Molo Design + 15 Below Project should collaborate

The other day a friend was pitching a project regarding creating modular room dividers for small spaces to a potential client. Molo Design came up in the conversation. After perusing through their website I quickly discovered that they were an organization which initially started to build modular material for small spaces like Soft Rooms for the homeless. I thought it was a great idea. According to the website Molo is currently researching the most appropriate materials to build their Soft Rooms, so as it stands it seems to be a work in progress.

Then a thought came to me...wouldn't it be great if Molo + 15 Below Project and perhaps a 3rd organization like the United Way collaborated and developed an environmentally conscious program to get the homeless off the streets and re-integrated into society again?

Aside from the Soft Room, Molo offers other neat modular products like the urchin soft light or the soft wall.

Change or trend and grocery bags?

The notoriety of Al Gore's AN INCONVENIENT TRUTH both reached and compelled several industries and the general public to take action and do their part in the fight against global warming. I'm optimistic and hopeful that this momentum will be kept up but at the same time I'm a cynic. Now I'm not a cynic because I want sustainable practices to fail, but old habits die hard and it seems all too common and apart of human nature to...well...relapse. I wonder if the attention paid to sustainability is merely a trendy thing to do, like wearing yoga gear when you're not going to the gym, I mean by wearing them does give the impression that you're athletic or health conscious.

I noticed a problem with the design of those little eco bags that you pay a dollar for at grocery store. I know people who buy multiple amounts of eco grocery bags religiously with the best intentions to reduce their carbon footprint but somehow, those bags are never taken with them everywhere they go and 5-25 cents gets shelled out for a plastic bag. Someone beat me to the redesign, there is a new environmentally friendly compact bag out called Envirosax, great form and function. This bag is lightweight and can fit in your backpocket! Perhaps it's the solution to the cumbersome recyclable grocery bag problem which is possibly left at home because it doesn't collapse well and takes up alot of space in a purse, backpack or laptop bag? So, my point is that the current eco grocery bag is a great concept but could be a better design. If it wasn't so cumbersome I think that more people would be carrying it around with them. I love the Envirosax because it can fit in my wallet and that way I never forget it at home because I carry my wallet everywhere I go.

It is apparent that only time will tell whether people are seriously committed to "change" or to trend. Hopefully designers will remain conscious to the issue of climate change and will continue to contribute designs that might slow down this process and leave even less of a carbon footprint. And hopefully society will continue to make environmentally conscious decisions.