Looking to Nature for a Sustainable Future

Join us for our largest conference yet, TEDxSacramento2015, on June 12, 2015. Register today before space runs out.

By Lauren Herman

How much stuff do you actually have? That is the question Beth Rattner asked the audience at the TEDxSacramento Salon “This Changes Everything: City” on March 7, 2015.

She challenged the audience to imagine pulling all their possession out of their home and placing everything into one pile. What does our stuff tell us about each other and our past? Most importantly, what does it tell us about our future?

Beth points out that our stuff may bring us comfort and joy in the moment, but asks at what cost to our future.

Another Man’s Trash is Not Always Another Man’s Treasure

As Biomimicry Institute’s Executive Director, Beth isn’t primarily concerned with the accumulation of the stuff we surround ourselves with. Her true concern lies in the environmental impact of the production and discarding of our possessions.

She points out that the world population will reach 9.5-10 billion by 2050 with 1.8 billion new people entering the middle class in the next few decades alone. Currently, the United States middle class spends $21 trillion a year on what she calls “our” stuff, but quickly reminds us that this will increase as population rises over time.

Beth Rattner speaking at the TEDxSacramento Salon "This Changes Everything: City" on March 7, 2015 challenging us to question what's in our stuff?

Rather than focus on the amount of stuff we purchase and discard, she brings to light a simple question that often complicates (in a good way) the dialogue around consumerism. What is in our stuff?

Understanding the make-up of our possessions, the items we use in everyday life, including our mobile phones, disposable coffee cups, toilet paper, and blue jeans, is important in the imagining and reimaging our future. Such knowledge allows us to understand the impact that the production and destruction of our stuff has on the environment and our health.

Our Design Program and How Nature's Way is the Right Way

Beth reveals that there are fifty million man-made chemicals in the world. In the United States, 60,000-80,000 of these chemicals are used in everyday life, but only one percent is regulated. As a result, Beth states, “We understand the hazards of one percent of [these chemicals].”

We all live with toxic chemicals everyday, perhaps without consciously realizing it. She discusses that a concern for cities should be the impact of these chemicals “becoming a lot greater” when humans live in densely populated areas.

But, Beth makes the point that “We all live with tonic chemicals everyday, but we just don’t know what to do about it. We think that we have to choose between things that are beautiful and things that are safe. But, that’s a false choice.”

“We all live with toxic chemicals everyday, but we just don’t know what to do about it. We think that we have to choose between things that are beautiful and things that are safe. But, that’s a false choice.”

Beth believes that we have a design problem – nothing more, nothing less. The Biomimicry Institute where she works stresses the importance of nature in design. Nature has the answers that can and will transform our current and future innovations.

Biomimicry follows “Life’s Principles” that “instruct us to build from the bottom up, self-assemble, optimize rather than maximize, use free energy, cross-pollinate, embrace diversity, adapt and evolve, and use life-friendly materials and processes, engage in symbiotic relationships, and enhance the bio-sphere.” The whole point is to learn from and mimic nature – adapt to nature, rather than the other way around. 

Ask Nature: What We Can Learn from Nature

Here are some lessons we can use as blueprints to transfer nature's designs to improve our own design process. Log onto Biomimicry's "Ask Nature" to find out more!

-Adhesive: Collaboration between Northwestern University in Illinois and the Kensey Nash Corporation resulted in a new adhesive called “Geckel” made possible by applying the phenomenon called “contact splitting” that creates the dry adhesion strengths of gecko feet and the polymer of an amino acid called DOPA used by mussels to create a wet adhesive.

It is hoped that this “biomimetic hybrid material” will be used for bandages and transdermal drug-delivery patches as it is impervious to water, maintains adhesion over 1000 contact/release cycles, and easily removed when no longer needed.

-Water Proof Material: Nikwax Analogy is a waterproof fabric that mimics the “waterproofing system” and “breathability” of mammal fur. The outer layer of dense microfiber fabric deflects wind and rain, and the inner layer made of asymmetric filaments uses capillary action to move moisture away from the body. It is hoped that this “nature-inspired technology” will be used in clothing produced for harsh weather conditions.

