It's been a long time since we applied for clearance to enroll international students in the Design MBA program and we've finally heard back from the US Government to do so. We've had four accepted students waiting for this moment and we hope that it comes in time for them to still join us in the Fall.

Raising a Reader
From the course: Business Models and Stakeholders, taught by Naomi Stanford

Beth Berrean
Ingrid Dragotta
Nicole Trautsch



Three of our students worked with the Raising a Reader program, a part of San Francisco's United Way chapter, to rethink their business model and overall strategic direction. Their innovative insights were complemented by their innovative presentation.

SigWuff:
From the course: Market Insight Studio, taught by Steve Diller

Nicole Chen
Henry Liu
Erica Meade
Mattia Nuzzo
Heike Rapp-Worm



SIGG WUFF exists to provide urban, engaged, active dog owners with a new breed of dog products that say "I care." In so doing, it makes fulfilling the responsibilities to one's dog enjoyable while delivering a means of self-expression to customers. Towards this end, it offers functional, fashionable and healthy products.

SIGG would launch with six new dog products, based on its aluminum manufacturing expertise:

• To distinguish the new dog products from SIGG's established human line, the new pet line will be marketed under the name "SIGG WUFF"
• The SIGG WUFF marketing strategy relies on SIGG's current brand positioning of optimism and hope, of forward thinking and positive action.

Patagonia beSpoke:
From the course: Market Insight Studio, taught by Steve Diller

Adam Dole
Ayano Hattori
Beth Berrean
Jason Hui
Sara Kozlowski



In the spirit of the traditional custom tailoring of Saville Row, beSpoke is a modern day, elegant and functional offering designed especially for the urban bicycle commuter. Out clothing and accessories are:

• made to order
• artisanal quality
• handcrafted
• customizable
• personalized
• locally made

Patagonia's beSpoke label exists to provide righteousness to bicycle commuters.

In doing so, Patagonia delivers self expression, a sense of urban adventure and conscious consumption and it offers functional, durable, customizable slow-fashion embedded with safety.

In the midst of the current bicycling zeitgeist, beSpoke offers bicycle commuters, a financially significant subset of the outdoor market, handcrafted, customized clothing and accessories line that can take you from bike to boardroom.

PopCycle:
From the course: Sustainability Studio, taught by Nathan Shedroff and Susan Gladwin

Vinitha Watson
Suzanne Randolph
Mattia Nuzzo
Heike Rapp-Wurm
Gwen Armbruster



Many college students move out of out the dorms and live in an apartment for a limited timeframe before they graduate and move on. During this period they require furnishings that are affordable, durable, functional and comfortable. Yet, oftentimes the furniture they end up with fails to meet all of these requirements and is left curbside as trash after graduation. Our solution to this problem, PopCycle, meets the college student's needs while simultaneously reducing the amount of waste generated and furthering existing social goals.

• PopCycle repurposes furniture donated to Goodwill that would otherwise be sent to the dump utilizing sustainable practices and materials.
• PopCycle expands the current Goodwill system to train individuals in professional upholstery techniques and create a new profit-generating venture.
• PopCycle establishes short-term pop-up shops as venues to sell refinished pieces to college students.

The Process
PopCycle provides a fun, community-based, and affordable purchasing experience. The integrated furniture repurposing process between PopCycle and Goodwill entails the following five steps:

PopCycle Step 1: Donation

• Items that would normally be sent to the dump are directed to the Goodwill's Pier 50 facility.

PopCycle Step 2: Sorting

• Goodwill Sorting staff evaluates pieces and sets those items deemed acceptable for repair aside.
• Additional items are designated to be stripped for fabrics and other salvageable materials.

PopCycle Step 3: PopCycle
Workshop

A key component of PopCycle is the PopCycle Workshop which combines career training with furniture repurposing. Elements include:

• A six month hands-on training program located at Pier 50. Three hour classes are held five nights a week.
• During each training period, 20 participants learn to reupholster and refinish pieces using professional techniques and 100% sustainable materials.
• A minimum of 30 pieces are produced for sale at the PopCycle Pop-Up Shop. The pieces use donated fabrics and reclaimed materials in creative ways to appeal to college students.
• Participants become certified upholsterers ready for job placement with private employers or to be hired by PopCycle Medic at the end of each training period.

PopCycle Medic

The second primary component of PopCycle is the profit-making Medic service with the following elements:

PopCycle Step 4: Pop-Up Shop
The pop-up shop is a vibrant, carnival-like experience that is set up in the center of a campus quad. As SF State already has a community service relationship with Goodwill SF, they have been chosen as the first school with which to test the pilot program.

