RIVERFIRST Project Considered River's Needs in Minneapolis

"What if we looked at the river's needs first?" asked Sheila Kennedy, the architect and designer in a telephone interview. "Our thinking was what's good for the river has got to be good for people and economic growth, if it can be handled sustainably."

The RIVERFIRST Project, led by the Tom Leader Studio (TLS) and Kennedy & Violich Architecture, Ltd. (KVA MATx), was selected today as the winner of the Next Generation of Parks Design Competition for the Minneapolis Riverfront.

View of Knot Bridge and Scherer Park looking North

The sponsors, including the Minneapolis Park and Recreation Board and the Minneapolis Parks Foundation, along with creative partners the University of Minnesota College of Design and the Walker Art Center, called for proposals that developed "new opportunities for connectivity, sustainability, infrastructure, and public space" along a stretch of Mississippi riverfront through the heart of the city.

Invited design teams included STOSS of Cambridge, MA, the Ken Smith Group from New York, and Turenscape of Beijing. (You can see all finalists' presentations at: Minneapolis Riverfront Design.)

TLA/KVA's RIVERFIRST stood out, according to jury-member David Fisher, Superintendent Emeritus of the Minneapolis Park and Recreation Board.

"The team grounded their proposal in proactive outreach to the community, demonstrated extensive research, and posited several multi-layered solutions unique to these 11 miles of riverfront and the habitat, communities, businesses, infrastructure, and culture intrinsic to our region," Fisher said.

Some of the river reaches have been in bad shape for years, others started to make a comeback in the wake of regulations that cleaned up industrial practices along the river in the 1970s.

Still, there are impacts from melting snow and ice carrying street salts, homeowners using phosphate-laden dishwashing detergent in the watershed, and storm water runoff.

TLA/KVA and its partners conducted a comprehensive storm water management plan for the city, including opening up and day-lighting water in pipes that feed into the river, according to Kennedy of KVA.

The team then designed plantings to act as a natural water treatment facility, including wetland plants and trees that are native to the Upper Mississippi floodplain, such as weeping willows, cedars, and cottonwoods.

"We also wanted to change the way people interact with the river," said Kennedy. "Especially in reaches that had previously not allowed pedestrian access."

The need for greater connectivity, perspective, and access led to the creation of a series of rising berms providing an overlook of the river, and a mobile app and solar-powered Wi-Fi network called "River Talk," which allows for an interactive experience of the river's ecology along strategic points.

Real-time water monitoring from the Minnesota USGS website will be made available via energy-efficient illumination along Knot Bridge linking the Northeast Arts District with the proposed River City Innovation District and Downtown.

"The idea is to link physical bridge connections -- between the west and east sides of the river -- with connectivity to the digital world," Kennedy related.

"The Project is a big responsibility," she said. "We tried to take it seriously, but more to the point, we tried to imagine the river as a municipal ecosystem services provider."

What RIVERFIRST will provide when the project is completed, is reclamation of the river for the communities of Minneapolis, one that matches the needs its people with the river.

(Images courtesy of KVA MATx)

TerraCycle Upcycling Your Sharpie

Sharpie, Paper Mate and EXPO have formed a partnership with TerraCycle to repurpose used pens, markers and other writing instruments.

Terracycle is a New Jersey-based "upcycling" company that finds new ways to repurpose otherwise throwaway items like juice pouches, chip bags and the like.  According to the company, the partnership "will create the world's first program to collect and reuse pens, markers and other writing instruments while also helping raise funds for schools, charities, and non-profits nationwide."


Collection centers called "Writing Instrument Brigades" will be set up at participating locales, primarily in large corporations and schools where writing instruments are used most. For every writing instrument collected at a Writing Instrument Brigade collection center, two cents will be paid to a school, community group, charity or non-profit organization of the participant's choice. 


"Keeping one pen or marker out of a landfill may seem like a small contribution, but multiply that by the estimated $5 billion writing instruments sold in the U.S. each year and it is a big opportunity to reduce waste to landfills," said Ben Gadbois, President of Markers, Highlighters, Art and Office Essentials for Newell Rubbermaid Office Products, maker of Sharpie, EXPO and Paper Mate products.

