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Projects

05.16.13: Paul Polak

The SunWater Project: Advanced Solar Technology for Poor Farmers
Paul Polak on SunWater: a radically affordable solar water pump that will transform small plot agriculture and help bring the world's poorest families out of poverty.
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05.08.13: Paul Polak

Transforming Solar Pumping to Eliminate Rural Poverty
Paul Polak explores how we might reduce water shortages by employing solar pumping and eliminating rural poverty.
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06.29.12: Ernest Beck

Project Dose
Hospitals and healthcare facilities in developing countries face problems ranging form overcrowding to underfunding and a lack of available staff, medical equipment and supplies. Project Dose helped solve one of those issues.
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10.12.11: Julie Lasky

Faraday Utility Bike
IDEO and Rock Lobster Cycles win people's choice award for utility bike prototype
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10.12.11: Julie Lasky

Media Design Matters
Art Center offers a new graduate track in social design that combines communications and technologies strategies with field work.
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09.19.11: Julie Lasky

IDEO Innovators in Residence
IDEO.org unveils its first class of fellows.
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09.12.11: Rachel Signer

Don't Flush Me
Prototype for urban system to detect and prevent sewage overflows
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07.18.11: Jane Margolies

My Block NYC
My Block NYC, a new video-mapping website, invites residents, tourists and videographers to upload clips they’ve taken on the streets of New York.
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07.14.11: Nadine Botha

Wheel Simple: Velokhaya Clubhouse
Upgrading a cycling center in a South African township.
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06.27.11: William Underhill

Comradettes
New women's fashion collection celebrating history of labor
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06.24.11: John Foster

DART St. Louis
On DART St. Louis, a charitable photo project that brings overlooked neighborhoods to life.
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06.21.11: Ernest Beck

San+Co
A pilot project developed for India provides santiation and electricity in a single venture.
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06.13.11: Jane Margolies

How to Start a Movement
Interview with movement entrepreneur Jeremy Heimans, founder of Purpose.com.
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06.06.11: William Underhill

Transensing: Glassware for the Blind
Award-winning glassware for the visually impaired.
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06.01.11: Julie Lasky

Ringing in the New Air
Nendo's Bell-Orgel collection for Tokyo's Isetan department store.
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05.25.11: Julie Lasky

Everything Must Go
A new blog speaks to our current interest in shedding material goods.
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05.19.11: Ernest Beck

Project Mwana
A new effort to diagnosis and treat infant HIV/AIDS in remote African regions.
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05.16.11: An Xiao Mina

The Ultra 10 Challenge
Report on ULTRA, a sustainable fashion company founded in Kuala Lumpur.
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04.27.11: Ernest Beck

Benefit Corporations
The B Corp designation ensures that companies adhere to triple-bottom-line standards.
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03.23.11: Ernest Beck

Creative Support for Japan
Creative responses to the crisis in Japan.
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03.14.11: Jonathan Schultz

Just Keep Truckin'
David Rockwell-designed truck for Jamie Oliver's Food Revolution.
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03.07.11: Ernest Beck

IDEO.org
IDEO announces a new nonprofit organization.
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03.07.11: Chaz Maviyane-Davies

Déjà Vu
Designer Chaz Maviyane-Davies on the reappearance of an old invention.
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02.28.11: Maria Popova

D-Build
A streamlined approach to dismantling and recycling buildings.
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02.25.11: Julie Lasky

Rock Girl Benches
Rock Girl in Cape Town offers real and symbolic safe places for girls and women.
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02.22.11: Meena Kadri

Yoza
Yoza stories are directed to African youth who are book-poor yet mobile-rich.
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02.18.11: Julie Lasky

DesigNYC, Round 2
Report on second round of pro bono design initiatives fostered by DesigNYC.
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02.11.11: Ernest Beck

BOOM
Report on a visionary residential complex for aging gay boomers.
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02.10.11: Ernest Beck

GlobalTap Update
GlobalTap water station update.
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02.02.11: Maria Popova

COMMON
Report on Alex Bogusky and Rob Schuham's COMMON project marrying capitalism and social change.
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01.31.11: Jonathan Schultz

Give a Minute
Report on Local Projects' Give a Minute initiative to improve urban life.
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01.03.11: Julie Lasky

MSC Greenhouse Project
On learning about science, nutrition and politics at the Manhattan School for Children.
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12.16.10: Julie Lasky

Ripped from the Headlines
Johnny Selman is a third of the way through his year-long project to graphically enliven the news.
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12.09.10: Julie Lasky

Acumen Sexy Sanitation Challenge
Acumen Fund announces winners of its "Sexy Sanitation" challenge.
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12.07.10: Ernest Beck

