June 1, 2009 - A network of marketing, sustainability, and design consultants launched a new consortium today at the Sustainable Brands ’09 conference with the core aim of leveraging the group’s diversity to develop solutions for some of the world’s toughest economic and environmental problems.

The Sea Change Design Consortium says the “wildly differing fields of expertise” among its members will allow the group to take an holistic approach to tackling issues such as building global alliances and envisioning corporate innovation capabilities, when looking at the interdependencies and interrelationships of problems and their potential solutions.

Projects currently under consideration by the Sea Change Design Consortium include corporate governance, water, diversity, caring economics, local food systems, urban revitalization, and women and children's issues.

"We believe that design is uniquely suited to help solve a wide range of challenges,” says Lauralee Alben, creator of the Sea Change Design Process and founder of the Consortium . “That's because we define design differently. We assert that design is the conscious planning of meaningful acts that influence our relationship to humanity, the future, the sacred, and the natural world. By designing with our clients and their stakeholders we can do together what no single entity can do alone: create a continuum from sustainable products and services to social movements to a global consciousness."

Inaugural Members of the Consortium include:

• Alben Design
• Communications4Good – Read Sandy Skees SLM Colum here!
• Design Uprising
• Fit Associates
• Heller Communication Design – Hear Cheryl Heller speak at SB09 this week! Register for livestream access to the conference.
• The Murson Group