Since the recession first began, a long series of writers, activists, and thinkers have all been asking a similar question: what, exactly, is the relationship between a strong economy and a healthy environment? Are we experiencing a crisis of consumerism that will forever decrease consumption, they ask? Will the rise of the middle class throughout the developing world strain energy resources more than the world can handle? And, most of all, can we stimulate job growth without plundering our natural resources in the process?

I’ve spent most of the summer working in my hometown of Chicago for a nonprofit economic accelerator, the Clean Energy Trust, and thinking about all of these questions. There are certainly no easy answers, but a better economy by design would make them all a lot simpler.

When economists talk about the power of the free market, they generally have a handful of assumptions in mind. People, for one, need to have perfect access to information, and nobody should be making purchases that affect anybody else. But what we’ve found in the Midwest is that these assumptions usually don’t hold up very well within the realm of clean energy. Investors don’t know how to evaluate new technologies, consumers don’t understand what will save them money, and policymakers haven’t quite realized how it all affects the public. The result is that the gears of the market are stiff, and there are neither as many jobs nor as much renewable energy as there should be. At the Clean Energy Trust, we spend most of our time thinking about what a better economy by design would mean—who would need to know what, and what resources would need to exist that don’t right now. Our hope is that the result will be a better and more efficient free market for everybody.

There are a lot of problems with the economy right now, and many of them are pretty complex. But every bad jobs report ought to be met not only by bureaucratic wrangling, but also by designers thinking about how to build a better economy. It won’t just lead to more jobs, but more good jobs, in every sense of the word.

Environmental sustainability is one of the fundamental values of the Better World by Design community. We design the conference in order to provide maximum value to our attendees‚ with amazing speakers and panelists, terrific workshops and tours, quality connections with other attendees, fun social events, and delicious food‚ while minimizing our carbon footprint.

In 2011, we are moving towards eliminating waste from the conference. We’re beginning with our food system: this year’s daytime food events will be zero-waste events. What do we mean by “zero waste”? Our food system is now completely designed around local food and composting. Any pre-consumer and post-consumer byproducts will be composted. By approaching the food system not just as linear relation from producer to consumer, but instead as a cradle-to-cradle cycle, we hope to show our attendees one key element of a better world.

Please bring your own water bottles and mugs. Disposable beverage containers will not be provided at the conference, except as available for purchase.