Sustainable Schools Conference Kingston

On February 5th, 2010 Kingston Council held first (and I hope annual) Sustainable Schools Conference in Kingston, which was hosted in the beautiful Lovelace Primary School. The conference brought together representatives from several Kingston schools, officers from London borough, and a great selection of community groups including Transition Town Kingston,  Groundworks and School Food Matters. The conference title “Ideas Sharing” sought to address different ways that Kingston community, local government and schools may help each other to becomes sustainable by year 2020 a goal that UK government seeks to achieve. OpenDoors Kingston was also there, which I was very honored to represent and about which I will speak later.

Community groups setting up

The conference was broad yet practical. The day  was split into two parts, presentations and workshops. I would like to briefly mention a few main ideas that have come across:

On the definition of term ‘sustainable development’ it has been noted that it is not just about economic but also social and spiritual development, it is ‘equity between groups of people, space and generations and future generations’.

The leading schools in ‘sustainability’ shared key issues and practices in becoming sustainable:

The need for passion, interest and drive from the principal and staff and ability to sustain the momentum.

To be successful ‘sustainability’ should be embedded in School Improvement Plan and Curriculum Plan and be delegated rather than being under supervision of one teacher or principal.

Involvement of the pupils in planning and decision making, through Student Council and Eco groups becomes pivotal for sustaining everyone’s enthusiasm and participation, as well as changing behavior.

Taking action in award schemes such as Eco-schools or Healthy schools helps schools to stay focused on their targets.

Doing a workshop with School Food Matters

It was noted that funding for creating change exists yets need to be sought and be planned for; while multiple partnerships, networking and ability to take risks may create greater opportunities than expected. A great example is a secondary school that was rebuilt as a result of the Building Schools for the Future program to be a community hub that includes multiple services to the local community including a sky bar where parents may purchase a cup of coffee after dropping their children off.

Listening to presentations

A wonderful message of the day was that schools use creativity in how they use resources and include sustainability topics into the curriculum:
re-used doors and computer tops in its new BSF building as tables and plant holders,
theme days such as Water Day,
and creating a wind turbine noise to be a symbolic school sound

Sustainable Schools National Framework was used as a reference point by schools as well as the council. It allowed schools to note their strengths as well as their weaknesses, and every school noted that there is definitely a space for improvement in each category.

These are very exciting early days for Kingston community and it’s schools to move forward with the sustainable agenda. One of the topics to be brought up often was the lack of space where all the information may be found or shared. OpenDoors Kingston is a project that has potential to fulfill such need. I developed it during the MA Design for Development course in Kingston University, in collaboration with Kingston Council and Transition Town Kingston. OpenDoors is an online platform that enables, motivates and supports both community and schools to become more sustainable through the eight doors which are based on Sustainable Schools National Framework.

The project is currently work in progress, and has several potential outcomes including a place where teachers and headteachers may find resources such as lesson plans to general documents from the government such as sustainability evaluation tools. It also may be a place where schools and community share their ideas and knowledge on topics of sustainability as well as form partnerships and projects around topics of the eight doors, or invite and participate in local sustainable events.

Display of OpenDoors Kingston

The potential for the platform is wide and I am currently looking for a web developer and designer to continue my work as well as funding opportunities. If you would like to learn more about the project, or are aware of any such opportunities please do contact me at ksiuxak[at]gmail[dot]com

I would like to thank Lovelace Primary School for its great hospitality, Matthew and Carlos from Kingston Council for putting the conference together, and all schools and community members that have taken part in it! I hope to see you next year, with a well developed product

Community project with ThinkPublic

What an amazing opportunity this was for me and other MA Design for Development students.

We volunteered with the public service design company ThinkPublic to work on a live project at Cambridge Estate,  YouCanKingston . ThinkPublic  and YoungFoundation were to perform a “scoping exercise [ for NHS Kingston ] into uncovering the health needs of the estate”. The solutions then to be co-produced with citizens to improve their health and to make the estate “a flourishing place to live”.

