Designers' sustainable thinking

DESIGN’S SUSTAINABLE THINKING the designer’s dilemma | Valerie Casey

A MANIFESTO IS A SHORT DOCUMENT THAT “MANIFESTS” OR MAKES PUBLIC A SET OF IDEAS AND GOALS. A MANIFESTO IS PASSIONATE, PERSONAL AND VIVID.

ELLEN & JULIA LUPTON

THE DESIGNER’S DILEMMA

THE DESIGNER’S DILEMMA Elisha Otis did not invent the elevator.

Elisha Otis did create the safety catch that would prevent a vertically Valerie Casey reúne com governos e empresas mobile enclosure from plummeting from great heights to great de todo o mundo para discutir os desafios depths at very high speeds, injuring its passengers. This invention que vão desde a criação de novos produtos was demonstrated at the 1853 World’s Fair in New York, almost five e serviços, a transformação dos processos thousand years after the elevator first came into usage. organizacionais até à alteração de Technically, Otis did not invent the elevator, although he is regularly comportamentos. credited with it. But it was his incremental improvement to an existing technology that launched what we now know as the elevator industry, Valerie é o fundadora do "The Designers the great facilitator of skyscraping cities, of vertical living, working, Accord", uma aliança global de designers, and buying. Otis exemplifies what I call the designer’s dilemma – the educadores e líderes empresariais que tension that exists in the space between inventing and improving. If trabalham em conjunto para criar impacto the designer’s role is to drive innovation on a large scale, how can we positivo e sustentável nas suas acções. resolve ourselves to the incremental improvements that are necessitated by today’s increasingly complex culture?

Now, this question is more relevant than ever: there is no single innovation that can counteract the innumerable injuries we have done to the global ecosystem. But if the key to tackling our environmental challenges lies within this world of iterative change and cumulative improvement – and I believe that it does – then what does this mean for design as a whole?

CULTURAL PRESSURES FOR RADICAL CHANGE An oversaturated consumer market and increasingly sophisticated end-user have made it difficult to differentiate products and services in today’s economy. Design has become the de facto solution for pursuing, and owning, the habits and routines of consumers. So strident is the competition for shelf-space and mindshare that incremental improvement is often thought akin to colossal failure. While designers excel at making the small changes that shape everyday experiences, in this competitive climate we are compelled to pursue the next big thing with great ferocity. We seek change in the Orwellian sense – paradigm-shifts, phoenix products, dot-something web landmarks. And success has a short memory; we are measured only by our most recent achievement: the last to-market, the newest award-winner, the latest recognition by the digerati.

It is a challenge, then, that in this time of fierce competition and creative pressure, we are pummeled by the tsunami of the green movement.

It is virtually impossible to avoid the daily discussions of climate change, G8 debates, and company manifestos. This is the single most significant movement of our generation – a veritable perfect storm of social awareness, corporate interest, and technological advancement.

All things “green” have entered the cultural vernacular, and our contemporary currency is a fluency with these issues. Just as the market pressures us to create more individual design contributions, it has become obvious that the key to meaningfully addressing environmental

Changing the way we think about designissues is through additive change – continual improvement, rather than to better tackle the challenges ofdiscrete invention. There is no magic bullet, no single a-ha moment, no environmentalism.“iPod” of the green movement.

So in this time of transformation, when new thinking is so critical, why are designers at a standstill? Why has design not been at the forefront of this movement with new solutions and roadmaps for change? In many ways, the green movement is threatened by the prevailing mentality in design today – one that equates sustainability with stasis, and collaboration with mimicry.

Of course, there are the requisite resin-seeped art pieces, recycled coated paper packaging explorations, and sunflower-seed kitchen cabinets. But at this cultural inflection point, we need to do more than create niche products and art pieces. We need to do more than play corporate catch-up or throw our hats into the ever-enlarged PR ring of greenery. We need to stimulate mass change.

In the same way that we approach design challenges – not by purporting to have all of the answers, but instead by assuredly asking the right questions – we must recognize that we don’t have the solution In order to create a radical positionyet because our formula has been wrong. Our addiction to sweeping around sustainability, we need tochange has hobbled us from seeing the most obvious opportunities for change our concept of design.improvement. In order to create a radical position around sustainability, Our first green products must be ourselves.we need to change our concept of design. Our first green products must be ourselves.

