I am a designer from India, and I practice design with the values I was brought up with. Values like economizing resources, being frugal and thrifty, repurposing things for multiple uses and trying to be mindful about what I consume. I want to engage with the broader HCC (Human Centered Computing) community on ways to bring sustainable, tangible changes to not only the design practice, but also the designed artifacts. Based on some conversations, I feel like environment change and conservation isn't one of the top-most things on the minds of people in my design community. A small example being the lack of recycling bins for proper segregation of waste in some buildings at Georgia Tech. The facility manager informed me that the trash collection agency around the college is under-equipped to segregate trash at the city level, so it all ends up in the same place irrespective of measures taken at an individual level. Now I would like to investigate this more through proper channels and highlight this at community forums, but I am held back by not knowing how much and what kind of impact an international student like me can make. I want to figure out ways to change that and make a larger difference to the community beyond my own practice.
I heard about the Climate Reality Leadership Corps training in Atlanta, and instantly signed up. This training is about learning ways to get involved in tackling the climate crisis and solutions from the Founder and Chairman, former US Vice President and Nobel Laureate Al Gore, and a diverse set of expert speakers. I'm super stoked about it, and can't wait to get started.
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