The students from the University of New South Wales in Australia took first place — and a $25,000 grand prize — with their BIND concept, which stands for Binder Interlock Neat Device. A cool innovation that works like a tie-and-ring system for organizing documents, BIND represents an elegant improvement from zip ties, increasing the potential uses and likely reuses of the product. The assumption is that people will use BIND in place of less eco-friendly solutions for binding paper, such as three binders, and will be more likely to hold onto BIND as opposed to the use-and-dispose model associated with most zip ties.

In addition, there were two runners up, who each received $5,000. A team from the University of California Berkeley created an Eco Stapler made of bamboo. It was an obvious eco improvement to the everyday stapler. Nothing surprising, but the idea was well thought out and the team did their homework. Lastly, a team from the Indian Institute of Technology in Madras won for the Step Shredder, an innovative idea to make a manually powered shredder. It would encourage exercise (much needed in the work environment!) and reduce energy consumption (much needed in our world). I wonder how receptive the office consumer would be to this idea…

It was great to get a glimpse into the minds of the next generation of designers and engineers. Here are a couple of additional learnings from event:

Ideas – There is no shortage of ideas that could help reduce our impact on the environment. The larger challenge remains; getting consumers to adopt new practices.

Passion – The students were passionate about the environment to the point they were often looking to trade convenience for a more sustainable solutions.

PowerPoint – Who needs PowerPoint? Each presenter used Presi to zoom and circle their way through their ideas, with many incorporating well-produced animations and video shorts.

Storytelling – These students definitely understand the value of a well-told story. Presentations included consideration of how an idea could impact a country, an economy, a business and the consumer.

Science and Emotion – Each presentation presented the math that substantiated the benefits (these were engineers, after all), and they also invested equal time on the emotional values and benefits.

I’m looking forward to seeing how this competition evolves next year, and I hope it can continue to raise awareness around sustainability and the office to help introduce creative solutions that reduce the corporate footprint. Kudos to Staples for taking a responsible leadership position on environmental affairs.

For more information on the event and the winners, go to: http://ecoeasychallenge.com/

The conversation focused primarily on the disaster in Haiti. Frontline reports from Jean and Gerald underscored the extraordinary challenges the humanitarian community faces in delivering aid to a country hobbled by a threadbare infrastructure (including a lack of basic governance) and debilitating poverty. Taking a step back, we looked at a country that has been the recipient of over $4 billion in aid over the past 20 years. Pre-earthquake, there were over 10,000 private aid organizations working in Haiti, providing basic services in every arena of life. Depending on which source you choose to believe, the estimated cost of recovery hovers in the range of $7.2 to $13 billion. The main focus now is pure “rescue:” How to deliver and distribute it. This is the horse before the cart of reconstruction.

And it all reminded me of something I heard the founder of a social enterprise working in Haiti say, post-disaster: “Rescue is important, but doesn’t lead to anything more than rescue.” That’s not to say immediate relief isn’t a must have—but what’s the role design can play in the long-term recovery (and we’re talking decades) facing the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere? That’s the big question to ask—and some of what we touched on during the panel conversation.

You can view the video of the conversation here.

Steve Krampf, Co-founder and CEO, Chestnut Hill Sound
Antonio Rodriguez, Founder, Tebblo; General Manager, HP Publishing Services
Carl Yankowski, CEO, Ambient Devices

You can download the audio file of the talk here.  Its just about 50 minutes long and covers topics ranging from consumer research to hardware/software services integration.

Partnering with the Business Innovation Factory in Providence has been a fantastic experience and we are really looking forward to the session.

You can register here.

Read up on the workshop and BIF here.

Business Innovation Factory
315 Iron Horse Way, Suite 101
Providence, RI 02908

I spent the earlier part of the week at SCAD at a design charrette we helped them host. Design for the other 90% was the theme. Some 200 or so industrial design students are spending 4 1/2 days working in groups of 5 or 6. The groups were assigned regions and topics – South America, peace and stability for instance. Each day (and most of each night) the groups are getting first hand experience with a phase of our design strategy process – alignment, discovery, analysis and envisioning. Its inspiring to see these talented young designers applying their time and talents to understanding and proposing solutions to some of the worlds real problems.

I’m hoping this experience will inspire them. I think it will. Focusing 4 days on far off lands and how most of the people on this planet live must seem such quite a departure from designing cars of the future and jet skis!

Congrats to the folks at SCAD (and Continuum’s Beth Johnson) for all the work to set this up. But, most of all thanks to the students participating. Perhaps you can see that you can make a difference in this world.

Check out details on the event

http://scadcharrette.net/

Friday, March 7 2008
2:00PM to 3:00PM
Patil/Kiva Seminar Room G449
Hosted by Rob Miller, MIT CSAIL

MIT Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory (CSAIL)
The Stata Center, Building 32 – 32 Vassar Street – Cambridge, MA 02139 – USA

March 27, 2008
8:30 a.m.–3 p.m.
Business Innovation Factory
315 Iron Horse Way, Suite 101
Providence, RI 02908

Click here to register.