Sustainable Minds(TM) Launches Information Services for Green Product Design

Strategic, practical and inspirational information helps designers, engineers
and managers learn from industry experts, and each other, about what it takes
to make smarter, more sustainable products

CAMBRIDGE, Mass., Aug. 5 /PRNewswire/ -- Sustainable Minds(TM), an
on-demand green product design software and information services company,
today launched the first of its information services for product designers,
design engineers, product managers, sustainability managers, marketers and
executives committed to creating more sustainable products.
SustainableMinds.com(TM) now features expert advice and an industry blog to
promote awareness and open knowledge sharing to bring sustainable product
design to mainstream product design.
"Governments, businesses and communities are demanding change. Designers
and manufacturers must start making greener products. The will is there, but
the know-how is not," says Terry Swack, CEO and Co-founder of Sustainable
Minds. "Our goal is to increase awareness and deliver knowledge -- not just to
designers, but to all types of people who have input into product design and
manufacturing decisions. The biggest shift required is to bring life cycle
thinking and a whole systems approach to the beginning of the design process.
Product teams need to understand the impacts of their design decisions
holistically and early enough in the process so they can create a greener
product from the start."
"These are the first of our information services which deliver new
knowledge, processes and strategies for a life cycle-based approach to product
design, and are the counterpart to our decision support software. This
combination is key for design organizations looking to innovate or
differentiate through delivering more sustainable products or design services.
Product design professionals can acquire new green skills, increasing their
value on the job and having greater impact in organizations. Manufacturers can
access new markets with innovative, environmentally superior products that
meet customer needs, and increase brand value by credibly marketing
'greenness'. Our aim is to cover the exceptionally broad topic of sustainable
design with experts from diverse areas who drill down to specifics that
practitioners will find illuminating," says Swack.
One of the new sections is Ask the Okala Experts, where readers can ask
for advice from the co-authors of Okala(TM), a comprehensive ecological design
course and the first North American life cycle assessment methodology. The
co-authors, Philip White, Louise St. Pierre and Steve Belletire, are educators
and designers who have spent years developing Okala to help guide product
teams to design more sustainable products. They provide knowledge, insights
and practical solutions to the latest sustainability issues facing product
development organizations and individuals today, and are looking for both
questions and feedback from readers.
In addition to Ask the Okala Experts, the Sustainable Minds Industry Blog
connects readers with experts in design, marketing, green manufacturing and
business. The posts cover a wide range of sustainability topics from
contributors representing consultancies, non-profits and manufacturing
companies such as Lunar, Gensler, Green Seal, Whirlpool, and Sun Microsystems.
Sustainable Minds invites readers to be part of the solution by adding their
thoughts and ideas in response.
Some of the Industry Blog contributors include:

* Eric Brody, Shift Advantage * David Laituri, Sprout Creation
* Linda Chipperfield, Green Seal * Ken Hall, Gensler
* Lorne Craig, Unicycle Creative * Richard Kubin, Vertex Consulting
* Chris Frank, Sun Microsystems * Rajat Shail, Whirlpool
* Scot Herbst and Travis Lee, * Zac West, IDeology
Lunar Design

Each month, a Sustainable Minds expert or contributor will be featured in
MCADCafe.com's MCADWeekly (with 60,000 subscribers) providing sustainable
design and manufacturing articles, updates and case studies.
http://www.mcadcafe.com
About Sustainable Minds
Sustainable Minds' mission is to mainstream sustainable product design in
an accessible, empowering and credible way. To do this, it has integrated deep
knowledge of product design, life cycle assessment and environmental systems
design with expertise in Web-based business, software design and customer
experience. SustainableMinds.com is the first on-demand, early-stage design
decision support software and information services suite that estimates a
product's potential life cycle environmental and human health impacts, in a
collaborative, learning work space. Sustainable Minds is committed to helping
create products that are environmentally beneficial, economically viable and
socially and ethically equitable. More information about Sustainable Minds,
founded in 2007 and headquartered in Cambridge, Massachusetts, can be found at
http://www.sustainableminds.com.
SOURCE Sustainable Minds

Sandy Skees of Communications4Good, +1-831-332-4387,
sandy@communications4good.com, for Sustainable Minds