What's Your Carbon Footprint?

Carbon footprint is a term that has come into more common usage in the last decade. What does it mean? Let’s take a closer look.

Carbon footprint refers to the amount of carbon dioxide and other carbon compounds emitted due to the consumption of fossil fuels by a particular person, group, event, product or organization.

Typically, carbon footprint refers to the amount of greenhouse gases, especially carbon dioxide, released into the atmosphere by a particular human activity. Carbon footprint is usually measured as tons of CO2 emitted per year. This number increases when you add CO2-equivalent gases, such as methane, nitrous oxide and other greenhouse gases.

Consumption of fossil fuels and electricity play a large role in determining your carbon footprint.

How to Calculate Your Carbon Footprint

Your individual carbon footprint can be affected by many factors. Fossil fuel use and electricity consumption play a major role in your carbon footprint. Online calculators help in providing rough estimates based on factors such as:

• size of your household
• efficiency of appliances
• how much you drive or fly
• what you eat
• how much you recycle

While this is an approximation and not perfect, this can give you a good way to measure your activities and thus know how much CO2 you generate via these activities and and to figure out steps you can take to reduce your carbon footprint.

You can estimate your carbon footprint using these tools:
https://www.carbonfootprint.com/calculator.aspx
https://www3.epa.gov/carbon-footprint-calculator/

How can I reduce my carbon footprint?

Many daily activities such as electricity usage (home energy), car driving (transportation) and trash disposal (waste) all cause greenhouse gas emissions and contribute to your household's carbon footprint.

You can reduce your carbon footprint through your personal choices such as:

• driving more-efficient vehicles and maintaining existing vehicles
• using energy-efficient appliances
• insulating your home to reduce heating and air conditioning costs

Individuals and companies also purchase carbon credits to offset their usage. The money raised from this goes into projects such as planting trees or investing in renewable energy. Additional information and resources are available here: https://www.carbontrust.com/resources/guides/carbon-footprinting-and-reporting/carbon-footprinting

Try it Out: Get a Rough Estimate of Your Carbon Footprint

Debunking Some Myths on Design Thinking

Design Thinking is a Popular Term Adopted Rapidly Today that is Often Misunderstood. Let’s Take a Closer Look.

How do you break down and explain the process of creativity?

‘Design thinking’ is a popular term today. It was first introduced into the mainstream by the San Francisco consultancy IDEO in the early 1990s to explain its methodology for solving problems when working with clients. The phrase itself comes from Carnegie Mellon professor and Nobel Prize Laureate Herbert Simon, who wanted to explain the process of human creativity systematically. Since that time, the phrase has been adapted, modified, and expanded to fit a variety of approaches and roles. Unfortunately, many misconceptions regarding this term and the actual work of designers have arisen. Here we address some of the primary ones.

Design thinking is a term first coined by Herbert Simon, a professor at Carnegie Mellon, in 1969 to attempt to explain the process of human creativity systematically.

Interestingly enough, Herbert Simon was not a designer and did not create any visual works. He, however, was a pioneer in artificial intelligence.

“What can a human being do that a computer cannot?” Simon examined questions like this. The term ‘design thinking’ naturally arose out of this process as Simon and other computer scientists aimed to harness the

power of individual human creativity, but still wanted the familiarity of a repeatable, proven process.

Myth #1 The design process can be done by people who cannot design.

This assumption offers an interesting dilemma. Today there are increasing numbers of private companies offering to teach ‘Design Thinking’ at the corporate level and for universities without actually including any design or creative input. They seem to be avoiding and circumventing the actual creative process. While having the gift of communication (oral and written) is admirable, teaching ‘design thinking’ as a self-sufficient design practice without hands-on work using prerequisite design skills is inadequate. That eliminates the majority of actual design, which is hands-on and requires excellent individual skill. In essence, such training teaches the theory without the practice. It is similar to offering you how to paint by just talking about the process of painting and never actually painting. Perhaps their customers would be better and more honestly served by offering to teach them the theory of design thinking since that is what they are offering.

