Happy 233rd US!!!!!!

"It is the first responsibility of every citizen to question authority." Benjamin Franklin


There is always a better way to do things. Back to work on the 6th. Have a great weekend GS!

New Friends: Left On Red

The New York based band Left On Red recently stopped by our space and wrote a very nice blog posting about us here. Kelly and Liah have a loft in the Financial District of Manhattan and are developing a similar space sharing project with sustainable goals. Check out there music and what they are all about at their site: www.leftonredmusic.com.

Our Girl Maya Graces the NY Times Dining & Wine Section!

Peter DaSilva for The New York Times


Maya Donelson, childhood friend now urban farmer in San Francisco is highlighted in a recent NY Times article focused on the growing movement of rooftop farming.

“I’ve never had one kid who hasn’t wanted to get his hands dirty,” said Ms. Donelson, who studied architecture and environmental design. “They are willing to try anything if they see it growing and pull it out of the ground. We juiced the purple carrots and the kids drank that.”

Keep those kids working Maya!!!

Next Generation Workstation - 5 State St

We're close to finalizing the design for our next generation workstations at our Venture Space at 5 State st. Shelburne Falls. The new spaces will be less expensive than our original Anchor Spaces and will come with full time access to the building. More soon, including photos!

Venture Space - Designed to Empower

The Generation Sustain Team is currently collaborating with artist and builder Justin Lively and Timberly Hund of TALK By Design to design and implement the second generation of workstation in our space. These new spaces will have a smaller footprint and will house one person comfortably. There has been strong demand for a smaller less expensive space, so we will deliver.

Call or Email Caleb Dean for further information or to schedule a tour of the space.

Post Your Event On GS!

We're looking for upcoming events to tell our readers about.

Art, Design, Fashion, Music, Business, Local or Global with a Sustainable, Responsible Twist.

Contact Caleb.

New Friends: SUST - An Organic Women's Clothing Company

SUST ad in the May 2009 Issue of Dwell.

My first reaction while I was reading through the latest issue of Dwell Magazine and came upon an ad for a clothing company called SUST was, good name! We've been calling ourselves Susty's since we first got started over a year ago and are always on the look out for long lost friends. Couple that with the fact that I also use arrows in my marketing materials for my consulting firm Be One Creative and my heart started to beat a bit faster. After digging a bit more to learn about the company, its product, and its founders I started to uncover some striking similarities about how our companies came to be.

As we are always researching ways to diversify our Venture Space, we recently began discussing the incorporation of retail to supplement our co-working office and conference space. We will be coming out with our own line of t-shirts during the summer but we are also researching a collection of the latest sustainable, ethical, and responsible clothing lines. This in mind I contacted SUST to get further information.


SUST, Spring 2009

SUST is based out of San Francisco and was started by two childhood friends named Tristan Gribbin and Marion McKee. Tristan and Marion went through high school and college together in Northern California, which has always been a vortex for fresh thought and progressive culture. After working on their own careers and projects they recently came together in order to harness their creative potential and to realize their dream of harnessing the fashion industry to promote a positive movement of environmental sustainability and social responsibility.

Generation Sustain has a similar story. We were started by two sets of childhood friends who grew up together, attended the same highschool and college, and came together to start a business based on the positive and inclusive communication of sustainability. Tory Hanna and myself studied Environmental Design and have been working on harnessing the influential power of the built environment to create positive social change. We've always agreed that if the buildings and landscapes that we walk through every day have the power to influence our collective behavior, so must what we walk around in, clothes. Ethical and sustainable fashion, marketing, and product development are what Alee Marsh and Jennifer Kehoe have begun working on. The pair will both be graduating this year from the University of Massachusetts and we're excited to see what they will work on when they have a lot more time on their hands.


www.getsust.com

SUST's collection is made entirely of US grown 100 percent organic cotton in San Francisco. By working with US based cotton growers, local California based manufacturers, and mainataining a close relationship with the production of their garments, SUST ensures that true "fair trade principles are woven in every step of the way." Portions of their proceeds are also given to support ecological causes.

