Design and consumerism | the wanderlust.net The evolution of graphic design over the past 100 years from purely aesthetics to meeting functional, cultural, social and production requirements, helped to develop the change and growth of consumerism. Graphic design helps advertise and separate products from one another, often encouraging waste. Design thinking helped introduce product innovation — so more products could be produced and sold. Communication design develops a dialogue directly with the consumer, and is inherent in visual and physical design. Consumers demand for news and information has dramatically risen of the past two decades, and now not only do the public consume products but also content. Consumers are used to products being customised to suit their needs and demand the same with content — Designers have been assigned the task of shaping this content. Design is also responsible for social and personal interactions becoming commodities. Consumption supports the economy and in return supports more consumerism.
Innovation and Advantage: Ethics and Innovation When I was in Japan this summer, I attended a lecture about something called Minamata Disease, which is a form of mercury poisoning (click on the link to learn more, but be warned, the disease and its effects may be kind of disturbing). The story goes like too many others we've all heard before- a big company develops a product and begins producing it, and in the process, knowingly or unknowingly contaminates the surrounding environment with a dangerous chemical that makes local residents seriously ill. In this case, the company was Chisso Corporation, and today it is one of the world's largest producers of chemical components including those in Liquid Crystal Displays like you would find in your television or laptop. More than half of the officially recognized victims have died from the disease. So how do ethical considerations play into innovation?
Heads-Up! on Organizational Innovation: Ethics of Innovation Just because something can be done, should it? Just because something has a market and can be financially viable, should it be? This morning's newspaper offered two "innovation" stories which prompts the idea that we should be talking about the ethics of innovation: -- The first pet clone was just sold to a woman for $50,000 to replace her beloved cat Nicky who had died after 17 years. -- On Jan 3, Fox network will launch a reality adoption show where the adopted person tries to pick her genetic father from eight men. And, I'm sure the ethics of innovation aren't limited to the foibles of television land and the mindboggling possibilities of cloning. Comments encouraged!
The Link Between Ethics and Innovation May 2007- -Is there a link between ethical companies and innovative companies? Innovative companies tend to be companies that people admire and want to work for. However, in Fortune's 2007 listing of the 100 Best Companies To Work For, none of the top 20 companies were listed on the Ethics and Compliance Officer Association Web site as members and only half of the top 20 companies on the America's Most Admired Companies list were ECOA members. Are companies that people admire and want to work for unethical? Of course not. In one of the more provocative sessions at last year's ECOA conference, Frank Daly mused that some of America's most ethical companies don't have ethics officers. There is in fact a strong correlation between innovative companies and ethical companies. To be able to have values such as respect and trust flourish, managers and leaders must be accountable, to themselves and others. So how do we draw tighter connections? More articles by David Gebler ©2007 SmartPros Ltd.
Guilé Foundation Fondation Guilé is a Swiss foundation. This non-profit organization of Swiss private law has been founded in 1997 by the Charles Burrus family headquartered in Boncourt, Switzerland. The foundation’s mission is to promote corporate responsibility in the process of globalization, focusing on human and labour rights, environmental protection and business ethics. Company assessments and engagement[edit] Fondation Guilé has initiated two investment funds to promote its goals. The Guilé Emerging Markets Engagement Fund (GEMEF) was set up in 2009 and is managed by Comgest in Paris, France. The sustainability experts at Fondation Guilé analyse and benchmark the annual Communication on Progress (COP) and/or the sustainability reporting of all portfolio companies. The portfolio companies receive the assessment results and a detailed presentation of the findings. High-level meetings[edit] Other speakers at the 2011 event included Timothy P. Additional services[edit] References[edit]
INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS LEADERS FORUMRedefining growth fora sustainable world Welcome to BioRegional | BioRegional: solutions for sustainability The Blue Economy The Blue Economy: 10 years - 100 innovations - 100 million jobs is a book by Gunter Pauli. The book expresses the ultimate aim that a Blue Economy business model will shift society from scarcity to abundance "with what we have", by tackling issues that cause environmental and related problems in new ways. The book highlights potential benefits in connecting and combining seemingly disparate environmental problems with open-source scientific solutions based upon physical processes common in the natural world, to create solutions that are both environmentally beneficial and which have financial and wider social benefits. Background[edit] The book was written by Gunter Pauli as Founder and Director of Zero Emissions Research and Initiatives. The Blue Economy began as a project to find 100 of the best nature-inspired technologies that could affect the economies of the world, while sustainably providing basic human needs - potable water, food, jobs, and habitable shelter. See also[edit]
Hasan Özbekhan Dr. Hasan Özbekhan (1921 – February 12, 2007) was a Turkish American systems scientist, cyberneticist, philosopher and planner who was Professor Emeritus of Management at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania. He applied the field-of-systems theory to global problems, helped inspire the group of planners, diplomats, scientists and academics who came together as the Club of Rome.[1] Biography[edit] Hasan Özbekhan was born in Turkey in 1921, into a diplomatic family. In the 1960s Ozbekhan worked as management consultant to large multinational corporations. In 1970 he started working at the University of Pennsylvania at the faculty of the Wharton School, where he became Professor of Operations Research and Statistics, and Chairman of the Graduate Group in the Social Systems Sciences Department. He died on February 12, 2007 in Philadelphia. Work[edit] Together with Robert Jungk, Johan Galtung and many others he was member of MANKIND 2000. Publications[edit] References[edit]
Club of Rome The Club of Rome is a global think tank that deals with a variety of international political issues. Founded in 1968 at Accademia dei Lincei in Rome, Italy, the CoR describes itself as "a group of world citizens, sharing a common concern for the future of humanity." It consists of current and former heads of state, UN bureaucrats, high-level politicians and government officials, diplomats, scientists, economists and business leaders from around the globe.[1] It raised considerable public attention in 1972 with its report The Limits to Growth. The club states that its mission is "to act as a global catalyst for change through the identification and analysis of the crucial problems facing humanity and the communication of such problems to the most important public and private decision makers as well as to the general public. Formation[edit] A study by Graham Turner of the research organisation CSIRO in Australia in 2008 found Organization[edit] National associations[edit] Worldviews[edit]
Club of Rome Reports and Bifurcations: a 40-year overview 16 May 2012 | Draft a 40-year overview Significant bifurcations triggered by the history of the Club of Rome Reports to the Club of Rome Declarations and Statements of the Club of RomeComment on bifurcations of the Club of Rome initiativeContrasting initiatives and concerns Integrative exercise for the futureSystem dynamics, hypercycles and psychosocial self-organizationRequisite map for governance in the future? Significant bifurcations triggered by the history of the Club of Rome As is to be expected, during the extended history of an organization, various initiatives were triggered by its approach as reflected in some 40 reports and declarations listed below. 1. Since World3 was originally created it has had minor tweaks to get to the World3/91 model used in the book Beyond the Limits and later was tweaked to get the World3/2000 model distributed by the Institute for Policy and Social Science Research. That known as the "Bariloche Model" was first presented in 1974 (A. 3. 4.