Cards of Change
Unemployed workers retrofit their former business cards to send hopeful messages.
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12.01.10: Julie Lasky

Bigshot Camera Update
Reporting the status of an innovative children's camera in development
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11.12.10: Renna Al-Yassini

Roudha Center
Report on Roudha Center, a proposal for a one-stop hub for Qatari women to learn the nuts and bolts of launching a business
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11.01.10: Meena Kadri

Conflict Kitchen
Report on Conflict Kitchen, a project by artists affiliated with Carnegie Mellon to foster cross-cultural understanding through food.
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10.28.10: Jonathan Schultz

Solo Kota Kita
Report on a design-oriented sysem for providing information about community resources in Indonesia as an aid for budgeting.
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10.11.10: Ernest Beck

Safe Agua
The first collaboration between Designmatters at Art Center College of Design and Chile’s Un Techo para mi País creates fresh ideas for water usage in a Santiago slum.
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09.27.10: Kaomi Goetz

The Utility Collective
Report on the Utility Collective, a furniture business that emphasizes local materials and production.
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09.20.10: Jane Margolies

Renewing the Riverfront

Report on an exhibition showcasing efforts to revitalize a derelict patch of Brattleboro, Vermont.
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09.15.10: Dana Thomas

132 5. ISSEY MIYAKE
The latest material (and sustainability) adventure from the great Japanese fashion designer.
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09.14.10: Mimi Zeiger

Food Not Bombs
Report on Food Not Bombs, an activist network, now about to turn 30, that distributes free vegan meals.
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09.02.10: Ernest Beck

Climate Change Chocolate Update
Update on Climate Change Chocolate and other ideas for offsetting carbon. Originally published August 17, 2009.
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08.25.10: William Underhill

Somali Documentary Project
Report on the Somali Documentary Project.
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08.18.10: Phil Patton

Mitsubishi i-MiEV Electric Car
Review of Mitsubishi's i-MiEV electric car.
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08.10.10: Ernest Beck

Ripple Effect Update

Update on the Ripple Effect initiative launched by IDEO, Gates Foundation and Acumen Fund to distribute fresh water in the developing world. Originally published July 30, 2009.

07.28.10: Ernest Beck

Camel Mobile Clinic Update
Update on Art Center's Design Matters program, which prototypes a system for transporting medicine on camel back to remote communities in Kenya. Originally published July 18, 2009.
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07.26.10: William Underhill

Map Kibera
Report on the Map Kibera project to provide navigation and information on Nairobi's massive informal settlement.
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07.13.10: Phil Patton

Murray T.25 City Car
Report on Gordon Murray's conversion from revolutionary race car designer to creator of one of the greenest city cars ever.
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07.07.10: William Underhill

Boatanic
In the Netherlands, designer Damian O'Sullivan conceives of floating greenhouses converted from tourist boats.
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06.23.10: William Underhill

D-Rev Blue Star Jaundice Treatment
Report on Blue Star, D-Rev's affordable jaundice treatment for newborn babies in the developing world.
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06.19.10: Ernest Beck

Teach For All
Report on Teach For All, an $8.6 million program to expand educational opportunities throughout the world created by Wendy Kopp, founder of Teach For America, and Brett Wigdortz, founder of Teach First in the U.K.
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05.11.10: William Drenttel

Sustainability Posters
Six leading designers make posters of the word Sustainability.
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05.06.10: William Drenttel

Design for Change Contest
Kiran Bir Sethi is a designer, teacher, principal, advocate and social entrepreneur. Now her “Design for Change Contest,” a recent initiative that swept India in 2009, is expanding globally.
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05.02.10: The Editors

Change Observer Project Reports: A Summary
Change Observer has been publishing Project Reports as an editorial zone to write about distinct projects at the intersection of design and social innovation. This post summarizes the 73 Project Reports we have published to date.
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04.27.10: Kaomi Goetz

Austin Center for Design
Interactive designer Jon Kolko launches a school to help designers build economically viable careers working for social betterment.
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03.26.10: Jonathan Schultz

One World Futbol
Report on One World Futbol produced by Hope Is a Game-Changer.
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03.22.10: Ernest Beck

Es Tiempo
Report on Es Tiempo, a campaign designed to encourage Hispanic women in Southern California to seek annual screenings for cervical cancer.
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03.17.10: Phil Patton

One Car Per Family
Report on Yves Béhar's design for a new "people's car."
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03.10.10: Kaomi Goetz

Kopernik
Report on Kopernik, a new website for funding technology to assist populations in the developing world.
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02.01.10: Julie Lasky

