Amazon launches “Climate Pledge Friendly” program

https://www.aboutamazon.com/news/sustainability/amazon-launches-climate-pledge-friendly-program

As designers, pay attention to the “Compact by Design” label.

The spirit of 2020 and maybe 2021, 2022?

Read the cover-story here

Illustration of Adrian Tomine

Inclusive design pioneer August de los Reyes dies of COVID-19 complications

August de los Reyes, a prominent designer who helped develop the modern Xbox interface and became a fierce advocate for inclusivity in design, has died. He had only left the house three times since March of last year—for a doctor’s appointment, for a license renewal, and to vote, according to his husband. He died on December 21. He was 50 years old.

The dark side of the Nordic Model

Extinction Rebellion demonstrators protest in front of Norway‘s embassy during the launch of a new wave of civil disobedience in Berlin, Germany, October 11, 2019 [Christian Mang/Reuters]

Scandinavians have it all. Universal public healthcare and education that is the envy of the world. Reasonable working hours with plenty of paid vacation. They have some of the highest levels of happiness on the planet, and top virtually every ranking of human development.   

Consumer Behavior: 13 Post-Pandemic Trends to Watch

Read article here

Posted by Dawn Houghton at the stream “The Future of Ingredient and Product Transparency”” at Currnt – the new knowledge network.

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Forget New Year’s Resolutions and Conduct a ‘Past Year Review’ Instead

I’m often asked about how I approach New Year’s resolutions. The truth is that I no longer approach them at all, even though I did for decades.

Why the change?

I have found “past year reviews” (PYR) more informed, valuable, and actionable than half-blindly looking forward with broad resolutions. I did my first PYR after a mentor’s young daughter died of cancer on December 31st, roughly eight years ago, and I’ve done it every year since. It takes 30-60 minutes and looks like this:

1. Grab a notepad and create two columns: POSITIVE and NEGATIVE.
2. Go through your calendar from the last year, looking at every week.
3. For each week, jot down on the pad any people or activities or commitments that triggered peak positive or negative emotions for that month. Put them in their respective columns.
4. Once you’ve gone through the past year, look at your notepad list and ask, “What 20% of each column produced the most reliable or powerful peaks?”
5. Based on the answers, take your “positive” leaders and schedule more of them in the new year. Get them on the calendar now! Book things with friends and prepay for activities/events/commitments that you know work. It’s not real until it’s in the calendar. That’s step one. Step two is to take your “negative” leaders, put “NOT-TO-DO LIST” at the top, and put them somewhere you can see them each morning for the first few weeks of 2019. These are the people and things you *know* make you miserable, so don’t put them on your calendar out of obligation, guilt, FOMO, or other nonsense.

That’s it! If you try it, let me know how it goes.

And just remember: it’s not enough to remove the negative. That simply creates a void. Get the positive things on the calendar ASAP, lest they get crowded out by the bullshit and noise that will otherwise fill your days. Good luck and godspeed!

Original article