The collected writing instruments will be dissembled and/or reprocessed to make new products.

TerraCycle is also working with other consumer goods manufacturers including 3M, Mars and OfficeMax, to collect and recycle their products.

Founded in 2001 by then 19 year old Princeton University freshman named Tom Szaky, TerraCycle started from Tom's dream to find way a new, more responsible way of doing business that would be good for the planet, good for people, and good for the bottom line.

Review: Design for a Living World at the Cooper-Hewitt

Imagine sending 10 top designers out into the world to make something. Now imagine you give them just three criteria: it has to be wonderful, desirable, and...sustainable.

That's exactly what the Nature Conservancy did to create what is now an exhibit at the Cooper-Hewitt museum in New York.

The designers, ranging from Yves Behar and Isaac Mizrahi to Maya Lin and Paulina Reyes from Kate Spade in New York were sent out to Nature Conservancy project sites from Maine to Alaska and from China to Bolivia. Each designer used materials found in the place and even employed local people to help fashion such useful objects as handbags, furniture, rugs, and jewelry.

Among my favorites from the exhibit: Maya Lin's red maple Terra Bench, Abbott Miller's FSC-certified wood chair, Mizrahi's salmon leather dress and matching shoes, Reyes'/Spade's wooden tiled handbag, and Ezri Tarazi's bamboo-totem wine racks and speaker tubes.

I also rather liked Hella Jongerius's failed experiment to find a design application for chicle latex from the Maya Forest of Mexico. You've got to admire her valiant efforts to transform this material, once the basis for most chewing gums, into a surface design element or even bonding material.

The exhibit is on view at the Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum in New York through January 4, 2010.

For more information, visit nature.org/design or Cooper-Hewitt.

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• 10 Awe-Inspiring, Sustainable Designs for a Living World (Slideshow) (treehugger.com)
• Design for a Living World now open at the Cooper-Hewitt (core77.com)
• Sneak Peek: Cooper Hewitt to Showcase Design Innovations with Local Materials (treehugger.com)
• Secret, Sexy Bamboo Speakers And More Hot Green Design (huffingtonpost.com)
• Design for a living world (ethanzuckerman.com)

Earth Day: Red Sox, Green Sox; Old Sox, New Sox

This just in from the Sports Desk of The Green Skeptic (aka boston.com): The Boston Red Sox will sport a special green logo on the left sleeves of their uniforms to mark Earth Day when they play the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim at Fenway Park on Tuesday.

Earth Day plans also include a pre-game presentation of an Environmental Merit Award to the Red Sox by officials from the US Environmental Protection Agency, the Red Sox said.

(The green logo shown at right will be worn only for this game, a Red Sox spokesman said.)

The award recognizes the Sox for environmental initiatives at Fenway, which include the installation of solar powered trash compactors around the park and the installation of solar panels that will soon help heat water at the park, the club said. (The latter is part of $600,000 initiative to increase the city's solar energy output 50-fold by 2015, according to an earlier article in the Globe.)

EPA administrator Stephen L. Johnson and John H. Adams, founding director of the Natural Resources Defense Council, are scheduled to take part in a ceremonial first pitch, the Red Sox added.

In September, the Sox, in partnership with the Natural Resources Defense Council, announced a five-year plan to bring green practices to Fenway Park; the plan is scheduled to culminate in 2012 in time for Fenway's 100th anniversary celebration.
(By Chris Reidy, Boston Globe staff)

Innovation: Printing Green from Blogs and Docs

Fred Wilson pointed me to this new widget I've just added to my blog (see bottom of right sidebar) that will help you print or email pages from The Green Skeptic in a way that will save paper. Of course, not printing it at all will save even more.

As Fred described it in his post today: "It's called the ECO-SAFE merit badge. But I call it my blog printing widget. From it, you can email this page, email a pdf of this page, or download a pdf of this page. It's goal is to reduce the amount of paper that is wasted printing blogs."

Find out more at: ECO-SAFE.com

For the past few months I've also been beta-testing a program called GreenPrint World that allows you to reduce the number of pages you print when printing documents. It scans the pages before sending them to your printer and highlights extraneous pages or pages with very little print suggesting you may want to remove them from the print job. It also creates PDFs with one click.

