Profile
Barent is a designer and professor dedicated to creating and teaching the importance of sustainable products, practices, and services. An educator at heart, he has taught at both of his Alma Maters, the University of Illinois where he received his BFA in industrial design, and the University of the Arts where he graduated with honors for his Master’s degree focusing on Sustainable Design. Co-founder of the award winning sustainable to restorative design firm grow-design, and the creator of the LA Green Drinks network, Barent started teaching a Green Living Workshop with Sustainable Works, a Santa Monica based non-profit committed to Environmental Education and Action, and quickly rose to Executive Director of the organization.
In addition to educating/advocating about the urgency to transition to a Circular Economy, he works to continuously improve his own personal impact by supporting sustainable businesses and cooperatives, enjoying a vegan lifestyle, purchasing renewable energy his family, and participating in the emerging paradigm of collaborative consumption.
Having married a New Yorker while living in California, Barent moved to Brooklyn in 2011 to live with his new wife, have a daughter and lower their ecological footprint (currently 1.34 planets). He now teaches courses on sustainability and/or design at The New School in New York City while designing sustainable solutions.
Barent’s design for a BikeShare Helmet won the 2016 Cradle to Cradle Product Design Challenge for Best Professional Project.