Sustainable Living in Austin
Overview
Your agency has been selected by the partnership of Glen and Howard Tullman, with assistance from Microsoft, to deliver a digital experience or experiences that will engage the Austin, TX community to adopt a sustainable lifestyle.
Brothers, Glen and Howard Tullman, are Chicago based entrepreneurs that share a passion for environmental stewardship. Howard, President and CEO of FlashPoint Academy, ensured the institution was the first LEED certified school built in Chicago. Glen, recently founded a company called SoCore, committed to making solar energy affordable to small businesses. The Tullman’s are firm believers in the power of innovation and commerce to effect powerful cultural change. To test their ideas, they’ve recently set their eyes on Austin, TX as a community ripe with potential and opportunity.
Specifically, they’ve recently been inspired by the following:
- 1. New economic development in Austin such as Mueller housing complex.
- 2. Grass roots and local government initiatives such at the Green Technology Alliance and the Sustainable Communities Initiative.
- 3. The advanced infrastructure of Austin Energy and its progressive operations strategy.
The Tullman brothers will fund a city-wide sustainability program that impacts commuters, consumers, students and business in Austin. Its focuses helping Austin citizens understand how their daily activities and choices impact the environment and provide guidance on how to lessen their impact. The catch? The program isn’t about the future or what could be, but about what’s doable now. Using off the shelf technology and services that people already have and are available today.
The Tullmans have partnered with Microsoft to make a US $500,000 investment in this program to show how small individual changes, coupled with grass roots and community organized efforts can substantially improve the environment where we live and work.
More on Glen and Howard Tullman, recently featured in BusinessWeek…
Two of Chicago's leading entrepreneurs happen to be brothers. But it's a good thing they didn't actually grow up together. Howard Tullman, 14 years older, already had left the nest when Glen, the baby of the family, persuaded their mother to let him cut a hole in the roof of the family's New Providence (N.J.) home to test his ideas on solar energy. Mom never said no. But Howard, born bossy, wouldn't have let Glen experiment on his own. "He would have wanted a bigger hole," says Glen. Admits Howard: "I was an overpowering presence."
Assignment
Your firm has been selected to create the platform that helps the citizens of Austin live more sustainably using current technology and social media principles. To enable this program, your team is tasked with the following:
1. Develop the public space presence for this program. Our goals are to inform, recruit, excite and motivate the citizens of Austin. The city of Austin is installing digital signage throughout the community to support this effort. It’s expected that viral marketing and traditional media campaigns will drive most of the awareness of these efforts and that those awareness efforts are not in the scope of your proposal.
Focus on the following three areas with your solution
a. Travel and transportation and shared miles
i. Such as how to help Austin inhabitants take advanced of mass transit where possible or share.
ii. How to take advantage of the concepts of ride sharing and car pooling
iii. How to travel and commute using efficient miles
iv. How to take advantage of information services for current traffic conditions and road information.
b. Commerce
i. Help business and consumers let each other know about their commitment or interest in sustainability.
ii. Businesses that use or create alternative energy
iii. Identify consumers that are interested in patronizing sustainable businesses
iv. Help businesses and consumers be more aware of energy usage and power management tools.
v. Show how using existing data services and new automation techniques, energy efficiency can be increased without impact to comfort or usage patterns.
c. Innovation in LEED with technology in the Innovation and Design Process Category
i. Demonstrate innovative thinking and design process around LEED using technology in a community, many to many, or installation fashion—such as making feedback about the environment and our impact in it a part of the community via sculpture, digital billboard, large format device other means.
Reputation
a. We believe that publically visible reputation will be a critical component to foster adoption and change of behavior. Our goal is to foster a “keeping up with the Jones” aspect to lessening environmental impact
b. Your proposed solution should weave reputation and reputation impact into the choices each individual makes
Channels & Touch Points
To increase effectiveness and efficacy of this program, it is imperative that the citizens of Austin can engage with this program across multiple channels & touch points. Your solution is expected to deliver an interactive experience across the following devices and environments:
· Web
· Desktop
· Mobile
· Public Space or Kiosk
Inspiration
· Windows Drive
· GreeNet
· EcoDrive
· IU EcoVis
· Sparx
· Edelweiss
· Edison PC Power Management Software
· Carbon & Water Calculator
· Smart Environments
· Google PowerMeter
· Solutions created at a student design event last year conducted by Microsoft called Imagine Cup and the 2008 Challenge that was focused on technology and sustainability.
Considerations
The following are considerations, not guidelines that should be evaluated when designing a solution:
Audience Personas
Persona 1: The New Urbanist
Name: Dr. Thomas Reece
Age: 44
Dr. Thomas Reece is a professor of international human rights law and a self-proclaimed new urbanist. He and his wife have 3 kids and live in a modest 1500ft home in central Austin. Thomas brags about his ‘small footprint’ to friends and encourages everyone to do more with less. The one and only family car is a 2001 Volvo (By his calculations it was better for the environment for him to keep the car versus buy a new one—even an energy efficient one, based on his cradle to grave calculations). Thomas prides himself on riding his bike to work. However, when weather doesn’t permit, he is forced to commute the 3 miles to work by car. Thomas and his wife both have laptops and there is one desktop computer for the children which they share. The Reece’s have traveled to India, South Africa, Switzerland and Thailand in the past few years and have made choices to live as simple and local as possible, deeply impacted by the trips. Taking advantage of his summers off, Thomas plans several home improvement projects to add ‘green equity’ to his home and reduce the family’s use of vital resources, energy and water. He also uses each project as a lesson for his kids, taking them though the costs savings and environmental cause and effect. Thomas wife, Naomi, owns a franchise of Fruitful Yield, a local vitamin store that has its roots in Chicago. The business is profitable, but the recent economic crisis has resulted in a year over year decline in sales of 7%. The Reece’s also attend every educational course or class in town on solar panels and installations, in hopes of someday going ‘off the grid’, doing the work themselves for their business first, and eventually, their home. Both of the Reeces are active cellphone users and Thomas recently traded his aging Nokia phone in for an HTC Touch, while his wife uses a Motorola Q.