The extra step is a bit annoying when trying to print that document on the fly between meetings, but I've already saved 103 pages or $10.40 since installing the program. And having a few extra clicks to make before printing has definitely made me more conscious of what I am printing.

(I do wish GreenPrint World allowed you to reduce the size of the document with one click like you can in Microsoft Word's "Print Preview" function. That would help save that widow on the last page so she doesn't take up an entire sheet of paper!)

Find out more about GreenPrint World and download the latest version of the program at: printgreener.com

Innovation: Bug Labs' Open-Source Modular Gadget, Endless Possibilities

Silicon Alley Insider reports today that Bug Labs is now open for business, taking orders for its new open-source modular unit on its Web store, albeit without the WiFi unit.

Bug Labs was the darling of CES and featured on The Big Idea with Donny Deutsch, where founder Peter Semmelhack got to meet with bloggers on the bus and pitch their product.

It's a cool product, known as the "Bug," a build-your-own mobile gadget platform.

"The Bug," according to Silicon Alley Insider, "is basically a Lego kit for mobile coders: Mix-and-match up to four modules like LCD screens, GPS, a digital camera, etc., and write whatever software you want. A base unit costs $299; an all-in starter kit with motion sensor, GPS, LCD touchscreen, and 2-megapixel digital camera costs $549.

"The company is initially targeting hobbyists and prototypers -- both tiny markets. But Bug Labs also hopes some industries might figure out how to use the Bug as a basis for commercial devices -- and help provide backers Union Square Ventures and Spark Capital a return on their investment."

I've been interested in the Bug since last fall when I first learned about it from Brad Burnham at USV. As he described it to me I envisioned all sorts of cool uses for it in the field -- for conservation, microfinance, and global climate change monitoring.

Imagine being able to build a device on the go for whatever need you had:

Want to map sacred sites and conservation lands in Outer Mongolia? Snap on the GPS unit, take pictures and positioning, and upload data about what's found on the site.

Doing due diligence on a small MFI? Use the Bug's wireless function to tap into your records back in the office.

Think sea level is rising on your remote Pacific island and need to track changes over time for adaptation models? I bet you can do that with Bug.

The only thing missing is a remote sensing module that can gauge temperature changes, barometric pressure, soil types and temps, and other indicators. But that may come with demand or a really good hacker.

Anyway, I'm excited about the possibilities here. If and when the price comes down, this gadget could have all sorts of applications in the field.

I'll be meeting with founder Peter Semmelhack in a couple of weeks and will try to explore this line of thinking further.

Clean Tech: Greener Gadgets Design Competition

From GreenBiz.com

The promoters behind the upcoming Greener Gadgets Conference kicked off a design competition last week seeking innovations in greener electronics.

Design firms, up-and-coming designers and students are encouraged to explore gadgets that address energy, carbon footprint, health and toxicity, lifecycle, social development and new materials.

The main thrust of the contest is the minimization of the environmental impact of consumer electronics in areas such as materials, labor, assembly, packaging, transportation, retailing, use and disposal, among others. Entrants will be judged on innovation, clarity of design, originality, form and presentation by representatives of Greener Gadgets and partner Core77, an industrial design website.

Inhabitat and Marc Alt + Partners will present the Greener Gadgets Conference being held Feb. 1 in New York City. The deadline to enter the contest is Jan. 27. One grand prize entry, earning $2,500 in cash, and two runner-ups, each earning $1,000, will be showcased at the conference.

To enter the design competition, visit http://www.core77.com/competitions/greener_gadgets.asp.

Innovation: 13 Days Left to Give One, Get One XO Laptop Per Child

Only 13 days left to give an XO laptop to a child somewhere in the world and get one for your child -- or to give away to someone needy in your neighborhood. This is a great idea I've blogged about before.

One learning child. One connected child. One laptop at a time.

