Matt Grigsby is the Co-Founder of Ecolect and the Chapter Chair of IDSA Rhode Island.

My business partner Joe Gebbia and I met while students at RISD's Industrial Design program. Our shared love and desire for sustainable design and development led us to start Ecolect (derived from the words ecology and intellect) in 2005. From day one we've been a company dedicated to making it easy and exciting for the design community to create sustainably.

The core of our business is ecolect.net, a comprehensive website programmed using Ruby on Rails. Through resources, discussions and inspiration, Ecolect makes it feasible for individuals and companies to find green materials and decipher what is sustainable in a growing world of greenwashing. Our diverse database catalogs materials for industries such as architecture, product design, graphic design, fashion, and many more. The Ecolect news blog captures breaking headlines from the global sustainable industry. Through our forums, users engage in moderated discussions and our ‘Material Deans’ offer insight into green design by responding to user generated questions.

For almost two years, we've been running the firm from both coasts, Joe in San Francisco and myself in Providence. This year, Ecolect has grown into more than just a helpful web site, we're expanding our services and offering sustainable design consulting. It has been our goal for a while to take advantage of the diverse experiences and skill-sets of our team and as most all service based economies in the US have slowed down, Industrial Design remains strong. 2008 has proven to be a great time for moving the company in this direction.

We now have contributors and consultants across the United States, with a very diverse set of skills and experience. With our design expertise and materials knowledge, we are helping companies to craft new products (and recraft existing ones) in exciting ways that have positive impacts on our environment. Our services have branched out to include creative development, competitive auditing, sustainable product design, eco–friendly packaging, and procurement of sustainable materials and manufacturing. If additional needs arise, we are now recommending trusted vendors in our business network who specialize in areas such as strategic marketing, publicity, web development, and even logistics.

Joe and I have had the privilege presenting at numerous industry events over the last few months including: IDSA Boston's Green Design Conference, RISD's Art of Business Lecture Series and Pecha Kucha in San Francisco.

I'd like to thank everyone who has supported Ecolect and contributed along the way. The responses and results we've gotten since we first shared the idea have been tremendous. It's an exciting time for everyone in the creative industry and we're looking forward to all the positive changes that are destined to come.