Persona 2: Government Idealist
Name: Regina Wilkinson
Age: 25
Regina Wilkinson is a recent Berkley graduate with big ideas and stars in her eyes. She is tireless, earning a menial salary as the city council’s senior assistant. She would like to make major policy decisions someday that help the city expand and grow in a way that benefits everyone. She lives a bit north of town where apartments are larger and much more affordable. In order to take her dog ‘Major’ to an open field or dog park she has to drive at least 4 miles. Regina has one laptop that serves for personal and work. She must carry it everywhere, never knowing when an eleventh hour emergency proposal edit will come through. Her car is a 12 year old Ford Focus, which has good gas mileage for a small car, but with the wear and tear of her 15 mile commute, it’s not going to last much longer. Since she lives in the suburbs, she doesn’t have a viable public transportation option. Taking the bus involves 3 route changes and 2.5 hours. Regina often wonders why the commuter rail prop doesn’t get approved. Regina is concerned for the future, she would like to do more but with her monthly take-home, ‘buying green’ always seems just out of grasp. Recently, Regina started a graduate program at The University of Texas at Austin School of Architecture. She suspects she’ll be paying the loans off for years but is excited about the program. Addicted to email, Regina can’t leave the house without her Blackberry.
Persona 3: The Business Owner
Name: Michael McCormick
Age: 65
Michael McCormick has owned his own moving company for 37 years. He has seen the ups and downs of business and gas prices. The company has 13 diesel moving trucks of varying sizes. Most of the fleet is aging and are not as efficient as the new models on the market. He knows his employees don’t always plan their routes resulting in wasted time and money. Last summers’ hike in gas prices really hurt Michael’s bottom line. He is 65 and doesn’t ever plan on retiring. He loves his Chevy pickup and his old Mercedes. Michael has never really concerned himself with technology or computers but uses his work laptop—a Dell that his account recommended he purchase to write emails and conduct business and his wife has a computer they both use at their home—another Dell. Mr. McCormick drives 23 miles to work 7 days a week. If something goes wrong he has to be there, he doesn’t trust his drivers to handle customers. So he often finds himself making his commute twice a day. In the past few years he has watched his gas costs soar but is too stubborn to purchase an economical car. However, he and his wife talk often about downsizing to a smaller home now that the kids have left the nest. They would like to buy a condominium to pare down the cost of maintaining a large home. Michael uses his mobile phone extensively during these drives, an aging Motorola Razor with a piece of duct tape that keeps the battery from falling out.
Persona 4: Social Activist
Name: Dusty California
Age: 37
Dusty California has done it all, protested logging by living in the redwood trees of southern Oregon, ran for mayor of Austin (unsuccessfully) by climbing the city buildings to speak about the ineffectiveness of the government and subsequently getting arrested countless times, he has gotten by on 18,000 dollars or less a year for his entire adult life. Even though he has a Phd. from Columbia (Or at least would have, had he bothered to present his thesis), he happily lives as simply as possible. Dusty only wears organic hemp clothing and walks or rides his bike. If he is forced to ride public transportation he goes online and donates money to ensure that his carbon footprint remains at zero. He owns a Macbook (bought used) laptop so he can interact with his activist friends online and run several environmental message boards. He also writes and submits a constant stream of ‘green’ literature and research to state and government sympathizers. He lives just across the river from downtown, renting a bedroom from one of the other activists. Dusty speaks with his dollar; everything he purchases is researched beforehand, to ensure that he is buying from companies that have the same or similar philosophies as his own. Nothing crosses his lips that isn’t local and organic. He wishes more people understood how important sustainability is for the future of our planet but doesn’t see much that solves the big environmental issues. He works for Naiomi at the Fruitful Yield as an assistant manager. Dusty has fought owning a phone but Naomi insisted that he get one once he started working at Fruitful Yield—which she even offered to pay for. Dusty opted for a refurbished 8GB iPhone 3G.
Presentation
Your team will have 7 minutes to present your Microsoft Silverlight and/or WPF prototype to a panel of 5 judges and an audience at the PhizzPop Finale at SXSW 2009 in Austin, TX. Presentation of your team’s design prototype will be at the following date and venue:
Monday, March 16, 2009
7:00 - 11:00 PM EST
PhizzPop Design Challenge Finale at SXSW 2009
Pangaea
Austin, TX 12345
Support
Dedicated support will be provided to all teams upon the delivery of this Design Challenge brief. All conversations between individual agency teams and Microsoft support contacts will be confidential and all communications will not be disclosed to other competing agency teams.
Register at www.phizzpop.com
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