The mission of One Laptop Per Child (OLPC) is to empower the children of developing countries to learn by providing one connected laptop to every school-age child. In order to accomplish our goal, we need people who believe in what we’re doing and want to help make education for the world’s children a priority, not a privilege. Between November 12 and November 26, OLPC is offering a Give One Get One program in the United States and Canada. During this time, you can donate the revolutionary XO laptop to a child in a developing nation, and also receive one for the child in your life in recognition of your contribution.

Find out more: One Laptop

Clean Tech: Nanosolar Cells, or What the...?

A friend of mine invoked Warren Buffett in a comment on an earlier post about nanotechnology on this blog some time ago, and I'm straying out of my Warren Buffett territory with this one. In other words, I don't really understand this stuff enough to invest in it, but it's cool.

Now a new paper begins to explain nanotechnology's potential applications in the solar arena:

Researchers at Harvard University have made solar cells that are a small fraction of the width of a human hair. The cells, each made from a single nanowire just 300 nanometers wide, could be useful for powering tiny sensors or robots for environmental monitoring or military applications. What's more, the basic design of the solar cells could be useful in large-scale power production, potentially lowering the cost of generating electricity from the sun.

Each of the new solar cells is a nanowire with a core of crystalline silicon and several concentric layers of silicon with different electronic properties. These layers perform the same functions that the semiconductor layers in conventional solar cells do, absorbing light and capturing electrons to create electricity.

To make the cells, Charles Lieber, a professor of chemistry at Harvard University, modified methods he'd previously used to make nanowires that could serve as sensors or transistors. He then demonstrated that his solar cells can power two of his earlier nanowire devices, a pH sensor and a set of transistors.

"This paper provides the very first example of using a single silicon nanowire for harvesting solar energy," says Zhong Lin Wang, professor of materials science and engineering at Georgia Tech. He calls Lieber's work "breakthrough research in the field of nanotechnology."

This is wild stuff. And something to watch, even if we don't yet understand it.

See the story in Technology Review

Here's a link to Lieber's Paper

Photo credit: Charles Lieber, Harvard University, "a cross section of silicon nanowire that converts light into electricity. The image has been colored to highlight the functional layers of the device. Each layer is made of silicon modified with another material that gives it distinct electronic properties."

Clean Tech: Wind Some, Lose Some

Why do people hate wind farms?

Sure they are huge; the turbines have a large footprint, and may even chop up a few birds. But they also generate a heck of a lot of power, and are comparatively free from negative environmental impacts.

From a design perspective the sleek white towers and aerodynamic blades seem, well, elegant and forward-looking.

It's clear that opinions about wind farms, however, blow whichever way the wind does.

When I was visiting some friends in northern New York late in the summer, I learned about objections to the St. Lawrence Windpower project, a project of ACCIONA SA (Other OTC:ACXIF.PK). Even my friends don't want it and speculated about graft and insider deals going on behind the scenes. (I couldn't corroborate any of the latter.)

The project is supported by many small, family farmers in the area as a source of additional income. Objections stem from many weekenders and locals who claim the farms will spoil their viewsheds, interfere with migratory bird patterns, create excessive ambient sound -- there are even some outrageous claims that wind turbines cause cancer or sterility.

Who's right? It's hard to say.

There seems to be little evidence that birds are victims of wind turbines and, as for the other claims, the jury is out on whether turbines or transformers can lead to physical ailments beyond certain setbacks.

But the debate keeps getting more charged.

This week, two developments speak to the complicated business of wind farms. And, for those of us who want the US economy to fully embrace alternatives, it's a one-two punch between China and our own backyard(s).

On the one hand, China National Offshore Oil Corporation (CNOOC) announced plans to venture into renewable energy with the first off-shore wind farm in China. The project will be situated 37 miles from shore, in the Bohai Bay, home of a significant part of the company's oil production, according to CNOOC president Fu Chengyu.

It's a welcome move by CNOOC (NYSE:CEO), which needs to diversify beyond oil, something also much needed in a country where cleaner growth is a top priority of its leaders. And there will likely be more of a push for such clean tech moves in China in the wake of the pending environmental embarrassment of the 2008 Beijing Olympics.