Their Spring 2009 collection invokes a minimalist beauty that seems to be very much a part of their business ideals. Their bright colors and simple elegant fits are depicted well in the photos of the collection taken in Iceland by Tristan's Icelandic husband, photographer and director Stefan Arni. The collection reminds me of the form of design that has influenced me the most, Scandanavian Minimalism. That said, if I were a woman, I'd wear their clothing. The clean lines and quality materials highlighted by bright colors suggest a positive break in a cluttered dreary environment.

SUST, Spring 2009


An example of Scandinavian Minimalism I spent much time in and around.
Shot facing north next to the "Black Diamond" Library in Copenhagen, Denmark.

We are happy to have come across this exciting new business and are looking forward to somehow working with SUST in the future. Our similar paths to starting our ventures speak to a new paradigm for innovation and sustainability, one that has moved away from alarmist environmentalism and cause elitism and will hopefully harness the power to influence through accessibility and quality design.

More information about SUST and photographs of their spring line can be viewed at www.getsust.com.

Boswell's Books - Shelburne Falls, MA

If you're ever in western Massachusetts, make sure to swing by Boswell's Books in Shelburne Falls. The store / cat named Boswell were recently purchased by Sarah Pepper Fournier Scanlon in 2008. She has done a great job renovating and building her collection of volumes focused on sustainability, permaculture, and transition culture ranging anywhere from topics like edible forest gardens to classic urban theory.



We hope to be working closely with Sarah in the future to get some good things going in our community and region.

Sailboats and the Evolution of the Problem Solving Process

Will we as humans be able to more accurately forecast potential problems so we don't have to rediscover old technologies to increase efficiency? With the emergence of technological hybridization in pop and mainstream culture, will we develop a collective hybrid model for problem solving, invention, and work? My favorite example of this is putting a sail on a boat.


www.kitesail.com

Spawn of Generation Sustain

I'm proud to announce our newest official venture. Be One Creative was set up to provide fresh eyes and innovative vision to the planning, marketing, and development of the cities we live in, the businesses that allow us to flourish, and the causes that drive us. For more information check out the blog while the site is being built. We'll be working closely with our network and clients to ensure that meaningful, game changing projects get off the ground in an attempt to shift the paradigm from urban planning to urban implementation.

New Friends: TALK By Design

Generation Sustain is happy to be working in collaboration with Timberly Hund and Travis Kline of TALK By Design to research and possibly develop further locations for our Venture Spaces. More news on this front will be coming out in the following months.


TALK By Design office In Brattleboro, Vt.




Guest office at TALK By Design

Interior Shots of GSVS1

Mckenzie Rollins Checking out the view with a book in our lounge.


Our workstations were built by our first tenant, Justin Lively. Pine wrapped with canvas and finished with poplar. Neutral and cool.


Raechel digging in to a book next to Joie Watson of Shine Design's Desk.

Welcome to Our New Tenants!

We would like to extend a warm welcome to our new tenants, as of February 1st our 6 initial workstations will be filled by local creative talent. We are currently developing plans to build up to six more Anchor tenant workstations for full-time inhabitants.

Welcome to: Justin Lively, Joie Watson, Erbin Crowell, and Annie Cheatham. More details on them and their projects are soon to come, so stay tuned!

-GS team

Shots of Our Space - Zooming In

View from the High Ledges in Shelburne. The building is a landmark.




Shot from across the Iron Bridge. Intersection Bridge and State.




The space is taking shape as the dividers for our workstations are being built as I type.

