Okay, this one’s a biggie. The Story of Stuff is an award-winning video packed with so much good information that classrooms across the country are now showing it to teach about consumption and sustainability. You may think you know enough about these issues by now, but trust me, you won’t regret watching this entertaining 20-minute video.

Here’s a short clip:

Be sure to watch the full video at www.storyofstuff.com. If there’s only one thing on the entire internet that I would suggest sharing with others, this would be it.

There’s also a new Story of Stuff book available today. Author/narrator Annie Leonard will be on The Colbert Report tonight (3/9/10) to discuss it!

Productivity Future Vision

This is a pretty awesome video by Microsoft showing a glimpse of what our increasingly digital future will hold.

Calm, collected, German.

Legendary industrial designer Dieter Rams, in his 40 years with Braun, established a clean design aesthetic which now serves as inspiration for many of today’s Apple products. These are his ten principles for good design:

• Good design is innovative.
• Good design makes a product useful.
• Good design is aesthetic.
• Good design makes a product understandable.
• Good design is unobtrusive.
• Good design is honest.
• Good design is long-lasting.
• Good design is thorough down to the last detail.
• Good design is environmentally friendly.
• Good design is as little design as possible.

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(Image from the film Objectified)

Behold, the home of the future. This model of sustainable living is currently on display in downtown Vancouver. Made from two shipping containers and wrapped in cedar and pine beetle wood, the home features local and recycled materials, energy-efficient appliances, solar panels, and a green wall on the exterior that shows how you could insulate the structure from hot and cold temperatures.

Via Jetson Green:

Perhaps the size of the home alone is a good signal of the form shelter will take in years to come.  It’s a mere 680 square feet, which is quite different from the average home of today.

More info on the home at BC Hydro

I’m pretty in love with the concept of IdeaPaint, which you can use to turn any paintable surface into a dry-erase board. I’m not sure why this hasn’t existed for years already, but it’s good to see that it’s out there now. It looks like it takes a bit of time to install, but it’s half the cost of a whiteboard, better-performing, more environmentally-friendly, and you can fill your entire wall with it.

Has anyone used IdeaPaint yet?

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I’m digging this Looptworks laptop sleeve which was assembled from the leftover neoprene scraps from a wetsuit factory.

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The guys over at Portland design shop Parliament have built themselves one hell of a workspace. From the looks of things, much of it was hand-built using reclaimed materials and accented with vintage design artifacts. I bet it even has that nice smell of freshly cut wood.

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‘No Impact Man’ is the entertaining story of New York writer Colin Beavan, who decided to go an entire year with as little environmental impact as possible. Watching him and his family go through that is kind of like a reality TV show, except you actually learn a few things along the way.

The film is now on DVD. You should probably rent it, not buy it.

GOOD Business: Comet Skateboards

This is a cool video about Comet Skateboards, a company that proves being involved in the community and finding more sustainable production methods are also good for business.

Graphic designer/musician Scott Hansen (aka ISO50) gave a thorough review of his Herman Miller Embody chair:

All things considered the Embody is a huge winner in my book. It’s the most comfortable and functional chair I’ve ever used and will be in my studio for a very long time.

The Embody adheres to the strict Cradle to Cradle environmental protocol. It’s made of 42% recycled content and at the end of its lifecycle, 95% of Embody can be recycled. Plus, as Scott mentions, “buy it nice or buy it twice”… a very sustainable way to look things.