The following was originally published on the DesignMatters blog and recounts some of the experience on the Sustainable Lifestyles fellowship.  DesignMatters is a program at Art Center College of Design that enables students to pursue social impact through their work as designers.
Dave Foster (Advertising ’05) is a social innovation designer, focused on creating solutions for social and environmental benefit based on deep understanding of issues and communities in need.  His expertise is in social enterprise, sustainability and, increasingly, development and appropriate technologies.  He is the founder and editor of BoP Designer, a …

This post was originally published on BoP Designer
I’ve just recently returned from a trip to India as part of an UnBox Fellowship exploring sustainability in Auroville, near Pondicherry on the southeast coast.  Auroville is a sort of experimental utopian community founded in 1968, in an attempt to create a society without nationality, belonging to and driven by humanity as a whole.  Its priorities are on a mix of spirituality, sustainability and the ability to work as a harmonious society, open to anyone from around the world who will participate and contribute …

As soon as I arrived in Samode, I was welcomed by a group of friendly, smiling faces in front of a beautifully painted haveli. The rest of the Fellowship team were in the village, so I had to wait a little longer to see them. I was slightly anxious as they had arrived a few days earlier and I was conscious that the group dynamics would have already developed and was hoping my arrival would not unsettle it too much! The few days before my flight to Delhi I heard …

On the road here from Jaipur, I still couldn’t believe I was here. As I was observing the scenes through the car window, I saw a vehicle driving by in what was just the frame of a long truck. I began to think about this vehicle, which was not completed yet into a fully functioning lorry, but it was still being driven. I watched as we drove past piles of sand and what look like temporary shelters and large construction works along the main road. My observations then led me …

It’s interesting and coincidental for me to be born at a place as significant as the Himalayas, holy – spiritual and a habitat to the most diverse rich and everlasting flora and fauna. And moving to a new city the capital city where I have been brought up most of my life, was a shift. Not only I saw a connect with movement of population in search of jobs, development and a hope but a trend that came with no concern for the climate  – environment and since the city …

In order to break from all my philosophical ramblings I decided to make a list of a things that caught my attention during the various visits to facilities and interactions with Aurovillian professionals. Here it is:
1. EM – Stands for Effective Micro-Organisms. EM is a combination of useful regenerated micro-organisms that exist freely in nature and are not manipulated in any way. In fact they are pretty much the same bacteria as the ones used to make things like curd, dosa and alcohol. EM seems to be an environmentally sound and inexpensive solution with …

Let me warn you at the outset: this post is not really going to be about sustainability.
This blog is really about the experiment of Auroville. And while I normally love to launch straight into some esoteric, convoluted bilge, in this case a bit of background may be imperative:
Auroville is a spiritual city, devoted to the philosophy propounded by The Mother and Sri Aurobindo. It is based on the theme of the central unity of all mankind and had ideals of being an international city of the future housing more than 50,000 …

I’ve always been fascinated by the movement of buying and eating local, that seems to be synonymous with all green practices.
For me as a cook & food enthusiast, there is no arguing that local and seasonal food has earned its place – if not for anything else, just because it’s so much tastier & fun to buy & cook with. But I have not quite figured out the larger movement pro local sourcing.
One fellow put it quite thought provokingly:  ”If you compare two materials – a local recyclable plastic on …

I decided to break away from a chronological blog documenting the meanderings of our fellowship because as in most things, I seem to be thinking about this back to front. And as my fellow fellow bloggers are doing a great job of giving everyone context, I guess its alright.
I was sitting around trying to look intelligent and chat sociably with all the other fellows at the get-together last night when a charming young lady popped the question: “So what do you think? Is it possible? I mean your fellowship…can people …

Danish architect Bjarke Ingels presents his case for a ‘hedonistic sustainability’, a witty, playful approach towards a more relevant public architecture- one than enriches rather than diminishes our cultural experience by embracing themes of ecological/ political responsibility. “Sustainability should bring pleasure not pain”

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