ART CENTER SUMMIT 2009, CLOSING SESSION – MEANS TO SUSTAINABILITY

Exemplifying the wide reach of the New Energy age, the last afternoon of Art Center’s 2009 Design Summit on sustainable mobility opened with a short talk from Air Force Colonel Jodine K. Tooke on the challenges of security in cyberspace. Colonel Tooke stressed that the military is working to protect national security – and the nation’s ability to do business on the Internet – from disruptive assaults and privacy invasions without itself perpetrating disruptive assaults and invading privacy. Tricky challenge.

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James Goldstein, Executive Officer of the California Air Resources Board CARB) followed Colonel Tooke. In California, air quality and cars are married like smoking and lung cancer. It was therefore exciting to hear Goldstein assert that for CARB (1) air is a natural resource, (2) air is a commodity and (3) clean air is a right.

It was also exciting to hear largely good news. California’s nation-leading drive for more New Energy and cleaner cars is gathering momentum. The Schwarzenegger-driven Western Climate Change Initiative (WCCI) that will cap and trade emissions across the western U.S. and Canada is on track for its 2012 launch. And the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), under Lisa Jackson (the Obama-appointed director), is about to finally back Schwarzenegger’s drive for stricter auto emission standards.

Goldstein also reported more solar energy in the state, improved water protection and conservation measures and advances in land use that put California on track for a 90% reduction in greenhouse gas emissions by 2050. He even reported CARB has plans to revisit its less-than-satisfactory Zero Emissions Vehicle (ZEV) program in the near future although he was not very specific on that point.

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The Summit’s final panel was a motley, covering a range of exciting emerging items.

Matthew Trevithick, a partner with venerable venture capital firm Venrock, described his firm’s exciting but challenging undertakings in New Energy and sustainable mobility. He said the secret to getting at venture capital is to understand that venture investing is a small and personal business and the players invest in things they personally find interesting and exciting. He highlighted a Venrock project to capture wasted heat from internal combustion engines for improved efficiencies and a Venrock company making big battery packs for electric drive train vehicles.

Steve Fambo, the founder and co-Chair of Aptera, the makers of a futuristic EV just about to launch. He said the car’s success will rest entirely on the fact that it is the most efficient vehicle on the road. Its design follows its function, which is to be efficient in materials and aerodynamics. He described the aerodynamics as “slippery,” meaning the car slips through the air with minimum resistance.

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Cecilia Estolano of the City of Los Angeles branch of the California Redevelopment Agency spoke next. She declared herself in pursuit of remaking L.A. into the greenest big city in the world. Her objectives: Good jobs, wealth and a high quality lifestyle.

She enthusiastically proclaimed LA to be well on its way to her goal, with robust clean air, clean water, clean vehicle and New Energy programs. If only NewEnergyNews had somebody with Estolano’s zest selling sponsorships...

The last speaker was Andy Ogden, Chair of the Graduate Industrial Design program at Art Center. His thoughts were provocative. He said the summit had been rich with design thinking but now it was time to include 1–business thinking, 2-systems thinking, 3-eco thinking and 4-transformational thinking.

He offered redefinitions of “innovation” and “system design” and a few other terms, reorienting them toward design that is aimed at the marketplace. It was a practical perspective, given the current economic situation. Ogden concluded his remarks with a remark that suggested he must know something about arrogant young art students. Transformation, he said, is threatening. Getting ideas successfully placed in the marketplace is difficult. Doing so requires great leadership.

The speakers more or less repeated their separate pitches during a short question period until the moderator asked them, in closing, to name the most disruptive technology they knew of, the most disruptive idea they could envision, the most important industry that does not yet exist.

All 4 chose the same thing: Distributed New Energy generation. Distributed New Energy generation in neighborhoods and on military bases. Distributed New Energy generation with V2G capacity so as to fuel electric vehicles. Distributed New Energy generation in small businesses. Distributed New Energy generation with the smart power of information technology to facilitate communication between transportation systems and power consumption systems.

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Vision. That’s what it’s all about. Then comes the design. Finally, the business.