WE’RE NOT ALONE Perhaps the most revolutionary characteristic of the environmental movement is its sheer scope. Activist Paul Hawken describes it as the largest and fastest growing movement in the world, comprising more than 2 million organizations worldwide. This vast reach provides a great opportunity for facilitating change – but it also poses a unique set of challenges regarding the management and self-identity of such a broad, loosely connected network.

Designers are just one of many groups clamoring to contribute within this space. NGOs, commercial businesses, technologists, academics, and governments are all forging ahead with their individual visions, sharing the public’s attention. Together, the many voices of this movement form a harmony, deeper and more complex than any solo the designer alone can offer.

Yet this is a new and uncomfortable space for many designers to occupy, indoctrinated as we are with the importance of differentiation and exclusivity. To date, we have succeeded in our difference, not our similarities. We are accustomed, in many ways, to known boundaries.

This is not to say that designers are not continuously pushing those boundaries and rewriting our own histories and futures, but rather that our design thinking tools and methods (narrative, motion, form, virtuality) have remained relatively constant. Even as our industry has evolved to integrate robust strategic and analytical perspectives, our jurisdiction has remained clear. Even as we engage in transformational thinking, build new business and brand models, and tackle human-interaction challenges in emerging economies, we are still designers. The horizon line moves with us.

Our clients expect our ability to translate research and ideation into concrete products and services. And they know we’ll be able to differentiate them – at least for a while – from their competitors. But now

we are not dealing with competitors, we are elbow-to-elbow with people who share our ethic, and to engage in the traditional competitive stance would be counterproductive. In a world where everything is connected and we all share common goals, how do we satisfy our deep instinct to create a unique position for ourselves?

We need a new strategy.

WHEN IN DEEP WATERS, BECOME A DIVER As we redefine the role of design in this new world order, we must look to each other for ideas and inspiration. Individually greening our companies is not sufficient. By pooling our knowledge, we can create a network in which every client is compelled to engage in a discussion of sustainability – no matter which firm it selects as a design partner.

Together, we can advocate for the improvements – large and small – that will produce lasting change.

To effect real change, we need to applyBy creating independent “green design” practices that exist adjacent a green lens to all of our activities,to traditional industrial design, engineering, and digital media design not just some of them. Environmentalofferings, we only marginalize the issue. To effect real change, we need intelligence needs to be fully assimilatedto apply a green lens to all of our activities, not just some of them. within the entire design process, across theEnvironmental intelligence needs to be fully assimilated within the entire entire field.design process, across the entire field.

Of course, in order to engage in an informed conversation with our clients, we also need to commit to educating ourselves and our teams about eco-friendly behaviors and environmental strategies. This undertaking is significant, for as we ask more in-depth questions, the answers become more difficult to locate.

Frog has initiated a KYOTO TREATY OF DESIGN – a call to arms for the creative community around environmental stewardship. Our initial thoughts and conversations have led to these basic tenets, but these are just a start. We ask each member of the the design community to commit to these principles and join with us in building upon them: COLLECTIVELY: + Helping craft a larger social equity protocol for the design community + Publicly ratifying that agreement, and committing to its compliance + Contributing to the communal knowledge base for sustainable design + Advancing the intellectual understanding of environmental issues from a design perspective INDIVIDUALLY: + Offering green analysis to clients, or partnering with others to conduct this analysis + Providing material alternatives for sustainable product development + Investigating manufacturing processes and rewarding green innovation + Minimizing environmental impact from prototyping or model-making activity + Publicly reporting the carbon footprint of our firms + Becoming educated about the environmental impact of our work

Everything we know is inverted. Everything we rested our beliefs on is cast in a new light. Change happens fast, and we need to act quickly.

We are revisiting our practices, our methods, and our philosophies. We are talking to each other. We are leaving our egos behind.

