LOU YONGQI holds a PhD in urban studies from Tongji University, where he is Vice Dean of the College of Design & Innovation and Executive Director of the Sino-Finnish Center. He also holds a visiting professorship in the School of Art and Design at Aalto University in Helsinki, Finland. Active in promoting interdisciplinary sustainable design education, research, and practice internationally, Lou sits on many design-oriented boards and advisory committees worldwide. In 2002, he founded the studio Tektao, seeking to deepen his research-based design practice; the studio has completed numerous projects in the areas of architecture, urban design, and exhibition design. Lou’s published works include the books Tektao Files (2007), Environmental Design (2008), and An Acupunctural Design Approach (2011). He is also the author of many published papers on urban planning, innovation, and design research. SONIA MANCHANDA is a graduate of the National Institute of Design in Ahmedabad, India. As co-founder and principal of Idiom, one of India’s largest integrated design consultancies, she works in the areas of business design, brand identity, and visual communications, consulting with large corporations and small businesses alike, in sectors including healthcare, education, retail, hospitality, sports, media, and entertainment. Frequently involving civic values and public/private partnerships, Manchanda’s practice has included work on national cultural events, urban development initiatives, and the identity of the 19th Commonwealth Games held in Delhi in 2010. She is the creator of SPR E A D , a radical design education and consulting initiative, and has played a lead role in DR E A M:I N , an open source innovation project that employs design thinking to create value for life and society across the developing world. JOÃO TEZZA NETO trained in Economics at the Federal University of Acre, Brazil, and has pursued a career focused on sustainable economic development in the Amazon rain forest, specializing in the initiation and management of certification processes for forest products and services. As Director of the Department of Markets and Forest Extraction of Acre, he coordinated the construction of productive infrastructure and the preparation of business plans for forest products, especially Brazil nuts. Neto participated directly in the creation of social criteria for the Brazil nut that in 2000 were approved by the fair trade certification agency FLO International. Subsequent positions have involved him in projects including the development of socio-environmental criteria for assessing the sustainability of fruit production across the Amazon. He currently serves as Technical-Scientific Director of the Sustainable Amazon Foundation, part of a team responsible for implementing the Bolsa Floresta (“forest allowances”) program, which rewards traditional communities in the Amazon Protected Areas for adopting alternatives to deforestation.
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