Herbert Simon did not downplay the value of creativity or design skills. He just sought a way to bring the creative conceptual thinking behind design into work processes. Simon aimed to open up the design ‘thinking’ process to people who were not designers and who stayed away from non-linear, non-scientific methods. He tried to bridge the gap in understanding. Using a ‘design thinking’ approach enabled businesses and organizations to look at problems differently and thus propose different solutions.

Fact: ‘Design thinking’ process works if you have skilled designers guiding the process. You cannot just talk your way through design - you have to do it. Actual design work requires tremendous skill, precision, craftsmanship, and a keen awareness of composition, beauty, and balance.

The value in having a design thinking approach lies in bringing an awareness and understanding of the creative process, soliciting feedback, and making design more accessible to businesses.

Image by Elf art director, quote by Goethe

Myth #2 Design thinking replaces actual design.

By far, this assumption about design thinking is the most dangerous and misleading. Design thinking as an approach helps in providing insight into the process. Design involves both a conceptual aspect and a physical action in creating and fine-tuning artwork. When the conceptual part involves software or digital design work, the work can benefit from feedback from other designers and other company members involved with customer engagement. This initial collaborative step helps bring all parties involved in the decision-making process on the same page. Thus all necessary feedback and relevant data are gathered to make the best, informed decisions. For example, with a product that you are selling to consumers, this process can help you discover unmet needs and learn where people are dissatisfied with using the current version of your product. Design thinking thus enables cooperation and collaboration in the first step of discovery and research into the problem you are solving. This brainstorming process is helpful, but only as an initial step.

There is considerably more effort involved to take the ‘brainstormed’ idea from conception to completion. The remaining steps involve excellent design skills, precision, and craftsmanship with many iterative, detailed cycles till final delivery. The act of creation itself is an original process unique to the individuals involved who draw upon their creative abilities and experiences.

Fact: While a ‘design thinking’ approach opens up the initial discovery process and can bring all parties (clients, partners, company staff, and stakeholders) to a common understanding of what is needed to design a solution, design thinking never replaces the original process of creation itself. People who lack essential design skills cannot complete the design process beyond the discovery phase. Thinking or talking about design does not replace design skill, precision, and craftsmanship. Design is an original process that requires fundamental design skills.

Design is an original process that requires actual design and craftsmanship skills.

What then is the value of design thinking?

'Design thinking' is a great way to help explain the value of design and solicit feedback from people at a company during the discovery process. It is a way of explaining the process involved to bring people together on the same page. It offers a way to provide a consistent approach for creating new products or services for businesses.

Explaining the value of design can often feel intangible and be hard to put into words. This dilemma prompted us to research the topic and explain design results in actual monetary terms and the value of design regarding the bottom line for businesses. This article has been shared over 3,700 times. The most important lesson that we take away from that research is how integrating design into business practice leads to creating better, intuitive products, services, and experiences for customers.

Design is about providing an excellent, intuitive, and empathetic customer experience. So how does your customer experience your product or service?

Design thinking helps bridge the gap in understanding that often accompanies the creative design process. It offers a way to provide a consistent approach for creating new products or services for businesses.

When you design thoughtfully, considering what your customers need and want, you will create better products, services, and experiences.

Restoring the Night Watch: The Rijksmuseum Reimagines How the Public Interacts with Art

A Museum’s Quest for Perpetual Renewal Shows Its Deep Awareness of What People Love

Yesterday, the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam announced that the public will be able to watch as The Night Watch, Dutch master painter Rembrandt’s celebrated masterpiece, is restored. The project is scheduled to begin in July 2019 and the entire process will be viewable in person at the museum and online.

The museum’s approach to sharing the painting’s restoration as it happens, reveals both a modern sensibility and a keen awareness of what people love. Recognizing that audiences today increasingly turn online for art, entertainment and culture, the museum’s leadership is willing to show the art restoration process as it happens.

Other masterpieces by Rembrandt Harmenszoon van Rijn, Marten Soolmans and Oopjen Coppit have already been restored. Restoring a masterpiece such as The Night Watch is no easy feat. The Rijksmuseum has enlisted the support of researchers, conservators and restorers both locally and all over the world to assist and thoroughly examine and restore the painting to its original full glory. The treatment plan includes imaging techniques, high-resolution photography and computer analysis. The museum could have chosen to close down the exhibit during the process. Instead, the museum has chosen to allow viewing both in person and online via a digital platform. The painting will be encased in a state-of-the-art clear glass chamber.

