worked as environmental scientist at Wuppertal Institute for Climate Environment and Energy; started econcept, an agency for sustainable design, in 1996 in Germany; taught at several different universities and design schools all over the world, including Zurich University of the Arts and Design Academy Eindhoven; conducted teaching and training for companies in Australia, Asia, South America and Europe

Leading thinker in the field of eco-design and design for sustainability with numerous publications, keynote presentations, research projects and consulting work

"Tribun," eco-efficient cardboard lamp, exhibit, Design Arena, Light Competition, Industrie Forum Design Hannover; "macpac," eco-efficient fast food packaging, Gustav-Dieter-Edelhoff Award for disposal-oriented design, exhibition at Karl Ernst Osthaus-Museum, Hagen, Germany; "Senda," remote control for elderly and other people, exhibit, "Age: No Problem," Danish Design Centre, Copenhagen, Denmark; "FRIA," eco-efficient cooling concept for households, Bavarian Competition for young designers, exhibition at Nuremberg and Bayreuth, Germant; "How to Communicate Sustainability," award of the state of Rheinland-Pfalz, Germany, second prize for leaflet and poster campaign, no first prize awarded

Expert at International Organization Standardization (ISO) TC 207 sub-committee meetings on "Design for Environment," member of ISO working group "Design for Environment" as German delegate, co-author of the ISO TR 14062; member of the DIN/NAGUS AA1 working group on the integration of environmental issues into product development and design; secretary of the EUREKA working group on sustainable products and services; board member of O2 Global, an international network of eco-designers; manager of the German O2 liaison; founding member of "Cologne Design," a regional organization to promote design; board member since 2000; member of various design juries, such as Industrie Forum Design Hannover (IF Ecology Award), Design Sense Award in London, Eco-design Award in Austria, International Design Award in Baden-Württemberg , Germany (Design Center Stuttgart)

Publications

• "System Innovation for Sustainability 3: Case Studies in Sustainable Consumption and Production - Food and Agriculture," Tischner et al., Greenleaf Publishing, Sheffield, UK, 2010
• "New Business for Old Europe: Product-Service Development, Competitiveness and Sustainability," Tukker and Tischner, Greenleaf Publishing, Sheffield, UK, 2006
• "Sustainable Solutions: Developing Products and Services for the Future," Charter and Tischner, Greenleaf Publishing, Sheffield, UK, 2001
• "How to do Ecodesign?: A Guide on Environmentally and Economically Sound Design," Tischner et al., form publishing, Frankfort, Germany, 2000
• "Ökointelligentes Produzieren und Konsumieren (Ecointelligent Production and Consumption)," Schmidt-Bleek, F., Tischner, U., Merten, T., Birkhaeuser, Berlin/Basel/Boston, 1997
• "Produktentwicklung: Nutzen gestalten - Natur schonen (Product Development: Create Benefit - Save Nature)," Wirtschaftskammer Österreich, 1995

Presentations
Countless presentations at international and regional conferences and events around the world since 1993

"Design is just a tool like a hammer: You can use it to build a house or to kill people. Since industrialization, design has unfortunately become part of serious problems like over-production and consumption, resource depletion, toxic emissions, climate change, social crises, loss of biodiversity, etc. I like to help designers and other creative professionals to become agents of change, creating solutions that are beneficial for people and the natural environment around us in the short and long run on local and global levels while profitable at the same time."

• SUST 208 Foundation of Sustainable Materials
• SUST 290 Theories in Eco Stewardship
• SUST 384 Design for Sustainability Studio
• SUST 704 Applied Theories in Sustainability
• SUST 708 Principles of Sustainable Materials
• SUST 713 Interdisciplinary Studio I and II

"If you invest energy in creating something, do it wisely and effectively, celebrate diversity of people and nature, respect the limits given to us by our planet, and create joy and quality of life for everybody involved - including yourself. Life is too precious."

econcept.org