A frantic few weeks of travel and talk finally wound-up with Eric’s keynote at the 101 More Things Designers Can Do to Save the Earth sustainable design workshop. The event is a presented by the School of Visual Concepts and the AIGA.

Eric Karjaluoto speaking at Y13 in San Diego (Photo: Kirby Yau)

The week prior we took part in a panel discussion at VIDFEST, which is a great event that we were very happy to be a part of. In it Communicopia’s Jason Mogus moderated Tom Williams of Givemeaning, Dylan Higgins of Kiva and Eric Karjaluoto of Design Can Change. The group then discussed how the digital space is increasingly being used as the platform of choice for altruistic projects. (Click here for a play-by-play.)

After years of wanting to go, we were happy to finally attend and present at the HOW Conference. This year’s event took place in Boston and was attended by over 4,000 designers. Click here and here to read more about the event.

And back in March, Eric abandoned everyone at smashLAB to present at the Y13 Conference, which is presented by AIGA San Diego. He posted his thoughts on it in his article “Reflections on Y13: Seeds of Change” at ideasonideas. His head was burned from only 30 minutes in the sun. We laughed at him. (He deserved it for leaving us in the Vancouver rain.)

In the meanwhile, we’ve also been lucky enough to receive some truly remarkable support from the media in spreading the word about Design Can Change. In the past weeks Jennifer Hollett wrote a brilliant piece in the Globe and Mail, entitled “Smashing global warming with greener design” and Brian Morton’s “Smash climate change” appeared in The Vancouver Sun. We also had some press in Desktop’s (Australia) recent article “Green by Design.”

All in all it has been a pretty exciting couple of months. That being said, Eric’s now home, and thinks he might like to stay on the ground for a while.