This year’s Zero Waste Conference took a look at the crucial impact of design on our waste and our economy. A dynamic mix of people asked some hard questions, and found some good answers, about how we make our stuff and what happens when we’re done with it.

We heard from expert speakers on behavior change and product lifecycle design, including Bridgett Luther, noted environmentalist and President of the Cradle to Cradle Products Innovation Institute and found out how we can best deal with organics and wood, and improve the design of products and packaging.

At this hands-on event participants tweeted their ideas, which appeared on a Twitter Photo Mosaic (a generative animation wall from crowd-sourced photos and tweets) throughout the day and dropped in on a real-time design challenge, where three teams raced to re-invent an everyday item with zero waste as a goal... a sofa.  

The three teams were led by architect Michael Green (The Mobius Strips); designer Marten Sims (Octopus Spectacular); and SFU business professor and environmental engineer Stephanie Bertels (The Freshly Baked Cookies).   The Design Challenge airs on Shaw TV Cable 4 on Saturday, November 17, 5pm, Sunday, November 18, 3pm. Go to the Design Challenge  for more details on the teams and their productions.

Visit our Presentations and Videos page to take in some of the messages. If you participated in the conference, we'd like your feedback.