Sustainability. It’s one of the biggest debates today about how the business world is changing. In part, thanks to the creative disruption of digital innovation, today’s business leaders are beginning to make sustainability a true driver of who they are and what they do. From Nike’s amazing zero waste designs to IBM’s ‘Smarter Planet’, some of the world’s most valuable and respected brands are using sustainability to transform their role in the world. The ones that have got this right have got a lot out of it – reputation, trust, employee pride, consumer interest and a path to long term business value.

Questions answered :
Will tech companies be the next to rise to the challenge?

What are the risks?

What are the opportunities?

What role are digital creatives and innovators best positioned to play to make a big sustainability impact?

Creative entrepreneurs, start-ups and charities cheat themselves when they only focus on one side of a necessary duality: creativity and sustainable income. Instead each should harness the two.

The key to any creative process is a balance between structure and chaos. But how do you then make that ephemeral idea the core of a stable business?

With experience working for large arts organisations and currently supporting 60 creative start-up companies in IdeasTap’s Creative Space office, I will speak on the academic research and practical advice behind creativity theory and running a company that integrates creative chaos into a balanced business.

Questions Answered:
As a company director, am I managing creativity as best as I can?
Does my business model harness my/our creative process fully?
What supports one team member’s creativity or the entire team’s culture?
How do I review if I have the right structure and enough chaos?
What should I be evaluating if I’m good at business management?
What should I be evaluating if I’m good at creative chaos?
What “structure” options such as space, tools and personnel are available for cash-strapped creative companies?
How do I make this sustainable?
If it’s sustainable, how do I make my own/our creativity a credible, concrete brand?

This presentation will introduce participants to The White Building – London’s new centre for art, technology and sustainability and will be accompanied by artist case studies.

Questions Answered:
The presentation will discuss how the White Building can:

- Support, showcase and sustain the existing creative economy of the area, alongside international practice.

- Maintain the profile of the area as a leading creative cluster.

- Ensure art and artists are at the heart of future development in the area and the legacy of the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park.

- Engage local residential and school communities

>> People reuse and customise things, even if they do not always realise it.

>> Reusing is more effective than recycling and higher in the waste hierarchy but nobody works towards that.

>> Recycling is good
but works within the system that creates the problem: over-consumption.

>>Design goes open
and the roles of designer and user are merging.

These are the foundations of Design for Repurposing (DfR), a system that aims to:

1. Provide designers and users with proper design tools, cultivating democratic quality.

2. Create a digital space where users and designers can share and evaluate ideas.

3. Brand and communicate repurposing properly.

Questions Answered:
How can open design change human behaviour towards sustainability?