Why offshore? Offshore wind generation is more expensive, but has greater capacity. On land, siting is critical; you need enough open space, unobstructed wind patterns, and minimal interference by the natural or built environments. On the open water, it is easier to capture sustained, higher wind speeds; there less surface resistance, especially in deep water.

But on sea as on land, it turns out, you still get a "Not In My Back Yard" (NIMBY) reaction.

This week in Massachusetts, the Cape Cod Commission denied Cape Wind's application to bury electric cables in Nantucket Sound. The company needs to lay the cables on the Sound floor to connect its proposed 420-megawatt offshore wind farm to the state power grid.

Cape Wind plans to challenge the Commission's decision; the Commission said it did not have enough information to make a decision. The proposed wind farm will consist of 130 GE 3.6 megawatt wind turbines, capable of supplying most of the electricity needed in Cape Cod, Martha's Vineyard, and Nantucket combined.

So what's holding it up? Although the farm will be located more than 5 miles away from the Cape Cod coast, the turbines will stand -- from blade tip to water's surface approximately 440 feet -- and the transmission lines connecting the project to the grid crosses land controlled by state and local authorities.

Among those who object to the project: Senator Ted Kennedy, who along with other residents, claims he will see the wind farm from his coastal complex. Some extreme environmental groups also object to the project, on the grounds that migratory bird and sea life patterns may be disrupted.

Supporters, among them even some green groups, posit that the benefits outweigh the losses, among them renewable energy, improved air quality, lower electricity bills, and added security and reliability for the Northeast power grid. And even Audubon has discounted the impact on birds.

A recent global wind mapping project may help guide where to site wind farms for maximum return in the future. But what happens when a Nantucket Sound or the St. Lawrence Seaway makes the top of the list?

That question is a complicated one, and it often involves some big, influential neighbors.

But the larger question is do we want to invest in alternative energy or do we want to continue to rely on foreign oil, domestic coal, and other polluting sources?

With oil flirting with $90, it seems imperative to put our objections to rest and start turning ill-winds into gains.

Innovation: Hacking Philanthropy Sessions, Hosted by Union Square Ventures

Imagine a room packed with a ton of brain power, knowledge, and expertise from the world of venture capital, technology, social change, and philanthropy and you've some idea what I walked into yesterday up at Columbia's Casa Italiana.

Brad Burnham, Fred Wilson, and Andrew Parker of Union Square Ventures -- the Three Tenors of New York's Silicon Alley -- brought together an illustrious gang for a day to talk about "Hacking Philanthropy," or how to bring philanthropic pursuits into the 21st century.

The participant roster was an all-star cast, including Charles Best from DonorsChoose.org, Premal Shah from Kiva.org, nattily attired Craig Newmark from Craig's List, Graham Hill of Treehugger.com, Red Hat and Lulu founder Bob Young, Dick Costolo, co-founder of Feed Burner, Victoria Vrana from Venture Philanthropy Partners, Tom Watson of Changing Our World, my new colleagues from Ashoka, Sushmita Ghosh and Leslie Crutchfield (whose new book, Forces for Good should do for non-profits what Jim Collins' Good to Great did for the private sector), Meetup.com Founder Scott Heiferman, Tom Reis from the estimable Kellogg Foundation (the only old guard institution represented), Jason Paez from the youth-centric start-up Party 4 A Purpose, Ashoka Fellow and Idealist founder Ami Dar, and even newly anointed MacArthur genius Saul Griffith of SQUID Labs. Quite a powerful group. (Not to mention we were joined at lunch by Maya Lin, who gave us an early look at her latest work in progress.)

The collective power of the group was exemplified by the conversation, which ranged from the potential for lightweight web services to increase the efficiency, reach, and effectiveness of philanthropy to wrestling with real-life business process issues. For eaxample, how to help Kiva close the gap between the numbers of on-line lenders versus certified microlending institutions in the field or why DonorsChoose, which currently focuses on putting school teachers in need with donors, could extend its reach to include other projects and pursuits.

For me, this event was timely. I have long been concerned about the state of philanthropy, among them: 1.) big institutions are so wedded to process and priority setting that they forget it's not about what we're selling to donor-investors but about what they are buying, 2.) that traditional philanthropy is still perceived as old fashioned, inefficient and stodgy, 3.) that, in fact, perception is reality, and 4.) that we risk losing the potential for catalyzing the network effect because we're focused on the wrong things. I could go on, and so could have this group.