DesigNYC
DesigNYC is the latest grass-roots organization to match socially minded designers with nonprofits.
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01.28.10: Ernest Beck

GlobalTap
Report on prototype for GlobalTap water refilling stations.
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01.14.10: Jane Margolies

Rising Currents
Report on "Rising Currents," an exhibition of New York City design solutions to the flooding predicted by climate change experts, which will be on view at the Museum of Modern Art, March 24–August 9, 2010.
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12.14.09: Jane Margolies

St. Augustine School Chicken Project
Report on the sustainability program at St. Augustine parochial school in the South Bronx.
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12.10.09: Julie Lasky

Bigshot Camera
Report on a camera that children assemble to learn about science and engineering principles.
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12.08.09: Jonathan Schultz

EyeWriter
Report on the EyeWriter software system, which allows a graffiti artist suffering from ALS to continue working merely by moving his eyes.
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12.04.09: Julie Lasky

CO2 CUBES
Description of CO2 CUBES: Visualize a Tonne of Change, a multimedia installation created for the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, Conference of the Parties (COP-15), held in Copenhagen in December 2009.
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12.03.09: Jennifer Ehrenberg

Chicago Welcomes You
On designing a resettlement process for Burmese immigrants in Chicago.
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11.16.09: Jonathan Schultz

DESIS
Report on the Design for Social Innovation and Sustainability project's latest home at New York's New School.
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11.02.09: Jonathan Schultz

Kick4Life
AIDS education mixes with soccer in plans for a new Lesotho stadium.
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10.30.09: Julie Lasky

88Bikes
Report on a foundation that distributes bicycles to children in the developing world.
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10.22.09: Ernest Beck

Medellín, Colombia
Report on the city officials who turned around a notorious drugs-and-murder capital, winning the 2009 Curry Stone Design Prize for Transformative Public Works.
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10.06.09: Bradford McKee

Float House
Report on a floating house designed by Morphosis and UCLA architecture students for the Make It Right Foundation,
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10.05.09: Ernest Beck

Emergency Response Studio
Report on artist Paul Villinski's mobile studio, which he converted from a trailer of the type used by FEMA to house victims of Hurricane Katrina.
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09.28.09: Jane Margolies

Skin
Report on maternity clothes made in Colombia with local labor. (No seamstresses under the age of 50 need apply.)
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09.22.09: Jonathan Schultz

Better Place
Report on Better Place, winner of the 2009 INDEX Award in the Community category.
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09.22.09: Andrea Codrington

Freeplay Fetal Heart Rate Monitor
Report on the Freeplay fetal heart rate monitor, which won the 2009 INDEX award in the Body category.
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09.18.09: Ernest Beck

Peepoobag
Report on Peepoobag, a new self-sanitizing, single-use, biodegradable container for human waste.
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09.09.09:

Kiva
Report on Kiva, the pioneering microfinance site, which won a 2009 INDEX award for humanitarian design.
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09.09.09: Jane Margolies

Pig 05049
Report on Pig 05049, a book cataloging all of the products made from a single pig, which won the 2009 INDEX award in the Playful Learning category
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09.09.09: Ernest Beck

Chulha Stove

Report on the Chulha stove designed by Philips to reduce indoor air pollution in developing countries.

09.03.09: Allison Arieff

WeCommune
WeCommune offers a technology platform for people who want to share resources and build community within particular subcultures.
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09.02.09: Julie Lasky

Pizza Farm
Report on Project M at Winterhouse's Pizza Farm event in rural Connecticut in August 2009.
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08.25.09: Allison Arieff

Emergence
Emergence, a new massively multiplayer online game (MMOG) fosters diplomatic skills.
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08.20.09: Ernest Beck

PACT Underwear
Report on PACT, an underwear company that embraces green manufacturing and donates a portion of its revenue to nonprofits.
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08.13.09: Alec Appelbaum

FLAP Bag
Report on the FLAP bag, a multipurpose messenger bag for developing-world populations.
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08.07.09: Julia Galef

Question Box

The Question Box project puts the developing-world poor just a phone call away from an internet search.

08.04.09: Ernest Beck

Climate Change Chocolate
While environmentalists debate the ethics and effectiveness of carbon offsets, designers work to make them appealing.
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07.29.09: Bradford McKee

Once More with Feeling: A National Design Policy
Bradford McKee reviews the history of efforts to create a federal design policy.
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07.18.09: Ernest Beck

Ripple Effect

IDEO launched Ripple Effect in India to help communities with the arduous process of transporting water.

07.18.09: Ernest Beck

Camel Mobile Clinic
Art Center's Design Matters program prototypes a system for transporting medicine on camel back to remote communities in Kenya.
READ MORE