Imagine the other improvements or inventions made possible though the lessons of nature that are adaptable to our lives!

Consumers As Part of the Solution, Not the Problem

If we have not yet heeded the cautionary tales of Silent Spring by Rachel Carson, An Inconvenient Truth, or the most recent This Changes Everything: Capitalism vs. The Climate by Naomi Klein, consider Beth’s advocacy for working with nature rather than against it.

Beth Rattner stressing the importance of consumer participation in sustainable design.

Such an approach is needed in our state of California. The golden state is experiencing the worst drought in its history leading Governor Brown to recently announce California’s first mandatory water reduction for businesses and residents. It is time to think about how the actions and designs of humans, especially large corporations and well-off communities impact such conditions. This speaks to Beth’s discussion on the growing middle class and its consumption habits.

Beth ultimately believes that consumers are the solution, not the problem. She asks us to take a few minutes everyday to sit in nature and observe. Observe how nature cooperates rather than competes for a healthy, thriving environment. She asks us to consider what might happen if companies and society both mimicked nature in this way.

What if companies cooperated rather than competed; what would our environment – our cities look like? Would this contribute to the health of the planet rather than the bottom line of a given company or the well being of one community over the other?

Such considerations will transform our designs, economic systems and approach to life. Don’t be afraid to let nature in — think outside the ‘big box retailer,’ and think inside the eco-sphere.

There are more AMAZING speakers to come at the upcoming TEDxSacramento conference “THIS Changes EVERYTHING” on June 12, 2015 at the Sacramento Community Center Theater. REGISTER NOW before tickets sell out!

Urban Design for Joy

Join us for our largest conference yet, TEDxSacramento2015, on June 12, 2015. Register today before space runs out.

By: Chris Brune

George Zisiadis is an interactive artist and designer who playfully reimagines the everyday. He inspires in those who touch his work new ways of seeing the world. His San Francisco-based studio produces work independently and in collaboration with brands and institutions.

“Through both guerrilla interventions and my public art work, I’ve focused on re-imagining mundane urban experiences into opportunities for joy.”

— George Zisiadis

George Zisiadis at the TEDxSacramentoSalon, "This Changes Everything: City," on March 7, 2015.

George wasn't always the urban design rebel we met on the TEDxSacramento stage at “This Changes Everything: City” at The Guild Theatre. He was once a self-proclaimed jaded New Yorker until he took a stroll in Manhattan's Central Park in the winter of 2005.

George's 'Ah-ha!' moment

Hungarian artist Christo Yavacheff and French artist Jeanne-Claude, known jointly as Christo and Jeanne-Claude, descended on Central Park in early January 2005. They employed an army of volunteers to help create a remarkable installation piece entitled The Gates that transformed the massive park with vibrant deep saffron-colored nylon fabric banners along its many miles of pathway.

For George, the same walk that he had done hundreds of times before was now a sublime experience. He found himself wandering for hours in a mesmerized state of awe. When reflecting over the transformative experience of the installation, George recalls a moment of epiphany.

“People spend millions of dollars to build giant ‘things’ in cities that serve no other purpose than to make people happy? That’s awesome!”

— George Zisiadis

He decided to seek out more experiments in urban imagination. George has dedicated his life to creating experiences, like The Gates, so others might be inspired, too. He set out to bring a sense of joy and wonder to the people who participate in urban spaces across the country.

Urban Inventions

George set out on his new path by making simple observations to add poetry to the everyday. He started asking questions like “maybe something more could go here, something more joyous?” He didn’t have to wait long until he found his first opportunity to experiment. His first project centered around the bike racks of New York City. It was his first in an ongoing series of installations that playfully re-imagined public space.

Musical Bike Rack - An urban intervention re-imagining the use of bike racks.