A SUSTAINABLE FUTURE DEMANDS NEW KNOWLEDGE AND RENEWED CREATIVITY. IT DEPENDS ULTIMATELY ON OUR ABILITY TO CHANGE DIRECTION. INTERNATIONAL INSTITUTE FOR INDUSTRIAL ENVIRONMENTAL ECONOMIES, 2000.

DESIGN’S SUSTAINABLE THINKING Existe uma complexidade e inter-relação de problemas ecológicos, sociais, culturais, económicos e psicológicos, que interagem e convergem para a actual crise da nossa civilização insustentável. E o designer tem um papel fundamental, pelo seu modo processual e mental de trabalhar e agir, na mudança de mentalidades e paradigmas da sociedade, e principalmente para a co-criação de uma civilização que prospere dentro dos limites ecológicos do nosso planeta.

“We need to embrace the dilemmas and conflicts in design, and take responsibility for the outcomes of our work” Bruce Mau, in Massive Change

Historicamente, o movimento moderno de “Green Design” começa “Green design, Nigel Whitely concludes, a ser traçado a partir dos anos 60, numa época de crescente should not be regarded ‘as if were a consciencialização sobre as fragilidades e venerabilidades do planeta discrete category or mode of design…

Terra, face a uma grande industrialização e crescimento demográfico. green politics have shown us that design O desenvolvimento do movimento ecológico dividiu-se em três is not a simple matter of personal choice correntes: and preference, bur a complex issue with A primeira corrente começou aquando da percepção dos impactos interlocking human, social, political and ambientais criados pela actividade Humana, vendo, assim, novos environmental dimensions…’” princípios de aproximação do design que visavam minimizar o impacto dos seus projectos. back to the future A segunda corrente envolvia um engajamento internacional à volta a short history of sustainable design de questões como a poluição, o aquecimento global e a promoção catriona mcleod da responsabilidade ambiental do Homem. Por fim, a terceira e mais recente corrente reflecte uma crescente realização de que o desenvolvimento sustentável requer um envolvimento a um nível local, que responderá às necessidades humanas bem como às necessidades ambientais.

Sustentabilidade tornou-se num assunto de importância crítica para os designers bem como para a sociedade no seu todo. É importante perceber que não nos referimos a um fim, mas sim um meio, um processo continuo de adaptação e aprendizagem. Assim, um design sustentável implica, para além de um redesign do nosso modo de vida, também um redesign do nosso modo de pensar.

Pretende-se então um novo pensamento sobre o modo como o design e os designers se posicionam, no contexto de uma necessidade urgente para soluções sustentáveis e conscientes.

“the future of global design isO desenvolvimento sustentável pode ser caracterizado como um fundamentally collaborative”sistema de co-design, promovendo o envolvimento de diversas comunidades e tornando adaptáveis e apropriadas as decisões feitas a masive changeum nível local, regional e global. bruce mau Este engajamento das comunidades no processo de design é vital para a criação de soluções mais responsáveis, que irão necessariamente mais de encontro às necessidades das mesmas.

Através do design, enquanto dialogo transdisciplinar, será possível criar um envolvimento local, regional e global sobre visões, soluções e casos de sustentabilidade.

A mudança necessária no sentido de acções sustentáveis e apropriadas pede ao design e à educação, que adquire um papel vital, que contribuam para uma um crescimento generalizado de uma consciência social e ecológica.

“Design for sustainability is not about prediction and control, but about appropriate participation, flexibility, and constant learning.

Daniel Christian Wahl and Seaton Baxter, in The designers’ role in “The ‘man in environment’ argument could,facilitating sustainable solutions. ironically, be supplanted by a debate that places ‘environment in man’ throughA Educação, no seu sentido lato, pode-se apresentar como o primeiro education, ideas and a demonstratedpasso para um futuro mais sustentável. Educar, não só as gerações subjugation of design/science ego.”futuras, mas, inevitavelmente começando por cada um de nós, educar os nossos pares, o nossos clientes, fornecedores, empresas, back to the futureetc... representará um salto gigantesco no modo como as questões a short history of sustainable designambientais são abordadas e, em ultima instância, respondidas. catriona mcleod “...there appears to be a significantApesar de todos os ensaios e teorias que são realizadas à volta deste disparity between words and actions,tema, os quais se devem congratular, sente-se que a passagem da as demonstrated by the slow adoption ofteorização à acção, para além de demorada, não é ainda visível. environmentally responsiblePor uma atitude mais ecológica ser algumas vezes conotada com algum principles in design”tipo de posicionamento politico, pelo facto de muitos ainda não terem coragem de se responsabilizarem pelas suas acções ou até pela atitude back to the futureindividual de muitos, a verdade a que se assiste é que existe uma a short history of sustainable designdisparidade entre as palavras e as acções. catriona mcleod Iniciativas como as de Bruce Mau ou de Valerie Casey, que para além do manifesto apresentado, criou o The Designer’s Accord, são úteis para se iniciar uma conduta mais responsável no mundo do design, seja de comunicação, de equipamento, de moda, o importante é a comunidade de design juntar-se e agir.