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The Art Center Summit 2009: Expanding the Vision of Sustainable Mobility
February 19, 2009 (Art Center College of Design)

WHO
Col. Jodine K. Tooke, US Air Force; James Goldstein, Executive Officer, California Air Resources Board; Clark Kellogg. Professor, University of California, Berkeley; Cecilia Estolano, California Redevelopment Agency, City of Los Angeles; Andy Ogden, Chair of Graduate Industrial Design, Art Center College of Design; Matthew Trevithick, Partner, Venrock; Steve Fambo, founder/Co-Chair, Aptera

WHAT
The Art Center Summit 2009: Expanding the Vision of Sustainable Mobility
Closing Sessions: Transportation, Energy and Cyberspace; A Military Perspective (Tooke) and Sustainability-Driven Innovation Models (Kellogg, Estolano, Ogden, Trevithick, Fambo)

Art Center Summit 2009 - children of the future (click to enlarge)

WHEN
Closing session: Thursday, February 19, 2009

WHERE
Pasadena Convention Center (East Pavilion), 300 East Green Street, Pasadena, CA 911 (626-396-4308)

WHY
- Tooke: Cyberspace superiority is required because cyber threats have a military-civilian overlay. The military is pursuing education and training to take advantage of technology and tools to fulfill its obligation to protect the nation. She mentioned the beginning of the need for cybersecurity was associated with William Gibson’s 1984 Neuromancer fiction, which started the cyberpunk revolution. She said there is now a national cybersecurity center established by Presidential directive. She described exercises and simulations of hacker invasions run by the Department of Defense to develop and practice joint interagency and intercommunity policy, defined roles and appropriate law enforcement tools. She said the most important objective is to balance security and trust so as to ensure freedome of action.
- Goldstein’s description of California’s fight with EPA suggested the new vehicle emissions standards are in the immediately foreseeable future.
- Trevithick: Transportation and electricity supply are the 2 huge markets. The 4 reasons people buy new products: 1- better performance; 2- lower cost; 3-innovation; 4-better design.
- Fambo: Form follows function in the Aptera. It is technology infused to have minimum air resistance and drag. The Aptera’s composite materials lower its weight to less than that of a Honda Civic but 6 times stronger than steel. It is being developed in 3 models: the all-electric 2e, the 2g with an internal combustion engine that gets 100+ mpg, and the prototype 2h, a PHEV.

LA is developing the biggest city solar energy program in the world. (click to enlarge)

- Estolano: LA is on its way to becoming the biggest green city in the world with utilities driving New Energy development, a waste stream cleaning program, an aggressive water consumption control program, and aggressive greenhouse gas emissions reduction program to get emissions 35% below 1990 levels by 2020, an aggressive alternative fuel vehicle program at its port and in its city fleets and mass transit program. It is also pioneering green building and is greening the biggest port in US as well as LAX. She is promoting 3 areas: the San Fernando Valley, the harbor region and downtown. She wants to building a cleantech corridor downtown.

Ogden borrowed from cradle2cradle concepts to eco-thinking. (click to enlarge)

- Ogden: System design is the process of optimizing balance btween 3 things. It is hard to do. The 3 things: 1-human matters, 2-business matters, and 3-technological components. Where these things overlap is where the solutions are. The triangle at the center of where these 3 areas overlap represents success in a market that is in a society that is part of an ecological system. Eco thinking is represented by the cradle2cradle concept: Earth has natural cycle, and everything taken out must either be returned or – if it becomes too toxic – recycled. Transformation is threatening and requires great leadership.

QUOTES
- Vice Admiral Mauney Deputy Commander, U.S. Strategic Command: “Cyberspace has become a war fighting domain like land, sea, air and space…”
- General James Jones, U.S. Marines 4-star General/retired & U.S. National Security Advisor: “The whole concept of what constitutes the membership of the national security community…has got to embrace a broader membership.”
- Matthew Trevithick, partner, Venrock: “Design will be the essential component of getting clean energy into the marketplace.”
- Steve Fambo, founder/Co-Chair, Aptera: “The Aptera is designed to be more slippery than Bill Clinton in a deposition.”
- Steve Fambo, founder/Co-Chair, Aptera: “The power of design to delight the customer.”
“We are your partner in trying to make LA a center for green transportation.”
- Andy Ogden, Chair of Graduate Industrial Design, Art Center College of Design: “Innovation is a business term.”
- Andy Ogden, Chair of Graduate Industrial Design, Art Center College of Design: “Great design thinking must be replaced with optimal design thinking.”
- Geoff Wardle, Director of Advanced Mobility Research, Art Center College of Design: “However complex, we cannot design crap.”