How Do You Do It?

In the next issue of Time Compression there will be a piece on sustainable product development.  Not everything I learned for the story made it into print.  And one of the things has stuck with me.

The question was about whether all designers simply don’t design for sustainability in some way.  After all, as it turns out, sustainable design tends to be smart design.  Little waste.  Attention to function.  Addressing the design brief with just enough to fulfill the requirements.

And, arguably, if this is done really, really well, then the product will actually be better for being in some ways lesser.  The magic of the design will come to the fore.

But, of course, not everyone is capable of pulling off that magic, and so there are plenty of products that are designed without sustainability being even thought of.

That isn’t the thing that has stuck in my mind, however.  Not the designer that can’t be the Merlin.  No, it was something else.  It was an observation that some designers are primarily interested in something that “really looks cool.”  The example was a powerboat—generally not the sort of watercraft that would be considered “green”—especially as the person went on to describe it as being painted bright red.

And it would probably look really cool.  And it would probably be a far, far distance away from being sustainable.

One might argue that the person designing the powerboat had nothing in her or his brief that said anything about “sustainability.”  True enough.  But as we watch the oil gush into the Gulf, shouldn’t we all be a little more sensitive to sustainability, whether someone tells us to or not?

So how do you do it?  How do you do your job, whether or not you’re a designer?  Do you think about the ramifications that go beyond the evident?  Or do you have an “another day, another dollar” mindset?

Arguably, those individuals and organizations who think about the larger picture, who think about the implications of what they choose to do—or not to—will be the ones who will have the greatest success in the market.

Is this a sure thing?  Probably not.  But when you see that consumers are opting for “greener” cleaners, that there is a greater use of fibers like bamboo for clothing, that hybrid and electric cars continue to proliferate, clearly there is evidence that people are voting with their dollars.

Does this mean that no one will buy bright-red powerboats?  No.  But it is likely they’ll be buying fewer.