I admit it: Every day, I arrive at our Berkeley offices and think, today is the day that I will blog. And then 6 p.m. rolls around, and the last thing I want to do is type on my keyboard some more. But today I promise to do better. I have a whole folder full of amazing projects that colleagues and peers are working on right now, and I pledge to write about a new one every day (okay, maybe every other day) until I run out. The first subject? My friend (and forthcoming ReadyMade contributor) Emily Pilloton, the managing editor of green design site Inhabitat, recently unveiled her new initiative, Project H Design, a charitable organization dedicated to humanitarian industrial design. In other words, design that actually makes a difference in the lives of people in need. Her first task? Raising $5,000 to buy 50 Hippo Rollers—wheeled barrels that transport water—for a group of 17 villages in the Kgautswane community of northeast South Africa. She’s taking donations here, and I know this project will be just the first in many successful, do-gooder efforts by Emily. Stay tuned.

Julia : Ideas We Wish We'd Thought Of, Design IQ, Reinventing X
February 20th, 2008