Once the Ecolect Web site is launched, designers will have a valuable tool to assist them in making their projects, and/or their clients’ projects, more sustainable.
They will be able to search online for sustainable materials, such as a compostable clear film for envelope windows, packaging and bottle labels, and within seconds find the manufacturers’ contact information.
Perhaps more important, they will be able to download and print spec sheets, which will allow them to compare properties and determine whether a material can be used for their project.
“The biggest problem right now if you want to find materials, find out which is most sustainable … how much quantity [manufacturers] can supply … you have to go to several different sites,” said Matt Grigsby, co-founder of Ecolect, principal and founder of the Providence-based industrial design firm Design Awareness and winner of this year’s Rising Star Innovator award.
That was a problem that Grigsby and Ecolect co-founder Joe Gebbia, principal and founder of Juice Studios in San Francisco, found frustrating when they were working on their separate freelance projects while attending Rhode Island School of Design.
“Every day, we saw a need,” he said. “Every project could have been done more sustainably.”
The two discovered the greatest barrier to suggesting an alternative, more sustainable, material to their clients was time. They didn’t have time to research and weigh the cost advantages and other factors.
So in 2005, when both were graduating from RISD, Gebbia with a double major bachelor’s degree in graphic design and industrial design and Grigsby with a bachelor’s degree in industrial design, they began working on an online clearinghouse for sustainable materials.
They decided to make it a free Web site that users, namely anyone in the design community, including designers, architects, developers, contractors and students, could register on and contribute new materials, write reviews and blog.
It is a unique concept, Grigsby said. The only similar option they could find is a company called Material ConneXion, which charges a $200 annual fee to use its online database.
“They connect designers with materials in general,” he said. “Not just with sustainable materials.”
In addition to being a free tool for designers, Ecolect aims to be a tool for manufacturers in determining what their consumers are really looking for, Grigsby said. If a group of designers is blogging about the need for a specific material, or one with certain properties, it could be an opportunity for manufacturers to respond to that demand with a new or tweaked product.
Ecolect also will feature articles about the interesting things people are doing with sustainable materials, and it will showcase new materials. About 11 people are developing the Web site and its content, including uploading sustainable materials into the database.
Grigsby and Gebbia have been privately funding the project, but they are looking for sponsors.
They have attracted a San Francisco-based sustainable home furnishings company called Branch, Grigsby said, and they are talking about sponsorship with associations such as the Industrial Designers Society of America and AIGA, the professional association for design.
In addition, Meaghan O’Neill, freelance writer and founding editor of TreeHugger.com, has expressed interest in including Ecolect in an upcoming book, Grigsby said. That would provide valuable exposure; TreeHugger.com is a high-profile sustainability site.
Ecolect also has RISD President Roger Mandle as an adviser.
“He’s great to go to if we have questions,” Grigsby said. “He has so much experience. … Also the network he brings is incredible. … There are a lot of parallels between his networks and where we want to be.”
In addition, along with building relationships necessary to grow Ecolect’s database, both Grigsby and Gebbia have been “learning a lot about sustainability and what people need on all sides,” he said.
For the past two years, Grigsby has been leveraging his knowledge of sustainability in consulting jobs for several projects in Providence, he said.
He is also in the process of repositioning Design Awareness – which has five part-time employees – to focus purely on strategic research in the industrial design realm.
“We’re doing a lot of research for companies,” he said. “Figuring out who their competitors are … brainstorming ideas to help them compete within their market.”
Design Awareness, for example, is working with a Korean company to launch a new line of electronic products that will compete with competitors such as Bose.
“We want to improve their business through informed design,” he said.
Part of that process involves educating clients about sustainable materials. And developing Ecolect makes it easy for the co-founders to segue into offering sustainability as an option.
“We want our clients to be as sustainable as possible,” he said, adding that’s why the pair built Ecolect in the first place. “We wanted to create a tool for our studios.”
As for where Grigsby sees the future of sustainability in design, he said, “a lot of companies out there are riding the wave and using sustainability as a marketing tool. … I’d rather see it as a long-term goal rather than a trend.”
Grigsby hopes Ecolect will make that process easier.
Raised in Albany, N.Y., Grigsby spent his first year of college studying illustration at the Maryland Institute College of Art before finding his passion for design and transferring to RISD. While at RISD he spent six months in Paris, designing product as an intern for General Motors.
Upon graduating he moved to Boston for three months, where he pursued freelance work.
“I thought it would be easier because it’s a bigger city,” he said.
But it wasn’t, so he moved back to Providence and discovered he had far more contacts in Providence. Upon returning, Grigsby said, he almost immediately started getting clients in Boston and New York.
He started Design Awareness about a year and a half ago. The office is located in the mill rehab project The Plant on Valley Street, which rents artist live/work and creative startup space at affordable rates.
Asked why he decided to stay in Providence, Grigsby said, it’s because he enjoys the quality of life and the city’s proximity to Boston and New York. “Providence is great because it’s a growing city,” he added. •
