Gen Y share their inspiration from the CEO Summit: Sustainable design

Each of the five up-and-coming design leaders won a scholarship to attend the summit, sponsored by InterfaceNZ and Better by Design and facilitated by Intersect, a young professionals network. The scholarships were awarded to help develop talented individuals interested in sustainable design practices, and to further spread the ideas through their network of peers and Intersect.

Read here about the experiences, fresh ideas and the learnings they took away from each of the key note speakers.

They will further inspire even the most experienced of business and design professionals.

 

Michael Braungart

By Damon Stenhouse-White, Industrial Design Student, Unitec

““Prof Braungart appeared as a synergy of science genius, passion and benevolence. He delivers the Cradle to Cradle framework in a way that makes sense on every level of business and governmental design, and that is because it is so simple. We need to look at as many options as possible in a world that is inevitably changing – this is the design way.”

Click here to read more of Damon’s review of Michael’s presentation

 

Janine Benyus

By A. Idil Gaziulusoy, PhD in Sustainable Product/System Development, University of Auckland & Fisher & Paykel Appliances Ltd.

“Janine enthusiastically spoke of her method of approaching innovation problems. In a one hour speech, Janine took us on an odyssey of self-discovery through (re)discovery of nature for design concepts. Her main point was that organisms through millions of years of evolution and co-evolution have developed various methods to adapt to their environment - and that these strategies may be emulated by humans to produce sustainable innovations.”

Click here to read more of Idil’s review of Janine’s presentation

 

Lee Weinstein

By Robert Cardwell, Final Year Mechanical Engineering Student, University of Canterbury

“It is possible to exercise corporate responsibility and run a competitive business. In fact, it is possible to hold true to one’s ideals and values and run a competitive business. Consumers are capable of driving positive change. Lee Weinstein’s speech encouraged me to believe these things are true. Nike had to do something. They had to re-examine the principles on which they operated their business. They had to consider the farther reaching consequences of their actions – how they impacted more people than just their customers.”

Click here to read more of Rob’s review of Lee’s presentation

 

Ray Anderson

By Rebecca Asquith, Designer, Unless

“Fourteen years ago exactly to the day that Ray Anderson first spoke of his environmental vision to the new task force, he was now standing before us as the founder of one of largest carpet manufacturing companies in the world, well on its way up the “sustainability mountain” towards zero waste by 2020. Interface has proven that it is possible to win in the market place, without plundering the planet. It makes economic sense to become a clean company; it becomes more profitable.”

Click here to read more of Rebecca’s review of Ray’s presentation

 

Alex Steffen

By Jeff Vickers, PhD in Environmental Engineering, University of Auckland

“Alex Steffen issued a wake-up call to New Zealand: in a world looking for guilt-free affluence, New Zealand’s products are quickly becoming a guilty pleasure. Following on from the Prime Minister, who positioned New Zealand as a leader (in women’s rights, in our nuclear free stance, and in other areas), Steffen argued that New Zealand could be a model for the rest of the world. However, this status would not be easy to achieve – even with many clever people in the world today, sheep and air travel are not easy things to “redesign”.”

Click here to read more of Jeff’s review of Alex’s presentation

 

For a news story on how and why the whole CEO Summit inspired our scholarship winners, click here