Abstract
Sylvie and Joe like sustainable initiatives. They also like design. When they discovered an international design competition around 'Green' ideas, they found the perfect opportunity to merge their two passions together. Unfortunately, the competition deadline was only ten days from when they heard about it, and those ten days were the first of their Junior year at Olin. Undeterred, they devoted all their free time to discovering opportunities to improve environmental sustainability. After hours of defining values and generating ideas, the two realized that educating younger children in sustainable practices would create the most lasting impact. From their own experiences, they knew that theoretically understanding sustainability could be challenging, so they invented Seed: an interactive laboratory where K-12 students can explore green technologies and sustainable living approaches. Sixteen hours before the deadline, with the core idea finally in hand, the two consolidated everything into a graphical proposal and submitted it to the Japan Design Foundation just in time. Though the idea did not win, by submitting the proposal, Sylvie and Joe published their idea to an international community of industrial designers. After submitting the proposal, the two continued discussing the idea, and though it was never fully implemented, Seed sparked many discussions between engineering, education, and industrial design students. Sylvie and Joe applied knowledge they gained while inventing Seed to their later work on sustainable developments. Creating Seed started Sylvie and Joe down the path to their current work where they are developing LEED buildings and green consumer products.
