I think these is alot of people that thing suistablity is cool in my generation (im 20ish) but the problem is that a) some people are just to lazy to do the sustainble thing (i can't stand those people) or b) they don't have the money (because we are paying $5000 a year in tuition).

Most of my friends would choose local organic, and want to, but it's hard to find, and more expensive. Most of my friends want to were organic cotton and bamboo clothing, natural/organic shampoos and so on. Most of my friends are already doing the sustainable things that are affordable (like the Diva Cup, has Treehugger covered that, it would be cool to cover!!) but that is not enough.

We all rent houses, we can't go put low flow toilets into it and all the other good stuff, although i really really really want to.

I dont really know where I am going with this, I guess I just don't really agree that some disposable, material item is going to do the trick.

Where has this guy been in the last 2 years, with investment pouring into all kinds of new "green" technology? How about those celebrities in the hybrid Toyotas giving prime time exposure to smaller cars? How about the ONE campaign, Live Earth, etc? Not cool? Gimme a break...

The reason Michael Jordon was able to change fashion with a pair of baggy shorts was really twofold...1) he is Micheal Jordon and 2) he had a platform with a national audience to debut his 'shorts." We're beginning to finally see a real platform develop over the past few years with An Inconvenient Truth, Tesla etc....now we need to build more and maybe let the movement be the spokesperson rather than hinge on one celebrity...so the question is how to make it really cool to be green...one part of the answer is to create a financial market around being green, or atl least the perception that going green can provide ROI.

Funny, professional sports are way more appealing to the young people than (perceived) self-sacrifice. I never would have guessed.

Pardon me if I am just being obtuse, but I don't get what he is saying at all. His example regarding MJ doesn't really make a whole lot of sense to me. Is he trying to say that due to MJ now kids wear baggy shorts when they play basketball?

Then he really loses me when he tries to apply that to cellphones. Isn't the idea that every year a new phone becomes the cool thing and people throw out their old phones to get the new one, inherently wasteful? I think it would be safe to say that to a large portion of people cell phones have become viewed as a disposable commodity. Drop your phone in the toilet? Just get a new one. Cell contract done? Get a new phone when you sign up for a new one. This especially applies to people that buy the latest and greatest phones.

Besides which I think it ignores the whole decentralization trend. It is much more difficult these days for one individual to have a major and direct impact because they are "cool". That is one of the great things about the internet. Buzz and popularity can build without the need for a central figure to direct it. We have yet to truly understand this phenomena and how it works, but I would much rather have a large number of (less cool) bloggers building a buzz then one central figure. I think that the former can create the latter anyway (maybe this is what he is referring to).

Of course I would say that if Hannah Montanna all of a sudden went "green" kids might take more of an interest.

OK. So, Micheal Jordan can be viewed as a metaphor for sports culture changing youth fashion. Although, maybe it had more to do with MJ's demure and polite nature, work ethic, and athletic ability than his damn shorts.

If you want macho role models for environmentalism, go back to Teddy Roosevelt . He charged up San Juan Hill horseback with pistolas and took a bullet during a speech and kept going. He is responsible for our National Park system getting started.

If you want a design focused environmentalist role model go back to John Muir. JM too was a bit macho - often hiked barefoot. He designed and built his own 'alarm clock bed' that dumped him out on his feet every morning as well as a study machine turntable that is a nice analogy to internet access to multiple docs (both are in the Wisconsin State Historical Society bldg on UW Madison Campus).

If all we're trying to do here is get passed the Washington DC NGO lawyer environmentalist role model, go for it. But I still don't get the point he is making.

But guys,have you forgot the Governator,he it the green Michael Jordan and he is preparing for a full court press with Mcaine as his vice president!
Asta la Vista Exxon!

He's right. People wont go green until its 'cool' or until they are forced because there is no other choice.

The question is not about when sustainability is going to become cool. While I agree that consumer demand drives manufacturers to comply, we need to move toward an anticipatory model, not continue with this faulty, reactionary one. That's what's gotten us in this mess.

We need a total redirection of the WAY in which broader society consumes.

How do we get the average consumer to THINK about the effects of each and every purchasing decision? About its production lifecycle, the materials used in its fabrication and packaging, about the global economic effect, the social ramifications of cheap labor, how much environmental damage was done to make the product, what will happen to it once consumed or broken, and so on.

How do we get the average consumer to THINK about all that before buying a box of cereal?

How do we get people to SLOW DOWN? How do we get it all to happen FAST enough to combat global warming, rising toxicity levels, etc.?

Quite simply, we don't.

While that kind of THINKING society might sound magnificent, most people simply can't spend the time required to RESEARCH all that information in order to make INFORMED decisions.

The better question to ask is, "How will WE make sustainability ubiquitous for ALL?"

To quote R. Buckminster Fuller, "You never change things by fighting the existing reality. To change something, build a new model that makes the existing model obsolete."

The way I see it, just about everything in the built and consumed landscape is ecologically and functionally defective, waiting for us to "build a new model." Designers have a barrage of advanced design and production tools, ecologically sound materials, resources, knowledge and a world that desperately NEEDS efficient, cost-effective solutions.

In a reply letter to a 10-year old boy's question of whether Fuller was a "doer" or a "thinker," Fuller replied:

"The Things to do are: the things that need doing, that you see need to be done, and that no one else seems to see need to be done. Then you will conceive your own way of doing that which needs to be done — that no one else has told you to do or how to do it. This will bring out the real you that often gets buried inside a character that has acquired a superficial array of behaviors induced or imposed by others on the individual."

Invent something.