Sustainability Projects

• Green Week 2010
  Sustainable Pratt 
• Green Week 2009
  Sustainable Pratt
• Humanitarian Product Design
  Project H
• Pratt Students Collaborate with Guyanese artisans 
  The Guyana Project
• New Sustainable Publication at Pratt
  Sift Journal
• Pratt Students rally in largest Single Day of Action in World History
  Pratt Institute Chapter of NYPIRG

Green Week 2010

Sustainable Pratt

Green Week 2010 kicked off with a Bike Workshop, Department of Transportation Helmet Giveaway, and afternoon bike ride as well as a Clothing/Material Swap and several films and presentations. Other events included the FIPSE Grant Recipients' Symposium, an AIC Panel discussion on methodologies used to teach sustainability, a musical performance by Flying Duo, and an Urban Green Council and LEED seminar with several topics including opportunities for young building professionals to develop a career through sustainable practice. On Thursday, New York Public Interest Research Group presented Brooklyn-based filmmaker Josh Fox to screen clips from his film "Gasland." The week of events culminated with a panel discussing Natural Gas Drilling. View pictures from the event in the slideshow at the top of this page!

Green Week 2009

Sustainable Pratt

Green Week 2009 began with a Department of Transportation free helmet give away and a solar powered musical performance from Solar Punch. Among the events were a panel discussion from Design Green Now on the greening of consumer products and a lecture on LEED architecture from the design firm FXFOWLE with a facilities manager from the Audubon Society. Finally, anti-consumer activist Reverend Billy of the Church of Life After Shopping hosted a climactic screening of his documentary, "What would Jesus Buy?" Check in for updates on the scheduling of an equally memorable Green Week 2010.

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Humanitarian Product Design

Project H

The New York City chapter of Project H was established in August 2009, coinciding with the launch of the Learning Landscape math playground project. The team of four chapter heads, including Design Fellow Heleen de Goey from Eidnhoven, Holland, led the Learning Landscape project and completed the pilot installation in January 2009 in Uganda. Their newest project is Empowerment through Food, a program that combines teaches multiple subjects (ecology, health, and vocational skills) through the growing, harvesting, and consumption of local and organic produce. Chapter head Kristina Drury is a recent Pratt Industrial Design Masters graduate who is also involved with CSDS and the Design Incubator. View the website to see how you can get involved.

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Pratt Students Collaborate with Guyanese artisans

The Guyana Project

Eleven Pratt Industrial Design students traveled to Guyana in June 2009 to develop a product line in close collaboration with indigenous Wai Wai weavers and the artisans at the Liana Cane Factory in Plaisance, Guyana. They designed furniture and Lighting from rapidly renewable vines, in the hope that the sale of these products will contribute to the ability of the Guyanese people to make a sustainable living from their rain forests. Their work began with a trip to the bush along the Pomeroon river to harvest materials and ended with a meeting with President Bharrat Jagdeo to discuss the sustainable future of Guyana. The project was organized by Pratt professor Rebecca Welz and Patty Johnson, creator of the NorthSouth Project and an innovator in integrating craft and mass production into socially responsible business models.

In the winter of 2009 an exhibition and product launch will be scheduled at Design Within Reach. Students are shipping their prototypes back to New York and preparing for the exhibition, creating a collective identity and a documentation of their journey and work. Design Within Reach (DWR) is a design retailer with a mission to carry high quality design objects while also advancing discussion about contemporary issues in design through events, newsletters and conferences.

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New Sustainable Publication at Pratt

Sift Journal

Sift Journal is Pratt Institute’s first renewable publication about sustainable design written by interior, architecture, graphic design, and industrial design students. The publication will feature commentaries, interviews, and editorials on student and faculty work relating to environmental issues, and feature specific projects and events. It will exhibit a broad range of artwork relating to environmentalism, biomimetics, permaculture, and sustainable development in the arts.


Sift Journal Philosophy: “We are a group of design students starting to investigate sustainable design by leading an open conversation with the rest of Pratt. That conversation is then broadcast here, as a sifted cohesive commentary. Through this exchange we will create a common language for interior, architecture, industrial, and graphic design students. By exposing current sustainable practices and designs Sift Journal will aid you in developing a more maintainable design process.”

Write Noura Salem at siftjournal@gmail.com by November 1st to submit.

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Pratt Students rally in largest Single Day oF Action in World History

Pratt Institute Chapter of NYPIRG

On October 24th, 2009, more that 5,200 events in 181 countries showed our leaders across the globe that we, as world citizens, demand ambitious, fair, and binding global climate policies that will get the carbon dioxide in the atmosphere back to 350 parts per million (we are currently at 387ppm). If we do not work together to reach this goal, we will see more extreme weather, spreading of diseases, famines, and droughts, not to mention billions upon billions of dollars of infrastructural damage to cities around the world.

The New York Public Interest Research Group (NYPIRG) chapter at Pratt Institute helped to recruit participants for the 350.org rally in Times Square. Over 60 Pratt students signed up to attend to the event. Many notable people were there, including the founder of 350.org and accomplished author, Bill McKibben, and Mike Pratt, the Chair of the Board of Trustees of Pratt Institute. Against a backdrop of three jumbotrons streaming videos and photos from some of the thousands of events around the world, speakers explained that time is running out. This day of action is part of the lead up to the international climate meeting on December 7th in Copenhagen.

These events generated so much media coverage, that at one point over the weekend, climate action events were the top story (simultaneously) on CNN, The New York Times, Le Monde, Google News, and many many more around the globe. Over 19,000 photos of worldwide actions have been submitted to Flickr so far, see them all at http://www.flickr.com/photos/350org/sets/
For more info about how to get involved, please call the NYPIRG office at 718-636-3498, or email at pratt@nypirg.org.

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