In George's mind, music (gongs) + the mundane (the ubiquitous NYC bike rack) = potential for a more human, emotional, and reflective experience. George summed up the whole experience in one simple truth, "Who doesn’t like hitting gongs?"

As adults we come to rely on routine. It’s experiences like the Musical Bike Rack that shake people out of their daily routines and give us permission to play. Simply put, George is creating experiences that punctuate the everyday urban landscape and remind us how to seek joy as a child might.

Mistletoe Drone

The introduction of the Amazon drone delivery concept presented George with an opportunity to, once again, inject some whimsy into an otherwise ordinary tool whose purpose was utilitarian in design. When the drone delivery stunt first took off, George said, "We can do better. How about a mistletoe drone?"

Mistletoe Drone - An urban intervention in San Francisco's Union Square in December 2013 designed to spread holiday cheer.

George was able to reach pedestrians in an urban setting without having to deploy a (semi)permanent installation. The drone itself wasn’t placed ‘on’ the urban landscape; it was placed ‘above’ the fray of busy holiday shopping. The experience was piloted to people instead of relying on pedestrians to make their way to where an installation was located. This added layer of mobility created an element of surprise that co-opted the passersby into participants.

The drone also illustrated how a relatively small execution can impact participants and onlookers in a deep and relevant way. George learned that he didn’t need to build an imposing physical structure to make a big impact on the public. A quadcopter, mistletoe, and some holiday cheer were all the ingredients necessary to spread joy that afternoon in San Francisco’s Union Square.

Pulse of The City

These early projects inspired George to tackle bigger issues in cities. There is a truth that comes into focus when we humans gather in increasingly dense space — we lose touch with our natural rhythms and become increasingly drone-like. George shared his solution to this unfortunate effect of city living. He asked himself, "Amongst the chaotic rhythms of the city, how can we connect people to the rhythms of their own bodies?" His answer to this question was realized in his installation Pulse of The City where participants' heartbeats are turned into music.

Pulse of the City - a public art installation that turns pedestrians' heartbeats into music. 

When visitors hold onto the handles, they hear their heartbeat layered over with custom music produced from their real-time pulse data.

Pulse of the City gave people the opportunity to stop and playfully reconnect with the rhythms of their bodies. The installation is another example of how George transformed the soundscape by adding joy to the maelstrom of noise endemic to city life.

Urban Imagination

George shared with us the elegantly simple ideas that eventually found their way into his book, Urban Imagination. It's a collection of fifty whimsical drawings that add a playful twist to everyday urban objects. Skyscraper ziplines, gumball parking meters, and disco ball traffic lights are just a few of the charmingly illustrated ideas that explore how to make cities more fun.

“For adults, Urban Imagination is a reminder of what it’s like to see the world through a child’s eyes. For children, it’s a validation of what they already know is possible.”

— George Zisiadis

Grass Bench - The first Urban Imagination concept turned into reality! Created for the San Francisco Exploratorium's night of Civic Hacking.

This series of sketches proved to be far more than the makings of a fantastic coffee table book. Those who thumbed through the pages of childlike crayon and color pencil drawings found that their own latent urban imagination had been ignited with the possibility of designing for joy.

Isn't it frivolous: Is urban art worth the cost of investment?

George introduces us to two very different cities with wildly different outlooks on function and design. The first city "Boring," as George calls it, is the type of place where overpass and stairwells are grey and empty — it's a familiar scene in most cities. George also introduces us to a city a few miles down the road that employs a fundamental difference in its approach to urban design. In this second city, a sterile, unremarkable, underpass can be re-imagined as a communal meeting place. But, is it worth the expense and effort?

Simple considerations at the design phase can result in urban spaces that are not only entertaining, but also profit centers for the municipality that commissions them. George returns to his formative experience with joy-centered design to substantiate this claim.

The Gates in Central Park is estimated to have attracted four million visitors during its fifteen day run. Those visitors that flocked to Manhattan from around the world paid for lodging, ate at restaurants, bought souvenirs from street vendors — you get the point. The taxes from these transactions fill city coffers, not to mention the extra dollars that find their way to the pockets of vendors and small business owners. It's estimated that The Gates installation was responsible for over $254 million in revenue; not bad for a bunch of colored sheets waving in the wind.