The painting’s restoration coincides with the 350th anniversary of Rembrandt’s death. The Rijksmuseum is bringing together a comprehensive collection of all of Rembrandt’s paintings, drawings and prints for the first time ever in 2019 in their exhibit “The Year of Rembrandt.”

The Night Watch, A National Treasure

“The Night Watch is one of the most famous paintings in the world. It belongs to us all, and that is why we have decided to conduct the restoration within the museum itself – and everyone, wherever they are, will be able to follow the process online.”

— Taco Dibbits, General Director, Rijksmuseum

One of the most beloved exhibits by far is The Night Watch, showcased at the Rijksmuseum in a special Gallery of Honor. Considered the national treasure, The Night Watch is an oil painting created by Dutch master painter Rembrandt Harmenszoon van Rijn. The mayor of Amsterdam, Frans Banninck Cocq, commissioned the painting in 1642 to depict his shooting company. The mayor was also the leader of the civic guard of Amsterdam. The painting depicts officers under the command of Captain Frans Banninck Cocq and Lieutenant Willem van Ruytenburch. It is Rembrandt’s only painting of military personnel and is striking for its bold depiction with officers in motion as compared to seated and static poses typical of the period. The large painting, measuring 11 feet by 14 feet, is striking and innovative in comparison to works by Rembrandt’s peers. The updated gallery exhibit now showcases other artworks of the time period in sharp contrast.

The museum first opened in 1800 in the Hague and then moved to Amsterdam eight years later. in 1885, a new principal Rijksmuseum building designed around The Night Watch by architect Pierre Cuyper opened. The only painting returned to its original location in the Gallery of Honor in the Rijksmuseum after the museum’s extensive ten-year renovation, The Night Watch is treated with such reverence, akin to an altar with its own cathedral-like entrance and stained glass and wall decorations. The painting also has its own escape slide created in 1934 to help quickly remove the painting in case of an emergency.

In addition to works by Rembrandt, the Rijksmuseum also contains artworks by other famous Dutch Golden Age painters such as Johannes Vermeer and Frans Hais. The museum also houses over 8,000 works of art and history and over one million objects from 1200 to 2000. Vermeer was famous for his use of bright pigments that were rare and expensive at the time such as ultramarine in The Milkmaid, madder lake in Christ in the house of Martha and Mary, vermillion, ochre, lead-tin-yellow, bone black and azurite.

Creating Memorable, Personal Experiences

“How do we craft narratives that will resonate with our visitors on a personal level?”

— Taco Dibbits, General Director, Rijksmuseum

The Rijksmuseum, a Dutch national art museum that was intended to house outstanding works of art by Dutch painters and visual artists, when it was inaugurated over two hundred years ago, quietly slipped into oblivion like many other museums across the world as modern buildings and office spaces competed for attention by the end of the twentieth century. However, concerted efforts by the Dutch government, the city of Amsterdam and corporate sponsors, helped revitalize the institution by offering a complete transformation of the museum. This effort spanned ten years. In 2013, a transformed Rijksmuseum opened its doors to the public, revealing beautiful spaces with redesigned modern galleries that carefully and lovingly showcased artworks with historical context for each era.

By creating a new chronological path for each century’s artwork, the museum was able to link art and history effectively, thus truly becoming a national museum that reflected Dutch history and culture, while offering visitors a clear sense of time and beauty. This new focus on how an individual experiences walking through the museum and interacting with exhibits, transformed visitor experiences and ignited interest worldwide. Since then, the Rijksmuseum has attracted over 2.5 million visitors annually.

Reimagining public spaces tied to national history while remaining culturally relevant in modern times, takes considerable effort. The Rijksmuseum’s leadership and staff has demonstrated how to do this elegantly with keen observations of modern culture and technology by cultivating an open mind and inviting collaboration and new perspectives, while keeping a sense of curiosity about the world.