Industry leaders and eco-minded individuals attend the Greener Gadgets Conference to share green technology ideas for the future!


Last week I had the honor of visiting the Greener Gadget Conference in New York, a yearly conference sponsored by CEA (Consumer Electronics Association). This is the third year that the conference has been around, and it looks like it will be around for years to come. In a nutshell, the conference itself is a “meeting of the minds” for all individuals and organizations that are interested in green technology and sustainable product designs. It’s the perfect opportunity for eco-minded people to share their green design ideas for a more sustainable, technological future.

So, what kind of green mayhem ensued at the convention?  Here are a few of my favorite highlights.

Breakin’ Down the Breakfast

The lucky attendees of the conference were greeted with a tasty breakfast full of bagels, yogurt, fresh fruit, coffee and organic juices. My favorite aspect of the meal (besides how great it tasted at 9am in the morning) was recycling the leftovers!  The conference posted “recycling and composting” stations around the event so that every bit of waste was not wasted!


For recyclable and waste products.


For composting leftover food.

Opening Speaker Yves Behar “Brings Sexy Back”

San Francisco-based designer Yves Behar, who is originally from Switzerland, was the opening speaker for the conference.  The whole idea behind his presentation was to make green sexy. His opening segment: a video clip from the HBO series “Flight of the Concords.”  Remember the song “It’s Business Time?”  Well, he showed a clip of Jermaine saying how recycling is sexy. Talk about cool!

Yves continued to talk about his ventures into sexy green design, including PACT organic underwear and eco-friendly Mission Motors. He also discussed the success of One Laptop Per Child, an initiative he created for the world’s poorest children. He designed a low cost ($100), low power laptop that children of all levels could use to enhance their education.
Yves’ overall mission at the conference was to share 3 main ideas that he thinks we should practice every day:

1. Pushing green notions – If it’s not ethical or sexy then it can’t be beautiful.
2. Reinventing the business of design – A long-term goal for all businesses.
3. Bringing design everywhere that it’s needed – Especially in underdeveloped countries.

Group of Green Living Gurus

The next presentation included a panel of “green gurus” that shared their knowledge of sustainable design. The group included: Sara Rich (from Dwell magazine); Ellen Honigstock (a New York sustainable architect); Sarah Krasley (Industry Manager of Sustainability at Autodesk); Kimberly Lancaster (founder of Caster Communications and recent owner of a LEED-certified home complete with all green technology); and Jay McClellan (co-founder of Home Automation Inc.).

Here’s a video clip of the panelists discussing their answers to the audience question, “In your opinion, what are some green initiatives that countries like Haiti can make when they start over from a tragedy?”




The Lunch Man Cometh to Compost



Lunch was even better than breakfast at the conference! We were treated with a variety of organic pastas and nicely-prepared sandwiches.

After lunch there was even a special compost man that directed people where to put their food.  He even let me take a picture of him. What a great guy!

Showroom of Green Business Ideas

In the same room where we ate lunch we were able to mingle with leading green businesses. They set up booths around the room that showcased their green technology initiatives. Some of the groups there included:



Panasonic – Need I say more?




EIATrack – An “online tool that helps navigate the maze of environmental regulations and legislation in every country.”




HP – The company’s Eco Solutions strategy says that it is committed to sustainability and will reduce its overall impact on the planet.




ReCellular – A firm based out of Dexter, Michigan that refurbishes, reuses and recycles discarded cell phones.




Sustainable Minds – “A comprehensive and standardized system that allows you to credibly estimate, evaluate, compare and track the life cycle environmental and human health performance of products – in the earliest stages of design.”




TrickleStar – An all-in-one surge protection and energy-saving powerstrip.


Panasonic’s David Thompson Chats About “Eco Ideas”

I was extremely lucky to talk to David Thompson, Director of Panasonic’s Environmental Department. He joined the Panasonic team as a management trainee in Japan, but later became interested in the process of battery recycling when he moved back to the U.S. Because of this interest he helped to develop MRM, also known as the Electronic Manufacturers Recycling Management Company. The company is joint effort between Panasonic, Toshiba and Sharp to create recycling systems for all electronic products.

In this video he talks about Panasonic’s Eco Ideas strategy, which is the company’s declaration to - 1. Produce energy efficient products. 2. Reduce CO2 emissions across all its manufacturing sites. 3. Encourage the spread of environmental activities throughout the world.

Please forgive the sound quality!




I’d like to thank David for the great information, and Alix Dunn from Cohn & Wolfe for her assistance with the Panasonic interview!


Greener Gadgets Design Competition

One of the most exciting events of the conference was participating in the Greener Gadgets Design Competition! The 3 judges included: Sarah Rich (from before); Julian Lwin (owner of Lwindesign); and Andrew Wagner (Editor-in-Chief of ReadyMade).



There were 10 designs presented to the judges, and each judge got to give a “thumbs up” or “thumbs down” to see if it would move on to the final 3. Once the final 3 were picked, the audience got to choose the winner by applause.

Here are the final entries:

Corky – A battery-free mouse made from recycled cork!



My bad picture from the conference.



A good picture of the design featured on Inhabitat.

Illumi-Charger – A gadget that collects and stores energy from interior lighting so that it can power up and charge your portable devices.



My amateur picture.



A not-so-amateur design of the charger.

The winner of the competition was the AUG/Living Goods Program.  AUG is an interactive mobile application that allows you to scan organic food bar-codes to find out where the product came from, as well as the product’s impact on the local environment.

Photo from greenergadgets.com

After a long day of learning about green technology the attendees were welcomed to a cocktail reception in the showroom. When it was finally time to leave there was one more “green” thing we needed to do: recycle our name badges! Isn’t that great?



As you can see, the Greener Gadgets Conference was an exciting all-day event! The future is looking bright for eco-friendly gadgets, and I hope that more companies and designers hop on board to attend the event next year!