• The pop-up shop will appear during move-in week at the beginning of the Fall semester, for three days (Friday, Saturday and Sunday). During this time a tent on the campus quad will erected. Inventory would contain at least 30 items that were reupholstered and refinished in the PopCycle workshop.
• Site-specific signage using re-cycled materials would be designed and constructed by the PopCycle Medic trainees as the final project of their training period.
• Furniture will be affordably priced to compete with IKEA (e.g. sofas would range from $150 - $250).
• Program participants work with college students to manage the sale.
• Program participants will also gain business skills as they work with college students to manage the sale.

PopCycle Step 5: Repeat - "ReCycle with PopCycle"
Sustainability (Adaptive Reuse) + Social Goals (Career Training) + Target Segment Needs (Comfortable Furniture) = Fabulous Solution

• A PopCycle label will be attached to each piece of furniture, which contains the signa tures of all the participants who worked on it.
• The label will include a statement: "Please don't throw me away. Reuse. When you move on into the big world, bring me back to PopCycle, or sell me to your friends. Don't let me become landfill." 1-800-pop-cycle

CollaboRent (The Rental Accord):
From the course: Sustainability Studio, taught by Nathan Shedroff and Susan Gladwin

Nicole Chen
Paul Colando
Erica Frye
Mei Lan Ho-Walker

CollaboRent is a non-profit organization dedicated to measurably improving the sustainability of rental homes. To this end, CollaboRent has developed a program, The Rental Accord, that engages renters and owners to collaboratively create efficient, comfortable homes and raise awareness of how their choices affect their communities and the environment.

Specific objectives of The Rental Accord are to:

• Create collaborative relationships between renters and owners
• Raise awareness of residential resource consumption
• Provide assistance to owners to maintain and upgrade their buildings sustainably
• Improve the health, efficiency, and comfort of rental housing
• Engage renters as partners in the community
• Inspire behaviors that benefit the community and environment

Unique conditions make addressing sustainable retrofitting of multi-unit homes challenging, requiring a different approach from solutions that exist for new or owner-occupied housing.

Rental Challenges:

• Split Incentives: The party that pays for upgrades or utilities and the party that benefits from them are often not the same. For example, an owner who purchases a new, energy-efficient appliance for a rental unit must pay the upfront cost, but if the renter is responsible for utility costs they are the ones who enjoy the savings. Conversely, an owner is motivated to upgrade efficiency if he pays for utilities, but in that case the renter is not motivated to conserve.
• Power Imbalance: Renters often do not feel empowered to suggest changes to their living units and even fear that landlords will retaliate by increasing the rent or imposing eviction. This leads to a lack of control and feeling of insecurity in one's living environment, which ultimately leads to less personal investment in the residence.
• Mistrust of Renters: Just as renters do not believe landlords will address their needs, property owners often do not trust their renters to take good care of their buildings. They will, however, work harder to keep tenants that have proven to be responsible and respectful.
• Knowledge Acquisition: Finding information and resources about what changes are most effective, what financing options are available, and how to execute these changes is cumbersome. This presents a significant barrier to initiating building improvements even when the property owner is motivated.

From these findings, it is clear that improving the renter-landlord dynamic is necessary to encourage sustainable building improvements in multi-unit buildings. In addition, an effective solution must address the fundamental renter and landlord needs CollaboRent identified in its primary and secondary research.

Renters' Basic Needs:

• Find the right apartment: Preferences regarding attributes such as price, location, security, amenities, comfort, and utilities are the key factors for renters in choosing a new unit.
• Experience physical comfort: Renters want to be physically comfortable in their living environments, but often there are issues such as temperature or mold that are discovered only after moving in.
• Feel in control: While renters understand their rights are limited, they still want to feel some control over their living spaces and be given the freedom to decorate and initiate improvements.
• Have reliable landlord: When problems do arise that are out of the renter's control, renters want to know that they have a reliable landlord that will address the issue promptly.

Landlords' Basic Needs:

• Be in control: Owning a rental building is a large investment, and property owners and managers need to feel like they are in control of this investment and have the ability to make decisions that affect their buildings.
• Improve property value: Because the building is a financial investment, property owners desire to maintain and ideally improve property value of their buildings.
• Identify and retain reliable tenants: They need to feel that tenants living in their buildings are reliable and responsible. They wish to identify good tenants at the time of lease, and will work hard to retain those that have proven to be responsible and caring of their living spaces.
• Reduce burden implementing changes: Planning and implementing changes can be time consuming and costly, as property owners must deal with building codes, materials, vendors, and financing. Initiatives that can reduce this burden would encourage proactivity.
• Stay in compliance: Property owners must ensure that their buildings are compliant with local government regulations. Rules can be complex, and owners often must seek outside help to navigate the web of building codes.

The combination of direct challenges to sustainable rental housing and general user needs that must be addressed therefore makes the issue of improving the sustainability of rental housing complex.