It was a lively dialogue and, hopefully, just the beginning of an ongoing conversation among the participants. For now, kudos to the USV gang for bringing this group together. I have the impression it could be the start of something remarkable. Perhaps the full impact of our conversation yesterday will surface down the road and we'll be able to point to this session as a catalyst.

Social Entrepreneurs: Global X Interviews blueEnergy Founder

Global X continues his series of short video interviews with social entrepreneurs. This time, Mathias Craig, one of the founders of blueEnergy, which provides low-cost, sustainable solution to the energy needs of marginalized communities through the construction, installation and maintenance of wind turbines and hybrid wind and solar electric systems.

Social Entrepreneurs: Let there be light, Sam Goldman & d.light design

Global X on social edge features an interview with Sam Goldman of d.light design who is launching a start-up to provide LED lighting to the poorest of the poor to replace dangerous and noxious kerosene lamps.

Also, read Sam Goldman's blog: Let there d.light!



D.lightful!

Blogging & Media: Discovery Hugs TreeHugger

Discovery Communications acquired TreeHugger.com last week in an attempt to build its green new media offerings on the cusp of launching its Planet Green channel.

Discovery paid an estimated US$10M for the site, which "claims 1.4 million unique visitors a month and more than 50 writers around the world blogging about green news and products," according to the Washington Post.

TreeHugger is Discovery's first acquisition under chief executive David Zaslav, who began in January and is shifting resources into new-media products as part of "a housecleaning and reorganization that will end up cutting at least 25 percent of the company's workforce and closing the Discovery stores."

Nick Aster, one of the founders of TreeHugger, who now produces the Triple Pundit blog, wrote that the acquisition helps TreeHugger meet its goal of becoming "a real media presence and actually play a real role in 'mainstreaming' the basic principals of an ecologically conscious lifestyle."

Some of the principals, including Founder Graham Hill and COO Ken Rother, will continue to be involved. Certainly it will extend the reach of TreeHugger's audience (read more from Graham Hill.)

Personally, I've always found TreeHugger a bit cloying and precious, in spite or because of its award-winning design, my "booster alarm" sounds too often when reading its posts. (For more a more insightful critique of TreeHugger, see Bottleman's review.)

Still, it's a remarkable turn for the site, which started only three years ago. It certainly points to the growth in this space. What will this mean for green blogging and green lifestyle reporting? Only time will tell.

Social Entrepreneurs: Games for Health Competition

I've been interested in the concept of using video games to explore solutions to social problems since the mid-90s, when some colleagues and I were exploring ways to use video games to do scenario thinking around the challenges of biodiversity conservation and complex planning.

Games for Change, led by Suzanne Seggerman, is one of the innovators in this space that has become a leader in expanding the platforms into a variety of social arenas, from education to climate change. They have their own (or associated?) competition happening: Games for Health.

Now Changemakers, an initiative of Ashoka, in partnership with the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, is seeking creative solutions that merge computer and video games with health and health care.

Why Games Matter: A Prescription for Improving Health and Health Care is a new competition designed to attract game developers from around the world into this emerging area.

All competition finalists will go to Baltimore, Maryland in May 2008, to present at the Changemakers Change Summit held in conjunction with the RWJF-sponsored "Games for Health" Conference.

Submit your entry by September 26, 2007 3:00 pm EST (21:00 GMT) (Requires sign-up.)

Read the current entries: Games for Health

(Disclaimer: While I am joining Ashoka in September, I have no direct affiliation with Changemakers.net or its programs.)

Innovation: Worldmapper Ecological Footprint Map

Worldmapper, a collection of world maps, where territories are re-sized on each map according to the subject of interest, has developed an "ecological footprint" map showing the area needed to support a population’s lifestyle.

Variables include consumption of food, fuel, wood, and fibers. Pollution, such as carbon dioxide emissions, is also counted as part of the footprint.

No surprises here: The U.S., China, and India have the largest ecological footprints.

