Vote Now for the Second Annual Grant for Change Design Competition
Nau, the sustainable clothing company (read about them more here), kicked off their annual Grant for Change contest this May, and now the polls are open. On July 27, one of 123 nominees will receive a $10,000 grant for a project that uses design for a humanitarian purpose. Vote on the nominee you would like to proceed to the Top Ten anytime between now and July 6 at 5 p.m. PST. You can peruse the full list of nominees on Nau's site. For now, here are three to start off with. Nada Bike hopes to set up a bike production lab in Greensboro, Alabama, which will provide cheap bike frames and community repair resources. The frames will be built with bamboo, a renewable resource grown in the Black Belt region of the United States, thus providing jobs and income for farmers in the impoverished county surrounding Greensboro. The Nada BikeLab represents a dual approach to sustainability—a more self-sufficient community supported by less wasteful means of transportation. Central City Concern would use the funding to design a bed frame that could improve living conditions in homeless shelters, recovery houses, and low-income housing. Using the principles of functional design, they hope to create a piece of furniture that is both ergonomically and aesthetically appealing. Most importantly, the bed will also be unappealing to bed bugs, which have become an increasing problem in low-income areas.
Embrace plans to develop technology that will provide infants in developing countries with a steady source of warmth to prevent deaths from neonatal hypothermia. The Infant Warmer would be portable, affordable, and available at rural health care centers for increased accessibility. Embrace's technology stands out because it does not require constant electricity, which makes it possible to use at home where it's most needed.
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