Bike'Topia:
From the course: Sustainability Studio, taught by Nathan Shedroff and Susan Gladwin

Adam Dole
Beth Berrean
Henry Liu
Jason Hui
Sara Kozlowski
Ayano Hattori

Bike'topia is a premiere, privatized, easy to access bicycle sharing program to begin in San Francisco and grow to other cities. Its goal is to facilitate more everyday bicycle riding by providing bicycles to SF residents and those commuting or visiting the CIty from other parts of the Bay Area. Bike'topia aims to make it easier for our customers to choose cycling as their preferred means of transportation by providing a convenient and affordable alternative to cars. Bicycles are the most efficient way of transport - especially for distances of 5 miles and less - perfect for urban areas This system is designed to human powered transportation, making errand-running easy, accessible and downright cool. Bike'topia's vision is a pedal for every citizen; and our mission is to become the preferred cycle sharing program of the Bay Area by offering more bikes in more areas in all shapes and sizes with self-service and rewards.

Bike'topia moves people in more ways than one! :

• Provide urban areas with easy, convenient, and affordable access to bicycle travel.
• Create a healthier lifestyle
• Reduce the amount of carbon emissions released into the atmosphere in multiple and systematic ways
• ncreases support to local businesses and the buy local movement
• Make the benefits of bicycling safely transparent

Our core offering is easy bike rental at strategically located stations all over San Francisco. Initially the bikes offered will be our basic bicycles by the hour. As the company grows, Bike'topia will offer premiere bicycles to their basic bike menu. The self-service kiosk is available 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Memberships include a discount on hourly rates and include bicycle liability insurance (for lost or theft.) The coverage is adjusted according to years of membership..

The bike menu allows options to choose a variety of wheels for a spin as well as accessories. Choose from a state of the art hi tech roadster or a sturdy commuter, from cargo bikes for shopping to trailer bikes for family outings. Premiere bikes will have special tracking devices, allowing the bikes to be reserved in advance for our members. Foldable helmets, locks and light gear will be available for purchase.



Bicycles
Bike'topia makes every effort to make each aspect of the products and services of the company more sustainable, and this includes the bikes. The core basic bicycles we offer in mass use the latest technologies for durability. The bikes are chainless and have airless tires which reduce the amount of breakdowns significantly for our users, and reduces general maintenance needed on a regular basis and the environmental impact from those activities.

Stations
High traffic Bike'topia locations feature a unique retrieval system capable of delivering a bicycle to the user from sub-level or elevated storage, allowing bicycle parking as an offer to our community cyclist After selecting a bike and swiping payment, the patented proprietary Bike'topia pedal will be dispensed for the rider. The pedal is attached to the bike by the user, used much similar to a key for cars. The bicycle is returned to any bike station, and the pedal is returned back to the kiosk for the next user.

The Pedal
After selecting a bike and swiping payment, a pedal featuring RFID technology is dispensed. The technology is used for tracking bicycles usage and for user metrics to encourage bicycling and route tracking, and is powered solely through kinetic energy. This in turn also supports part of our contextual and radial advertising. The detachable aspect of the pedal also aids as a theft deterrent for bicycles. ..



Website
The Bike'topia web site will guide new users to the services available, as well as provide useful information for our members. It includes a running meter of the miles the community and individual members has ridden, pounds carbon dioxide emissions saved, and finally, calories burned. Incentives will also be offered by our advertisers as promotions. The website also offers a social component for peer recognition, route sharing and advise.

Rethinking Disaster Housing:
From the course: Sustainability Studio, taught by Nathan Shedroff and Susan Gladwin

Rowan Edwards
Erik Ehrke
Carla Voorhees

The Interim Community system is made up of ISO container homes that can be rapidly and effectively deployed and thereby act to immediately limit the human losses and trauma, which typically continue to occur after the immediate cause of the disaster has passed. In addition, our physical solution is part of an integrated strategy that includes:

• Planning that would allow the homes to be staged for instantaneous transport and placement
• Policy that provides a Job Corps program to speed recovery, protect mental well-being and engage, community
• Design for self-sufficiency that provides mobile Community Modules that house essentials like water and power, but also laundry facilities and community spaces.

After our interviews and competitive analysis, we determined that a single shelter solution would not adequately meet all of the needs that we identified, especially to "Foster a Sense of Community." We believe that the human cost of the disaster far outweighs financial cost, and protecting the lives and well-being of those who have been displaced is crucial.



Shelter:
Using ISO containers as a basis for disaster housing is more sustainable because there are thousands of ISOs sitting unused at ports and railroad depots all across the country. Upcycling these material and energy-intense containers and giving them a second life as a house for someone. In addition, ISOs are standardized, having been designed to function as a global, intermodal shipping medium. This ensures easy, system-agnostic transportation and storage of our solution. ISOs fit on railroad cars, semi-trucks & container ships. Lastly, ISOs are 95% recycled steel & require few modifications.

