Compostmodern, The AIGA and IDSA's upcoming one-day conference, is focusing on "green design as everyday practice in the graphic and industrial design communities". It's being held on Saturday, January 24, at the California College of Arts in San Francisco. Confirmed speakers include a few usual suspects from Ford, Cargill Dow, and IDEO, representatives from ReadyMade Magazine, Celery Design (with o2's Bay Area liason), and plenty of others - the day's packed. If you can make it, we'd love to hear about it. (Thanks, Sarah)

As a practical, nuts & bolts counterbalance, Design:Green's day-long workshops are "Business Solutions for Sustainable Products... aimed at bringing U.S. product designers up to speed with the world-wide trend toward reducing environmental impact throughout the product lifecycle". Also endorsed by o2 and the IDSA, the workshops are coming to NYC, Minneapolis / St. Paul, and Chicago. I think these will be great: the organizers have a compelling take on sustainable design which additionally targets marketing as a major component of a 'green' product's success.