We’ve been quiet for a few months, but we’re finally ready to share some exciting news. The Ecological Design Collective is now an independent non-profit project. We’ve built a completely new community platform for members to use. And we’re hosting a public event this Thursday Nov. 17th (in Baltimore and online) to celebrate and share more. Please join us!

We’ve been working to create an open and independent space for researchers, designers, activists, artists and others to come together and nurture radical ecological futures. We’re grateful for the chance to pursue this vision now as a non-profit project sponsored by Inquiring Systems, joining their slate of projects focused on sustainable and regenerative futures.

Thoughtful exchanges with so many of you taught us that we needed to revamp our open source digital infrastructure. Take a look at our new online platform for something really different: an engaging space for ecological visioning and organizing, events and discussions, and collaborative experiments free from corporate clickbait and the whims of capitalist elites. Fed up with Twitter, Facebook, Google, Zoom? Bring your ideas, images, and happenings here instead.

The platform is built to allow any member to share projects and events, and to kick off specific groups of their own. We’ve already seen some inspiring ventures in our beta testing over the last couple of months. Your existing EDC username and email will give you access, we’ve imported every existing member into this new system. You’ll just need to create a new password on the Sign In page using the “Forgot Password” link to get started. The How To page lays out key features of the new platform. And stay tuned for the launch of our dedicated EDC Hub mobile app, coming soon. 

Join us later this week for an EDC open house to celebrate this launch, learn how to get involved with the collective, and think together about life-centered design--

We’ll be pitching our pop-up geodesic dome at the Maryland Institute College of Art in Baltimore, and streaming online for those farther afield. Stop by or tune in online to hear from many of our EDC curators: designer Lee Davis of the MICA Center for Social Design, environmental justice activist Shashawnda Campbell of the South Baltimore Community Land Trust, architect Cristina Murphy of Morgan State University, anthropologists Nicole Labruto and Anand Pandian of Johns Hopkins University, and more. 

Please feel free to share the word with others who might like to join this community. We’re eager to see where this collective may go. Hope to see you soon!