Design Sustainability
SUSTAINABLE PRODUCT DESIGN – IS ENVIRONMENTAL SUSTAINABILITY ENOUGH?
For many years I have focused much of my professional skills on making a sustainable difference. I have designed and worked with many clever people to create a number of products that significantly reduce environmental impact.
These include devices that substantially reduce energy use and carbon dioxide emissions. Products that fine-tune water use in irrigation equipment, devices that monitor irrigation out-flow from rivers, and products that recycle grey-water to achieve savings of over 40% in household water consumption. Many of these products have since become market leaders, with global distribution.
Our role as professional designers is vital in making the planet a better place in which to live. We must make careful choices in the design and production process, by striving for better material use, sensitive supplier selection, and alignment with global initiatives to reduce waste and hazardous materials.
Many Australian designers are aware of the impact they have on environmental sustainability, but are we doing enough?
As designers we must change the lens through which we view sustainability, no longer seeing it only in a technological and commercial context. We must also have a social conviction, becoming more inclusive and people focused; embracing the social impact and the social development of people using our products, making them more aware and proactive in sustainable practices.
For this to occur we must expand our perspectives on sustainability. All designers, especially product design professionals, are well placed to act as catalysts for meaningful change
As such we must foster ‘Social Sustainability’, by driving community based action, nurturing small local initiatives in order to generate significant change that will ultimately have a global impact.
Because we are people who look at the world in a unique way, our creativity should be leveraged. Not just in a product centric manner, but as problem solvers capable of connecting social ideas with solutions and helping people confront change. We do this every day in our project work; why not expand it out into the community?
An inspiring professional initiative is CRASH (the Construction and Property Industry Charity for the Homeless) a global industry organisation made up of construction and property professionals. CRASH uses the professional skills in its network to negotiate temporary squatters’ rights in properties waiting redevelopment, helps establish suitable living conditions and appoint the homeless as caretakers (http://www.crash.org.uk/).
Social Sustainability from a design perspective means establishing connections with our communities and contributing to them in a meaningful way. For example, if the neighbourhood lacks a good park we should use our skills to help create one. Garner the collective ideas; rigorously test the rationale, consider physical constraints, map process flows and translate these into a meaningful design (such as a beautiful local park and community garden that supports the native biodiversity, harnesses the elements and inspires interaction and connection).
Be the contribution free or at cost, the opportunities are endless:
- Designing better toilets, public showers, drinking fountains, park benches and railings for the disabled;
- Setting up local networks to aid children, elderly, schools, local business; or
- Developing strategies for communities to solve problems, such as water scarcity and energy saving.
Once started the momentum of the creative process can carry people to new and exciting outcomes.
Australian organisations that are offering networking and resources to designers wanting to pursue sustainable design include the O2 Global Network, the Society for Responsible Design, the Royal Australian Institute of Architects, and Greenups.
Another inspiring initiative that empowers communities is Nelson Mandela’s Community of Elders for Peace program. This initiative utilises well connected, motivated, past world leaders to address global issues from war to global warming. Perhaps we should consider this model? We could set up and empower groups of highly respected individuals whose wisdom, creativity, integrity and humanity could positively impact the community.
By doing this we could connect the individuals and their ideas, or issues, to people who can apply professional creative thinking and solutions. This would also help bridge the gap between local, state and federal initiatives, connecting the local with the global.
Industrial design professionals have a great opportunity now to take an active role in Social Sustainability engaging with existing networks and sowing the seeds of new ideas. Moral inspiration and leadership are certainly needed today and are vital in helping to make our communities and our lives more sustainable. In the achieving of this goal, we all have a vital part to play.
Pullquote
As professional designers we must foster ‘Social Sustainability’, by driving community based action, nurturing small local initiatives in order to generate significant change that will ultimately have a global impact.
