Director of the Product Design Program

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, and purchasing renewable energy for his family.

His BikeShare Helmet won a Cradle to Cradle Design Competition for Best Professional Design and he founded TestingOurWaters.net, a global design collaboration aggregating DIY Trawls, empowering citizen scientists to track and together prevent local marine pollution. Most recently his consultancy Anthropocene.Design was selected as a winner of the NYC Curb to Market Challenge asking for ideas on how to turn NYC's waste into products. This award funding enabled the launch of Circular Economy Manufacturing and the assembly of their first 100% solar powered MicroFactory now operating on Governors Island, recycling single use plastic into well designed durable products.

BarentRoth.com

CircularEconomyMfg.com

Studio Approach

Design Studio 5 is co-taught with Tucker Viemeister addressing Climate Change. Students select a Project Drawdown solution, then design and develop both a mass produced product and a Climate Change souvenir that they are tasked with manufacturing and then selling locally.

Bachelor of Fine Arts - Industrial Design from University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Master's in Industrial Design from The University of the Arts, Philadelphia, PA