The photos are of the final stage in which ThinkPublic and we, KU volunteers will be involved in. In the first stage the awareness was brought to the public through bright logos painted on the walls of the buildings. In the second, community members were interviewed to what their general concerns are, what is their perspective on the health of the community, and what do they think can and should be improved. In the last stage, categories have been created and community members were then asked to specifically describe solutions to the issues identified in the previous stages, and what role they are to play if something is to change.

As you can see the tables were set out, and we were to speak to individuals who came there with the knowledge that they can talk and discuss their concerns. It was our job however, to not only listen, but try to steer them to think how these concerns can be resolved into solutions. I have spoken with two community members, and it is preventitive solutions that seem to be needed the most. An “Art class for elderly”, and “an internet cafe in the now abandoned gym” for everybody are the two ideas that I hope get to be discussed and become a reality.

Liani and a community member

Rao loved working with kids

John the internet champion, the only one with the "right mind" for the job

John making me laugh:)

Paul after an attempt of the community members teaching him to breakdance:)

Leaders of today: sustainability and design

For MA Design Show at Bargehouse our class is presented with a slot of four hours for a possible debate or discussion. The slot is in the morning from 9am to 12pm on thursday October 8th a day before the show’s private view.  We all agree that an inspirational speaker or discussion between couple of speakers would be a positive addition to the show and exploration of the course. We have a clean slate, who would we want to invite and who is available to come along? Its in the OXO Tower, so central London should be a destination accessible to many speakers. “If you don’t ask you don’t get” Anne reminds us from the recent Greengaged experience, and our minds open to all possibilities.

My mind moved from Papanek to Buckminster Fuller and Illich, and then began to think in terms of contemporary speakers.

Current list is ambitious but so is the goal of the designers’ on the course to create positive change, if we could bring in the few from the list, we will be looking forward to a lively and fulfilling debate :

Ezio Manzini – Professor of Industrial Design, Politecnico de Milano
Nicola Morelli – an associate professor at the School of Architecture and Design, at Aalborg University
Richard Buchanan – former Dean of the Design School at Carnegie Mellon
Victor Margolin – Dept. of Art History University of Illinois
Jane Bickerstaffe – director of Incpen, the Industry Council for Packaging and the Environment, UK
Helen Hughes – national adviser, voluntary and community sector, Improvement and Development Agency

Lucienne Roberts – author on design and co-founder of sans+baum
Michael Eavis – festival event business organizer, Glastonbury
Cameron Sinclair – co-founder of Architecture for Humanity
Ken Livingstone – British politician, environmentalist
Albert Tucker – from Twin Trading
Chris Sherwin – Forum for the Future
Valerie Casey – from Design Accord
Adam Werbach – CEO of Saatchi&Saatchi S.
Tim Smit – Eden Project
Ann Thorpe – Design Activism
Alice Rawsthorn – design critic of the international Herald Tribune
Bruce Mau – Bruce Mau Design
John Thackara - director of Doors of Perception

David Kester – chief executive of the Design Council
McDonough/ Dr. Braungaurt – Cradle to Cradle
Lynda Relph-Knight – Editor, Design Week
Eric Ryan and Adam Lowry – founders of Method, environmentally cleaning products
John Grant – Author of The Green Marketing Manifesto
Debra Szebeko – ThinkPublic
Rob Holdway – Giraffe Innovation
John Elkington – Founder of SustainAbility (pick)
Jonathan Chapman and Neil Gant – Authors of Designers, Visionaries and Other Stories: A Collection of Sustainable Design Essays
Stephen Bailey – cultural commentator
Jonathon Porritt – Founder Director of Forum for the Future
Alastair Fuad-Luke – itinerant sustainable design lecturer and writer
Slow Design
Bill Dunster – ZED Factory
Nabeel Hamdi – architect and author
Trevor Baylis – English inventor
“As they say, art is pleasure, invention is treasure, and this nation has got to recognise that. If they can spend a fortune on dead sheep and formaldehyde, then it can spend a bit more of that money on inventors.” Trevor Baylis, Wiki

Toy of the day:

James Galt and Company (galt toys)

Taking things lightly

Yes we talk about climate change, but how can it be presented as a pressing matter without being too daunting? Here is one of the creative approaches to the problem visualization from Chris Madden at Grinning Planet…

And the quote of the day : “I think God’s going to come down and pull civilization over for speeding”  – Steven Wright