I have just returned from a week in the Netherlands talking about the ideas in my book, *Sustainability by Design: A Subversive Strategy for Transforming our Consumer Culture*. My host was the Director of the Design for Sustainability section within the Industrial Design faculty at the Technical University of Delft. This is where I began to learn about the centrality of design to sustainability. On this visit, I was deeply impressed with their progress in the 7-8 years since I spent a year as a Visiting Professor. So when I come across articles like the one I write about here,… Read More
Continue ReadingPaying for Nature
Most of the times I read something about the environment by Tom Friedman, my hopes go up a little and then usually come back down. His op-ed piece on Costa Rica evoked the same feelings. Friedman was extolling the effectiveness of Costa Rican policy in preserving biodiversity. > These days, visitors can still see amazing biodiversity all over Costa Rica — more than 25 percent of the country is protected area — thanks to a unique system it set up to preserve its cornucopia of plants and animals. Many countries could learn a lot from this system. He calls this… Read More
Continue ReadingSatisfaction in Work
Maybe the positive side of the financial collapse is beginning to show itself. I haven’t seen much in the blogosphere that does not talk about the need to get the consumption machine going. Frank Rich writing his Sunday column in the NYTimes changes this tune a bit–only a bit, but that is still a good turn. Using Harvard as his source, Rich criticizes Larry Summers for his accepting large sums from financial institutions while serving as President of the University. Perhaps by osmosis, but certainly by example, students ran to the finacial sector. > The Harvard Crimson reported that in… Read More
Continue ReadingLessons from a Roofer
I am often taken to task over my assertion that technology tends to push our humanness into the background, and interfere, as well, with our relationships with others. I rarely see this in action in specific cases, unlike my more academic analyses. Goerge Packer, [telling a story](http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/georgepacker/2009/04/the-view-from-a.html) about the travails of a roofer in this current crunch, has a perfect example of what I labor to describe. > “It’s the technology,” the roofer said. “They [his customers] don’t know how to deal with a human being. They stand there with that text shrug”—he hunched his shoulders, bent his head down,… Read More
Continue ReadingDesign for Depression
Several of my posts discuss the question whether the recession/depression will change fundamental consumption patterns, now designers themselves are asking the same question. Allison Arieff [writes](http://arieff.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/04/08/designing-through-a-depression/) in the NYTimes: > The impact of the economy on design has generated a lively round of journalistic debate. In “[Design Loves a Depression](http://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/04/weekinreview/04cannell.html?scp=1&sq=michael%20cannell&st=cse),” a piece in The Times in January, design writer Michael Cannell argued that designers need to be taken down a notch and shift gears from creating luxury high rises and limited-edition Nymphenburg porcelain cows and “actually find a new sense of relevance in the process” . . . Looking positively… Read More
Continue ReadingHalf a Loaf is . . .
Toilets show up in my sustainability book as an example of design for sustainability. I got inspired by the two-button toilet as a means to change behavior and instill consciousness of responsibility to take care of the environment. Two separate flushing buttons or levers, one big and one small, adjust the volume of the flush. The presence of two-buttons forces the user to stop and think about the next step and make a conscious choice. After a while the actor will embody that sense of responsibility and hopefully will exercise it in other situations where caring for the world is… Read More
Continue ReadingConspicuous Consumption Starts at 2 Years Old
The financial crunch has not appeared to stop the incessant search for beauty in a bottle. Writing in Newsweek, Jessica Bennett [reports](http://www.newsweek.com/id/191247) that the spa business for very young children is as robust as ever. I know that our leaders are desperately (?) trying to get the engine of our economy back in gear. But this way? > On a recent Sunday in Brooklyn, I stumble into a spa that brands itself for the 0 to 12 set, full of tweens getting facialed and glossed, hands and feet outstretched for manis and pedis. “The girls just love it,” says Daria… Read More
Continue ReadingOff for a Week or So
I will be in the Netherlands for the next ten days, mostly in Delft, see photo. I will be participating in the 40th anniversary Jubilee of the Industrial Design Engineering Faculty at the Technical University of Delft. I spent a year there in 2001 and got many of the ideas about design while visiting. My host, Han Brezet and his group have been leaders in developing, first, methods for Design for the Environment (DfE) and now, design for sustainability (DfS). Posting may be irregular until I get back.
Continue ReadingThe Economy of Enough
Out of all the zillions of words being written about our current crises, almost all are about getting back to where we were. Some talk about the pain to be felt as we recover. Some wonder about what the world be like whenever we recover and try to visualize how that world will look. the blogosphere has no end of stars that write about this, [but here is some wisdom coming from a local columnist in Sonoma, CA](http://sonomasun.thmm.com/?p=7261). Here’s the final touch. > Perhaps this economic slowdown provides the moment to evaluate how a truly sustainable economic system functions, and… Read More
Continue ReadingWhat if “No Product” was the Strongest Brand?
This is the question asked by John Hockenberry in an interesting essay directed to the industrial design community. > What if, suddenly, the strongest product brand was No Product and the strongest consumer impulse was not buying? Last year there was ample evidence that the muscle consumers were flexing most was that of restraint. The inclination not to spend almost did in the entire U.S. auto industry. It still might. At the end of 2008, Chrysler sales dropped 53 percent. Toyota reported an operating loss for the first time in more than 70 years. Retail sales for the end of… Read More
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