“There is no area of contemporary life where design – the plan, project or working hypothesis which constitutes the ‘intention’ operations – is not a significant factor in shaping human experience.”

Richard Buchman, in The designers’ role in facilitating sustainable solutions.

Equacionar o futuro para preservar no presente é a função mais importante que podemos desempenhar, e não só enquanto designers, mas enquanto cidadãos e enquanto habitantes do nosso planeta.

Se, enquanto designers, somos responsáveis pelo desenho do mundo, chegou a altura de nos ser dada e de assumirmos essa responsabilidade, chegou a altura de os manifstos serem activos e não teóricos, chegou a altura de mostrar que ser consciente, sustentável e ecológico não está na moda, é necessário!

Cada pequena mudança que aponte para um mundo mais sustentável conta, mas, e uma vez que já não nos encontramos em altura de pequenas mudanças, pede-se uma alinaça e uma movimentação global que simbolize uma mudança massiva.

Como tal, o dilema que se coloca hoje no Design questiona as acções tomadas ou a passividade com que se observa a destruição dos ecossistemas em que vivemos.

this is a collective task for the design community whose grasp of the future will continue to determine how we live in the present.”

Victor Margolin, in Design, the Future and the Human Spirit

“As an integrative and transdisciplinary process, design thinking can inform more integral/holistic solutions that promote the emergence of systemic health and sustainability as properties of the complex dynamic system that contains culture and nature, and of which we are integral participants.”

The designers’ role in facilitating sustainable solutions Daniel Christian Wahl and Seaton Baxter,

REFERÊNCIAS BIBLIOGRÁFICAS E ON LINE AA.VV, For a good cause, Barcelona, Indexbook.com, s.d.

CHAPMAN, Jonathan, “Design for (Emotional) Durability” in Design Issus, vol. 25 , nº 4, 2009 , pp. 29-35 CRIST, Graham. “ Invisible sustainabibility” in Imagine Sustainability pp. 49 – 55 FONTAINE, Lisa, “ Green Graphic Design Seminar” pp.245-251 MARGOLIN, Victor, “ Design, the Future and the Human Spirit” in Design Issus, vol. 23, nº 3, 2007, pp.4-15 MAU, Bruce, Massive Change, London. Phaidon Press L. 2007 MCLEOD, Catriona, “ Back to the future: A short history of sustainable design” in Imagine Sustainability pp. 82-91 RYAN, Chris, “ Towards a new manifesto for sustainable design” in Imagine Sustainability pp. 6-23 THOMAS, Angharad, “ Design, Poverty, and Sustainable Development” in Design Issus, vol. 22 , nº 4, 2008 , pp. 29-35 WAHL, Daniel Christian e BAXTER, Seaton, “The Designer’s Role in Facilitating Sustainable Solutions” in Design Issus, vol. 24 , nº 2, 2008 , pp. 72-83

http://backspace.com/notes/2009/07/design-manifestos.php http://www.aiga.org/content.cfm/manifesto-mania http://backspace.com/notes/2009/07/design-manifestos.php http://www.frogdesign.com/contact/san-francisco.html http://www.valcasey.com http://www.core77.com http://www.massivechange.com

MA.NI.FES.TO-ME Ana Filipa Leite_nº 4759 FBAUL Design de Comunicação_DC5/2011 Docentes_ António Nicolas e Pedro Almeida Março. 2011