Thoughts from John Selwyn Gummer, Lord Deben

The concept of design lies at the very heart of civilisation.

It says that human beings think before they do, and that is hugely important for the sort of life which we want to live. Sadly, we haven’t thought hard enough. In the past, we have created great wealth through remarkable design from Newcomen’s steam engine to the very latest in nuclear technology. The trouble is that we didn’t recognise that what we were designing actually had within it the ability to destroy.

I take the word design to mean something much wider than the mere outside.

Design is about the creative nature of humankind. And so, when we look at our present dilemma, when we see that our wealth is based upon something which is at the same time destroying the very foundation of our existence, then I look to design to help us to move away from that, to use our resources much more effectively, to make sure that we don’t destroy but that we enable and enhance. And it is design that makes that possible. Designing things which can be repaired, designing things which will have a continued life, designing things that use little or no energy, designing things that can make their own energy, and designing them in such a way as human beings want to use them.

It is no good just being utilitarian. You need also to be attractive. And I don’t think being attractive is something to be ashamed of. But what it means is that we create things which people want to use and want to use properly. An awful lot of buildings which have been built in a sustainable way, all sorts of technical design has been used to make sure that they are very, very low carbon use.

But unfortunately, they’ve been designed in a way which human beings find very difficult to operate, and many of those buildings turn out to consume a great deal more than they ought simply because people don’t know how to run them. That surely is what happened in the computer world. People stopped asking you to become a geek in order to use it. They started to create systems which are instinctively usable and they did so by making those systems whether they are iPhones or made by Samsung - beautiful.

That indeed, is what we have to do today. We want things to be beautiful. We want things whether they are iPhones or made by Samsung - beautiful.to work. We want things to work in a way which is not destructive. And it is good design, which will enable us to use a smallest amount of our resources as is possible, that will enable us to reuse, that will enable us to extend, that will enable us to be flexible, but will enable us increasingly to grow - but to grow in a way which is not at the expense of others and the planet. Sustainable development demands good design. We won’t win the battle against climate change unless we design the solutions.

John Selwyn Gummer, also known as Lord Deben is the chairman of the independent Climate Change Committee a former MP for Suffolk Coastal. He was also the Conservative Party Chairman between 1983 and 1985. He’s the chair of the sustainability consultancy, Sancroft International, the recyclable Valpak, and also for the personal investment and financial advice Association. He’s a director of the Catholic Herald as well as the castle trust a mortgage and investment firm and a trustee of climate change and ocean conservation charities cool Earth and the Blue Marine foundation.