Community:
Village Lay-outs: Each village layout depends on geography, location and needs. Villages are initially organized into units of 100 ISO homes, grouped into five sub-groups of 20 dwelling units, spaced out sufficiently so as to provide space for expansion. Open spacing provides some privacy and allows families and friends and neighbors to join encampments that they have affinity for. ISO homes can be easily moved - even back to damaged communities as those communities are rebuilt. FEMA wishes to provide flexibility to accommodate people's location needs. Each camp is organized around central recreational and community spaces (including library, tool lending library, computer rooms and meeting rooms).



Modules: Community Modules to support the growth and recovery of the affected area will be located in each village. Some of these include a water supply tank, back-up generator shed with green-energy options, community center, tool library, community kitchen, library, laundry facilities, mobile medical van and hygiene facilities.

Job Corps:
All able-bodied men and women older than 18 in your household may assist in the cleanup and rebuilding efforts for 40 hours per month in lieu of paying rent for ISO shelters during the first year. Certain private sector jobs may meet this requirement as well. In addition, if your regular job has disappeared due to the disaster, there are opportunities for you to work full-time of the clean-up effort for $15 - $50 per hour depending on experience and skill levels.

Play Bank:
From the course: Sustainability Studio, taught by Nathan Shedroff and Susan Gladwin

Nicole Trautsch
Jennifer Pechacek
Tim Bishop
Ingrid Dragotta

PlayBank's toy rental service prolongs the play life of toys by allowing children to check out toys and return them once they have exhausted their interest in the toy. In creating this play service, children get access to a wider variety of toys at a lower cost to their parents. It solves several issues around current toys:

• Parents feel their children have too many toys
• Many toys outlast a child's attention span and interest
• Parents often do not know what to do with old toys
• There are no existing alternatives to the trash can for broken and incomplete toys

PlayBank helps shift childrens' perceptions of ownership during a key developmental period in their lives. In building a service industry around toys that satisfies an impulsive desire for new toys to play with, PlayBank aims to show the value in service economies, and have a lasting impression on the wastefulness of current linear systems. PlayBank reduces the need to manufacture so many new toys and recycles and reuses toys to an optimal level.



PlayBank will accept new, used, broken and incomplete toys of all kinds. Following a sorting and inspection stage, broken and incomplete toys are fixed, if possible. Toys meeting Toy Loan criteria for toxicity and playability are cleaned and entered into the Mutual Fun, PlayBank's Toy Loan (rental) cycle, allowing the toys to live an extended life in the hands of many children. With an account, kids are allowed to take Play Loans (rentals) and make deposits (donations) into the Mutual Fun.

Toy Deposits that are beyond repair, or missing too many parts to be useful in their current state are booked as Toxic Assets and set aside for repurposing. PlayBank's Toxic Assets are given a final shot at continued life by the Adventure Capitalists, a team that promotes creative resourcefulness through toy building workshops and imaginative use for the toy materials. In the workshops, kids are encouraged to get creative while building Monstrous Hybrids, toys pieced together from miscellaneous, broken or lost parts from other toys. Toxic Asset value may also be captured by supplying sorted materials to recycling centers for use in products such as recylced plastic lumber.

SmallSteps:
From the course: Sustainability Studio, taught by Nathan Shedroff and Susan Gladwin

Erin Jacobs
Erica Meade
Kathryn Hautanen
Kate Ranson-Walsh

SmallSteps is a high-touch service that provides people with the necessary tools to reduce their environmental impact and lead a more balanced life. SmallSteps is dedicated to developing accurate, reliable and customized information, educating about existing alternatives and providing specific actionable steps.



SmallSteps members take a short test to calculate their environmental impact. After establishing this baseline, members make changes in their lives that help counterbalance their impact. There are various easy-to-follow guides that help members reduce their environmental impact in all aspects of their lives and help make these small change permanent.



To support members on their journey, members are assigned dedicated Mentors and given the option to attend weekly meetings with the SmallSteps community, led by those who have successfully completed the SmallSteps program and have had additional training from the SmallSteps Institute.

In addition to readings and films to watch, we're encouraging our students to spend some time over the Summer carefully observing and sketching. Sketching is one of those critical communication skills that only gets better with practice. It's core to visual communication whether someone is drawing a picture, a diagram, or a system. Each week, we'll take a new theme and share the best of our sketches for comments and feedback but, mostly, the point is simply to loosen-up our wrists and arms and practice.

Hands
Shoes
Trees/Plants
Building in Perspective
People Shopping
Skyline
Landscape
Portrait
Animal
System
Self-portrait
Emotion (can be representational or abstract)