George adds some insight by saying, "...designing for function and designing for joy are not mutually exclusive." Embracing a joy-centered design ethos can indeed have a real world impact on the fortunes of cities and the individuals who live there.

George left us with a very simple question.

“We have a choice as a society. We can continue building and shaping our cities to be boring, or we can have more happy adventures — which would you rather live in?”

— George Zisiadis

He showed us how any idea, no matter how grand in scope or singular in focus can both effect how we shape our world through joyful design.

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For more examples of George Zisiadis' work and creative process, including his '100 Questions to guide any creative project,' visit his website.

Interested in learning about and sharing more ideas worth spreading? Register for the upcoming TEDxSacramento "THIS Changes EVERYTHING!" on June 12, 2015. Join thousands of fellow Sacramentans at the biggest TEDxSacramento conference ever!

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This City is Made for You and Me: How Millennials are Taking a Stake in Sacramento’s Future

By Lauren Herman

We all have a type. My type includes tall buildings, close neighbors, espresso, museums, libraries, and open public spaces at my fingertips; yes, the city. Regardless of the demographic or geographic difference, the one constant in my life has been the city.

I studied disciplines that shaped my professional life in Berkeley, the first home I built for myself was in Nairobi, my first travels aboard were to Managua, and my first exposure to urban life was Saturday afternoons at the downtown Sacramento library. I incorporated these cities into my sense of self through the trust and intimacy I gained with the movements and the people each city offered me.

Urban life is becoming increasingly attractive to other millennials – a generation born between 1980 – 2000, totaling one fourth of Americans, who are (re)claiming an urban lifestyle as their “American Dream.” This generation is paving the way for the American urban century. Sometimes deemed the generation that has “failed to launch,” even millennials living at home say they envision the city as their ideal home. [i]

With millennials supposedly storming the urban landscape, what influence do they have on the city, if any? Where do they want to take our cities?

Looking to Millennials – Reimagining Our City for You and Me

As a catalyst for discussion around the upcoming TEDxSacramentoSalon, “This Changes Everything: City” conference on March 7, 2015, three millennials, all Sacramentans, will be profiled in a new blog series about their role in one of the following fields in Sacramento: community activism, education, and art.

The individuals featured in this blog series are engaged in these different fields, but all strive to make their vision of our capital city a reality. Their acts, their commitment to their passions, make them extraordinary contributors to our city. Though often criticized for being overly optimistic dreamers, millennials exemplify the power of young engagement just like the Baby Boomer hippies of the 1960s dreaming of a new world in a decade of societal and political disillusionment. It’s time for millennials to turn our world upside down.

Urban theorist, Marshall Berman, was correct when he wrote about modernity by eloquently borrowing the language of Karl Marx stating “...‘all that is solid’ in modern life...‘melts into air’.” All that we know today, what we know as modern, is continually reimagined, redefined, and reinvented by the upcoming generations that precede those of the past. [ii]

This blog series will explore the civic engagement of a generation that is proving the city we know today will be gone tomorrow as time transforms how we see, engage, build, and live in urban spaces, as it always has and always will be. It is our right as a society and residences to collectively exercise participation in these processes of urbanization, to enforce the freedom to make and remake our cities and ourselves.

Just as you have taken the time to explore the streets, the structures, and the smells of your capital city, now is the time to get to know Sacramento through the stories of your fellow Sacramentans. Only then will trust and intimacy of the city be discovered through your resolve to find what is essential and meaningful to you and your neighbors – our Sacramento will be built for you and me.

References for Blog Post:

[i] Gallagher, Leigh. The End of the Suburbs: Where the American Dream is Moving. New York, New York: Portfolio/Penguin, 2013.

[ii] Berman, Marshall. All That is Solid Melts Into Air: The Experience of Modernity. New York, New York: Viking Penguin, 1988.

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