Reflections: The Designers Accord global summit on sustainability & education

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This post, which originally appeared on Core77 [2], was submitted by guest contributor Andrea Mangini, a Lead Experience Designer for Adobe Systems [3], where she has spent the past decade specializing in "design for designers". Andrea is co-founder of Adobe's employee Green Team, and an advocate for sustainable design and innovation on behalf of her employers and users. Follow Andrea @jingleyfish [4]. Sustainable Minds was the Summit Sponsor [5].

The Designers Accord Global Summit on Sustainability & Education [5] held October 23rd & 24th in San Francisco, marked an important step forward for the sustainable design movement. For two days a high-powered group of about 100 designers, educators, writers, business strategists, technologists, and futurists were assembled by the leadership of the Designers Accord to "tackle the critical issue of sustainability, consider how best to prepare our educational community to make real change, and imagine what's next in design education."

The summit took place in the AutoDesk Design Gallery [6], a gorgeous flowing space overlooking the Embarcadero Plaza, which is full of physical and virtual examples of how design constructs and transforms the world in which we live. The week leading up to the event had been marked by anticipation for the 350.org [7] day of climate action on October 24th—an historic event, as it was the first ever coordinated, international grassroots action focused on issues of climate change and sustainability. The sights and sounds of a climate action rally being held in the plaza below us lent a sense of both festivity and gravity to the summit. Read more > [2]