The Reverend Shane McCraig Revival

Thursday, April 1st, 7 pm
Timken Lecture Hall, San Francisco Campus, CCA
1111 Eighth Street



The Reverend Shane McCraig has toured the world unlocking the mysteries of design, reframing what it means to "be a designer" and saving young designers from essential business practices that can strip great design of its soul.

Through invigorating and inspired storytelling, McCraig (real name Joel Kashuba) reveals the emotive power of playfulness in the design process and uncovers how this process makes the connection between seemingly illogical product inspiration and the success of everything from pet rocks to hula hoops, cola bottles, and vacuum cleaners.

In this sermon, the Reverend will take his audience on a journey of insight and discovery about who we are as designers and what role we will play in the future of business. The good Brother will peel back the layers of a designer's existence to reveal a purpose that is alive and well in the hearts and minds of those who truly seek to change the world through the power of design.

This article by Paul Krugman is worth reading by everyone concerned with Sustainability, Climate Change, and Economics.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/11/magazine/11Economy-t.html

Building a Green Economy, Paul Krugman (NYT)
By PAUL KRUGMAN
Published: April 5, 2010

If you listen to climate scientists -- and despite the relentless campaign to discredit their work, you should -- it is long past time to do something about emissions of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases. If we continue with business as usual, they say, we are facing a rise in global temperatures that will be little short of apocalyptic. And to avoid that apocalypse, we have to wean our economy from the use of fossil fuels, coal above all.

But is it possible to make drastic cuts in greenhouse-gas emissions without destroying our economy?

Like the debate over climate change itself, the debate over climate economics looks very different from the inside than it often does in popular media. The casual reader might have the impression that there are real doubts about whether emissions can be reduced without inflicting severe damage on the economy. In fact, once you filter out the noise generated by special-interest groups, you discover that there is widespread agreement among environmental economists that a market-based program to deal with the threat of climate change -- one that limits carbon emissions by putting a price on them -- can achieve large results at modest, though not trivial, cost. There is, however, much less agreement on how fast we should move, whether major conservation efforts should start almost immediately or be gradually increased over the course of many decades.

In what follows, I will offer a brief survey of the economics of climate change or, more precisely, the economics of lessening climate change. I'll try to lay out the areas of broad agreement as well as those that remain in major dispute. First, though, a primer in the basic economics of environmental protection.

This year, the graduate commencement speaker at CCA graduation will be one of our own DMBA students, Nicole Chen! This is especially significant since it's the first graduating class of the DMBA program at CCA. So, to have the program represented at this level, on the occasion of our first graduating class, is quite an honor.

Congratulations, Nicole!

Our program director, Nathan Shedroff, will be speaking at NC State University's CIMS Innovations in Sustainability Conference, May 25-27 in Raleigh, NC. Along with other thought leaders in sustainability and business, L. Hunter Lovins, president and founder of Natural Capitalism Solutions, Dianne Fodel from IBM, Lee Woodard from Next Right Decision, and Nick Hamon from Bayer Crop Services, participants will be engaging in a three-day interactive conference examining the leading practices that companies are taking to design and implement groundbreaking initiatives pertaining to sustainability.

From the website:
This meeting will be a foundation for the topic of innovation in sustainability from business practices and principles to global concerns. The meeting will feature numerous subject matter experts in this field to help CIMS and its members shape future funded research projects. All sessions of the meeting are meant to interactive and discussion is encouraged by all.

For more information and to register, please click here.

This week, students in our Leading by Design Fellows Program began receiving bags filled with the first readings in advance of the first Fellows residency on May 20th. These bags are custom-configured by Rickshaw Bags, a local bag company that produced one of the most sustainable bags on the planet.

We selected Rickshaw's Zero bag because it's made with zero waste and can be recycled in one piece since it's made entirely with Nylon (and a few bits of metal).

The bags are filed with the following books:
• The Truth About Green Business, by Gil Friend
• Design is the Problem, by Nathan Shedroff
• Thinking in Systems, by Donella Meadows
• Resilience Thinking, Brian Walker, David Salt, & Walter Reid
• A Whole New Mind, by Daniel Pink
• Strategy for Sustainability, by Adam Werbach
• Change by Design, by Tim Brown

In addition to these books, there are several articles assigned before the first residency session. During the first residency, the following guest faculty will speak and lead discussion among the students and leaders:
• Tim Brown, CEO, IDEO
• Bob Dunham, Enterprise Perform
• Michael Barry, Point Forward
• Linda Yaven, CCA
• Derek Thompson, Pixar

This Spring, because of the enormous growth in interest in the MBA in Design Strategy program, the administration decide to double the size of the program. Our applications were up over 70% from last year and the quality of the applicants increased as well. Because the DMBA program is organized to run in cohort sizes around 30, it's not feasible to grow in chunks under 30. So, this Fall, we will be enrolling 60 students instead of the 30 in the last two years.

In addition to the 60 students, we've increased the size of the Dual Design Degree program to 8. These students will start the 3-year program this Fall and graduate with both degrees in 2013.

This growth isn't without its challenges, especially for such a new program. However, we're working hard to ensure that the program quality and student experience become better as a result. We're excited, in fact, that the diversity of students (in every way) will increase and contribute to even more vibrant student and alumni bodies. This year, we'll have students from Canada, China, India, Iran, Jordan, and Uzbekistan join the program.