If you compare a refrigerator from 100 years ago to today, things don’t look that different. In part 3 we address the barriers to novel refrigerator design and share our process.

In the future our appliances will be able to work together and work differently, supplying us with greater functionality with a much smaller impact on the environment. This installment is about one way this might play out.

This series starts with the challenge: How might we help balance the load on the electrical grid to reduce carbon emissions?

I've always had a layman's interest in architecture and in LEED, the U.S. Green Building Council’s certification program for sustainable buildings. I’m a software developer, so designing buildings is well outside my area of expertise.

Designs On IDEO was a flexible content platform intended to showcase design concepts tied to current events, pressing global concerns, or interesting ideas worthy of exploration. The first topic to be covered was global warming.