GS Press Release

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Contact:
Caleb Dean
Generation Sustain
Cell Phone: 413 - 531 - 1928
Email: caleb@generationsustain.com
www.generationsustain.com

GENERATION SUSTAIN and the
GENERATION SUSTAIN VENTURE SPACE

The space for the next generation of socially and environmentally responsible entrepreneurs, artists, visionaries, and consumers

SHELBURNE FALLS, MA, September 23, 2008 –The common interests of environmental sustainability, social responsibility, and economic empowerment has led a group of local young adults to launch their new Generation Sustain business headquarters in the historic Oddfellows/McCusker’s Market building in picturesque downtown Shelburne Falls. The Generation Sustain group has designed their Venture Space to fuel positive change by providing a resource center, networking facility, and a dynamic, diversified workspace designed to promote collaboration and harbor young ventures and fresh ideas focused on social and environmental responsibility. The space will stimulate the local economy by offering opportunities and support for young ventures to succeed and thrive in the Shelburne Falls area while creating a model for sustainable economic empowerment that can be taken anywhere in the world.

The Pioneer Valley continues to flourish as a culturally progressive hub. Within close proximity to major eastern points such as New York City, Boston, and international airports, the possibilities for sustainable development and networking are endless. Shelburne Falls in particular is highly desired for its rural location and quality of life, yet the lack of professional jobs forces many people, including young adults and college
graduates, to establish themselves in areas of greater population. The Generation Sustain core team of UMass Amherst undergrads and alumni felt the pressures of relocating themselves in order to partake in professional career paths. Yet the attachment to the area felt by all spurred the vision for creating and implementing a means by which to use their passions and skills to build a model for sustainable community prosperity. This, combined with the overwhelming need for a young, positive, inclusive voice for the sustainability movement, led the Generation Sustain team to create a system to challenge the traditional paradigm of population dependent professionalism by creating a hub of creativity that will result in intentional business collaboration, fostering sustainability within local environments and economies while speaking to the world. The large number of artists, entrepreneurs and research in Shelburne Falls and the Pioneer Valley makes a perfect opportunity for local and non-local peoples to come together, encouraging and generating an efficient business arena and community of responsible prospects.
Please contact Caleb Dean of the Generation Sustain team to schedule a meeting, interview, visit, or for any other inquiries by phone at 413 - 531 - 1928 or e-mail at caleb@generationsustain.com.


# # #

Brainstorming

GS Venture Space Design and Layout

We met with our friend Riana Heddens who happens to be an excellent interior designer last night in the space. She's helping us furnish and design the layout of the 1,900 square feet to create a dynamic, creative, collaborative work environment that can evolve with our needs.

The final design is not yet decided but we are looking for young industrial and furniture designers to show their work in our public areas. We'll also be borrowing ideas from the latest approaches to office space to create an example of outfitting on a startup budget without sacrificing congruent, sound design.

We are looking for local support and expertise in the Shelburne Falls/Valley area (Contact Caleb). Stay tuned for more as we hammer down the design and begin to implement.

Generation Sustain Space Venture

Done Deal!

We just locked down our first space in the rad little creative cultural hub of Shelburne Falls, Massachusetts. We have a full third floor, over 1000 square feet, that will now be the headquarters for GS and act as collaborative incubator space for other young responsible ventures.

The space is located in the Pioneer Valley in Western Massachusetts, is 3 hours driving distance from New York, NY, 2 hours from Boston, 5 hours from Montreal, 50 minutes from Bradley International Airport and is directly surrounded by Amherst, Northampton, the Five Colleges, the Berkshires and plenty of things to do outside.

We will bring in 3-10 small creative businesses, start-up ventures, and plenty of fresh ideas to support and drive our mission forward and be diversified under the canopy of Generation Sustain. As we build and work we will develop a model for creative economic development in non-traditional areas that will be able to be taken any where in the world to empower fresh ideas and sustainable development.

More to come on this front!

Connect Learn Empower...Create

-Caleb

Operation Incubation

We are currently working on locking down a space to be set up for other responsible entrepreneurs and artists to join us, collaborate and get ideas out. There will definitely be more to come on this topic in the coming weeks. Stay tuned!

-Caleb