Worldmapper offers a caveat: "Without knowing population size we cannot understand what this means about individuals’ ecological demands. Large populations live in China and India. In both territories resource use is below the world average. The per person footprint in the United States is almost five times the world average, and almost ten times what would be sustainable."

Check it out: Worldmapper Ecological Footprint

Also, there are 366 maps to choose from...have fun, poke around...check out the Botanical Gardens map or the map of Population or Access to Electricity.

The world as you've never seen it before, indeed.

Social Entrepreneurs: TOMS Shoes - Buy One Pair, Give a Kid Some Shoes

The other day, Seth Godin pointed us to TOMS Shoes, an innovative shoe company with a social cause: Buy One Get One

“Inspired by a traditional Argentine shoe and challenged by continent’s poverty and heath issues, I created TOMS with a singular mission: To make life more comfortable,” says Blake Mycoskie, founder of TOMS "Shoes for Tomorrow."

For every TOMS shoe sold, the company sends a pair to a child in need. It's that simple.

TOMS was born in 2006 by Blake Mycoskie out of a commitment to produce stylish, comfortable, and practical footwear while improving the lives of children around the world.

Available in eighteen colors and combinations for both men and women, TOMS debut collection is inspired by Alpargatas, the trusted utility shoe of Argentine workers.

“I was overwhelmed by the spirit of the South American people, especially those who had so little,” Mycoskie says. “And I was instantly struck with the desire – the responsibility – to do more.”

The shoes are composed of high quality, durable materials including lightweight, breathable canvas, resilient soles and soft leather in soles for maximum comfort.

After losing on the reality show, "The Amazing Race," Blake Mycoskie "put his life on hold and took a well deserved extended vacation," according to a press release on TOMS web site. A whirlwind tour of South America ended in Argentina, where Mycoskie "immersed himself in Argentine culture: sailing, tango, competitive polo. Nice life.

But Mycoskie soon "became aware of the difficulties of the impoverished people in Argentina. He was challenged emotionally as he visited villages without fresh water and where few, if any, of the children had shoes. The lack of basic needs contributed to many health issues, infections, and in the most extreme circumstances, even death."

So, he came up with the idea to found a shoe company and give back by sending shoes to children from families who can't afford them. Last October, he returned with a bunch of volunteers to distribute 10,000 pairs of shoes.

Check out TOMS Shoes, enter their "design a shoe" contest, and buy a pair online at: TOMS Shoes

More on Blake from TIME Magazine.

And an interview: Quick Stop Questions

Innovation: Design for the Other 90 Percent

I'm looking forward to getting to New York to see the Cooper-Hewitt's "Design for the Other 90%" show, which runs through September 2007. The show features many of the design solutions, such as the Life Straw and others, that we've featured in the past in The Green Skeptic.

The brainchild of curator Cynthia E. Smith, Design for the Other 90% opened in May and will close on 23 September.

Here are some excerpts from the exhibition web site:

Of the world’s total population of 6.5 billion, 5.8 billion people, or 90%, have little or no access to most of the products and services many of us take for granted...Design for the Other 90% explores a growing movement among designers to design low-cost solutions for this “other 90%.”

...Designers, engineers, students and professors, architects, and social entrepreneurs from all over the globe are devising cost-effective ways to increase access to food and water, energy, education, healthcare, revenue-generating activities, and affordable transportation for those who most need them...

...More recently, designers are working directly with end users of their products, emphasizing co-creation to respond to their needs. Many of these projects employ market principles for income generation as a way out of poverty. Poor rural farmers become micro-entrepreneurs, while cottage industries emerge in more urban areas...

Some designs are patented to control the quality of their important breakthroughs, while others are open source in nature to allow for easier dissemination and adaptation, locally and internationally.

Encompassing a broad set of modern social and economic concerns, these design innovations often support responsible, sustainable economic policy. They help, rather than exploit, poorer economies; minimize environmental impact; increase social inclusion; improve healthcare at all levels; and advance the quality and accessibility of education.

...Design for the Other 90% demonstrates how design can be a dynamic force in saving and transforming lives, at home and around the world.

For more information, visit the Cooper-Hewitt web site: Design