Is Sustainable Design in YOUR Near Future?

My previous posting, “Is Enlightened Self-Interest the Key to Sustainable Success?”, ended with a challenge for “product and packaging designers to create fabulous designs that appeal to us visually, emotionally, and ecologically.”  In other words, to adopt sustainable design as the norm.

First, let me disclose that I work for a great design company, Autodesk, Inc., and that I’ve had a lifelong fascination and inclination towards design. So, with that in mind, I’ll expand briefly on this newer form of design, something I plan to discuss over several postings on the future of design.

Sustainable design is powerful example of enlightened self-interest and it will play an increasing role in the future of design. One of the great things about design is that no matter who or where you are, if you look around you, everything that is not living matter had to be designed by someone. So, if everything has to be designed, why not design everything to be eco-friendly as well as effective?

Sustainable design produces no waste, uses renewable energy, supports biodiversity, has low energy requirements, etc. In the past, most people agreed that this approach was too expensive, too slow, not possible, and not demanded by the marketplace. However, in every case, these factors are being reversed or erased. We are now entering a time when what’s good for the environment can also be what’s good for the economy…and for us.

We can also have designs that delight us emotionally and aesthetically. In the past, many so-called “green” products, such as clothing, buildings, and vehicles, were very much a compromise. Those who chose to use them had to overcome their innate sense of what they really liked or wanted, in order to achieve a greater purpose. Now, we have the opportunity to have our proverbial “cake and eat it too” with products (and services) that we respond to emotionally as well as cognitively. It looks great AND it’s good for our planet and for us.

Sound impossible or too good to be true? No doubt some still believe this.  However I’ve always been a “glass half full” type of person and I note that throughout history, we’ve been wrong about things. It used to be a “fact” that human flight was impossible. So too was the notion that you could talk to and see anyone anywhere in the world. I’m sure you can add many other “impossibilities” to this list.

These "impossibilities” turned into realities because WE made it happen.  We came up with new discoveries, new approaches, and new solutions. Each of these are examples of new designs. Since everything around us, except for living things, has to be designed by us, WE can choose to design, buy, live in, and use products that are as good for the environment and the economy as they are for us. This is my definition of sustainable design.

Even if you still have your doubts and see the glass as “half empty”, hopefully you are intrigued enough by the concept of sustainable design to want to learn more.  Best of all, you don’t have to settle for just my version of this. I’m delighted to say that there are many people currently exploring sustainable design. For starters, you can:

• View a set of six 30-minute HD TV series on PBS (sponsored by my company Autodesk Inc.) called “design: e²” and narrated by Brad Pitt. This original HD multipart television series explores the economics of being environmentally conscious.
• Learn more about sustainable design on both the PBS site and the design: e² site. Both provide great examples and offer downloads or subscriptions to audio and video podcasts.
• Read the article  “Can sustainable design save money and the environment?” (PDF format) by Philip Bernstein.
• Check out the Autodesk web site's “Stories” section where you can read how designers are addressing some of the challenges I mentioned above.

After you read a few of these stories, and watch or listen to some of the video and audio podcasts, please send me your reactions and comments. 

Keep in mind, that as more choices become available to all of us, we all become “designers” in a sense. A future of increased choices requires that we also increase our “design skills” in order to make better individual choices about how we create our personal surroundings and how we choose to buy and use products and services.  More to follow on the future of design in future postings.

w
a
yne
=====