Thesis idea

I don't know if anyone even reads this, but if you do and want to give me some feedback, I would appreciate it! This was my initial thought and may change.

After the meeting with Anna today, I started thinking about what I want to do for my thesis project. I've known for a while I wanted to design a retail space, since that is more what I'm leaning towards outside of school, and haven't had the chance to design a retail space yet. I am also becoming increasingly more passionate about environmental issues and trying to act locally to reduce my impact on the environment. As designers, we are all aware of the push towards sustainability and LEED and USGBC and all the other organizations geared towards green design. However, in our everyday lives, there are many things we do that have a negative impact on the environment.

My proposal to solve this problem is to design a retail store that sells only green products. There are many products currently available that have a lesser impact on the environment. I found a website that specializes in green products ranging from compostable trash bags, natural household cleaners, to recycled tissues (www.letsgogreen.biz). Also I'm not sure that this would be enough for an entire store, so I also had the thought of making it a grocery store, selling local and organic food. This might be too similar to Deep Roots Market on Spring Garden, though. Another option is having a coffee shop, or snack bar attached and have an area where community events can happen, and have presentations about sustainability and literature regarding the green movement.

Some concerns I have are that it's been done before, and that the issue of sustainable living is too broad. I know these types of stores exist, but my hope it that stores like these will start popping up in more convenient areas and be accessible to more and more people. Another concern I didn't touch on is my distain for massive superstores, Walmart in particular. I don't want to go on a rant about how much I hate Walmart, as there are many issues related to that (transportation to store, importing of products, massive building footprint, terrible building design). I would like to see less superstores being built, and more smaller, local stores that sell a variety of products. I feel that local stores are much more impressionable that superstores, provide the same type, but higher quality products, less stressful and crowded, provide a sense of familiarity, and overall more pleasant than superstores, and would like to see an increase in customers supporting local stores.

Any ideas, thoughts, comments, suggestions?