Thursday, October 08, 2009

Timberland Earthkeeper Hero Nate Bastien: the “Impact Designer”

Timberland Earthkeeper Hero Nate Bastien is an industrial designer who realizes his environmental responsibility. Nate uses his design and social entrepreneurial skills to improve the lives of the less fortunate and make the world a bit greener.

Known as an “Impact Designer”, Nate is creating break-through, environmentally friendly design solutions. At RISD Nate designed a range of products from a folding bicycle for urban commuters to an "assemble on site" oxygen concentrator for rural hospitals in the developing world. While studying, the more he learned about the role of industrial design the more he questioned it. On a RISD field trip, he visited the second highest point of elevation in Rhode Island—the Johnson Landfill. It was then when he made his decision to use industrial design to create sustainable and environmentally friendly and socially conscious products.

Nate is creating a ‘Street Pack’ for the homeless and is in the final stages of prototyping the backpack—it doubles as waterproof shelter and storage—and is made entirely from scrap materials. He founded Local 401, a socially and environmentally responsible project, to make industrial design more ethical. As part of Local 401, Nate is hoping to offer the backpack in a “buy one, give one” distribution platform and provide them to non-profits to generate enough support to tackle new problems.

As an Earthkeeper Hero,Nate is sharing his story of the ups and downs running Local 401 on Changents.com. Nate lives and works in Providence, Rhode Island.

Photo legend:
Top:Nate's design: a streetpack that doubles as a pillow and as a waterproof shelter and storage.
Bottom:Nate experiencing homeless way of live.