Last Wednesday, the folks behind Nest brought together their 2nd panel discussion on on sustainable design, and it was a nice evening where the audience learned about why the designers took the paths they did.

Speaking first was of Lin Wen (Bonita) of Brown Rice who spoke of the path she took to not just starting Brown Rice, but she also spoke of all the good things she has done through it

Next was Jamy Yang of Y Town , and unfortunately do to the poor quality of the video I was not able to capture this portion in full, but for this design shop they were motivated not just by designing something new and cool.  Finding ways of using existing materials and finding ways of reducing materials when they designed was one way they look to design products to serve multiple functions and to have longer lifelines as a way to reduce waste.

The final speaker, Rachel Speth - Cofounder Bambuhome and Nest, spoke about her path from a member of Nike’s design team, to their environmental team, to her decision to leave the corporate life to start Bambu home 5 years ago with her husband. Modest to the nth degree, Rachel spoke about the process of developing the products, the process of creating her products, and how they continually look to reduce waste/ reuse materials/ and operate as cleanly as possible (transportation is an area they struggle with).

Next month, on the last Wednesday, Nest will be holding their third and final event and I suggest you check it out. Typically they announce through their Facebook page, but you will also see an announcement here.

To visit Nest (Shanghai’s first artison co-op), go to the website. you will find profiles of their 9 artisen (several of which we have interviewed as part of our video series).