IF PRODUCTS COULD SPEAK

TOWARDS A MODEL OF SUSTAINABLE DESIGN

JEN VAN DER MEER

NYU ITP WINTER TERM 2009

RECALLED 1_15_2009

RECALLED 1_24_2009

RECALLED 9_15_2009

WHAT’S NEXT?

WHAT WILL HAPPEN TO THESE LEMURS?

OR THIS REEF?

WHAT WOULD SHE SAY ABOUT ALL OF THIS?

Without answers to these questions that people are seeking, there are limits to the role consumption can play in our shift to a more sustainable economic model. As product developers, designers, tinkerers, and technologists, we have the means to uncover these answers, and communicate the backstories of the things that we make.

Part One: Who would they speak to?

•Consumers•Citizen Activists + NGOs•Government Regulators and Legislators•Business leaders

IF PRODUCTS COULD SPEAK

Part Two: What Would They Say?

•Energy •Human Health•Resource Depletion + Biodiversity•Social + Economic

CLASS CALENDAR

January 26: IntroFebruary 2: Stakeholder- ConsumersFebruary 9: Stakeholder- Citizen ActivistsFebruary 23: Stakeholder- Government March 2: Stakeholder- Business Leaders March 9: IdeationMarch 23: Impacts- Energy EmissionsMarch 30: Impacts- Human HealthApril 6: Impacts- Resources, Biodiversity April 13: Impacts- Social and EconomicApril 20: Final PresentationsApril 27: Final Presentations

CLASS TEXTS

McDonough, Michael, Cradle to Cradle, Remaking the Way We Make Things. North Point Press, 2002. Sterling, Bruce, Shaping Things, MIT Press, 2005.

Shapiro, Mark, Exposed: The Toxic Chemistry of Everyday Products, Chelsea Green Publishing, 2007.

White, St. Pierre and Belletire, The Okala Guide. Coursework on Life Cycle Analysis, IDSA, 2007. Available through the IDSA: http://www.idsa.org/whatsnew/sections/ecosection/okala.html

COMMUNITY.DESIGNERSACCORD.ORG

AS CREATORS, KNOW WHAT’S IN THE STUFF YOU MAKE

AS INTERACTION DESIGNERS, CREATE TOOLS + SYSTEMS SO THAT WE CAN ACCESS PRODUCT TRUTH

PROVOCATION

Stakeholder managementLife cycle analysisSpime Some examples of what we’re

talking about

CLASS ONE: FRAMEWORKS

STAKEHOLDER VS. SHAREHOLDERMANAGEMENT

Stakeholder:

Emphasize responsibility over profitability

Organizations are coalitions to serve all parties involved

Belief that strongly motivated employees and high levels of trust with all parties leads to improved societal health

Shareholder:

Emphasize profitability over responsibility

Organizations are the instruments of its owners

Belief that enlightened self interest and market based relationships in pursuit of maximal value will result in maximized societal wealth

Capitalism and Freedom

“There is one and only one social responsibility of business–to use it resources and engage in activities designed to increase its profits so long as it stays within the rules of the game, which is to say, engages in open and free competition without deception or fraud."

MILTON FRIEDMAN HAS FRAMED OUR THINKING FOR THE PAST 30+ YEARS

STAKEHOLDER MANAGEMENT

DESIGNDESIGN

MININGMINING

REFINE REFINE

MANUFACTUREMANUFACTURE

RETAILRETAILUSEUSELANDFILLLANDFILL

REUSEREUSERECYCLERECYCLE

LIFE CYCLE OF A PRODUCT

SCOPE OF LIFE CYCLE ANALYSIS

LIFE CYCLE ANALYSIS IS A FRAMEWORK FOR MEASURING IMPACTS

Graph adapted with permission from Robert Kozak and Christopher Gaston, "Life-Cycle Analysis," presented at the Workshop on Climate and Forestry, Orcas Island, WA, November 13-16, 2001.

PRIUS OR HUMMER

SOURCE: ROCKY MOUNTAIN INSTITUTE

BIODIESEL ETHANOL METHANE OR FOSSIL FUEL

SOURCE:THE OIL DRUM

SOURCE: MARKS AND SPENCER LC

COTTON BRIEFS

LCA GETS US TO FOCUS ON WHERE WE CAN MAKE BIGGEST IMPACT, AND NOT GET DISTRACTED WITH GREEN SELF-DELUSION

“LCA SHOULD BE THE TAX FOR DESIGNING”-ALLAN CHOCHINOV

BUT, LCA ONLY ASSESSES POTENTIAL IMPACTS AND NOT REAL IMPACTS

AND THE BIGGEST CHALLENGE: LCA DATA IS HARD TO GET

Shaping Things

“Spime: manufactured objects whose informational support is so overwhelmingly extensive and rich that they are regarded as material instantiations of an immaterial system. Spimes begin and end as data. They are designed on screens, fabricated by digital means, and precisely tracked through space and time throughout their earthly sojourn.”

-Bruce Sterling

SPIME

THE INTERNET OF THINGS

Shaping Things

How the Internet of things is emerging:

•Interactive chips - RFIDs Geolocation systems• Powerful search engines • Cradle-to-cradle recycling•Sustainability (sorting and reshuffling the garbage)

•3D virtual models of objects -- virtual CAD/CAM Rapid prototyping of objects

FROM:

CONSUMPTION SEPARATE FROM PRODUCTION

NO KNOWLEDGE OF PRODUCT BACKSTORY

DESIGN PROVIDES FUNCTION, FORM, AT BEST A GREAT EXPERIENCE

ULTIMATE DESIGN OBJECT: IPHONE

TO:

RECONNECT CONSUMERS TO ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACTS

DEEP KNOWLEDGE OF PRODUCT BACKSTORY

DESIGN TO CREATE TOOLS FOR CULTURAL CHANGE

ULTIMATE DESIGN OBJECT: SPIME

SHIFTING ROLE FOR CREATORS

THE CREATOR’S SPHERE OF INFLUENCE

DESIGN FREEDOM DESIGN FREEDOM AND POSSIBILITY AND POSSIBILITY TO INFLUENCETO INFLUENCE

CUMULATIVE LOCK IN CUMULATIVE LOCK IN OF ENVIRONMENTAL OF ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACT INTO DESIGNIMPACT INTO DESIGN

COSTS OF COSTS OF CHANGING CHANGING

DESIGNDESIGN

TIMETIME

HIGHHIGH

THE OBJECT WHICH LABOR PRODUCES, ITS PRODUCT, CONFRONTS IT AS SOMETHING ALIEN, AS A POWER WHICH EXISTS INDEPENDENTLY OF THE PRODUCER.

-K. MARX, 1844

GREENMETER

PEIR AT UCLA AND NOKIAPERSONAL ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACT REPORT

ECO RIO ANDROID PHONE

“REVOLUTIONIZE HUMAN INTERACTION WITH THE EARTH AS PROFOUNDLY AS THE INTERNET HAS REVOLUTIONIZED PERSONAL AND BUSINESS INTERACTIONS.” STAN WILLIAMS

NEXT WEEK:

Readings: The Okala Guide, Modules 9, 10, 11, pp. 28-37.

Shaping Things, Chapters 1-6, pp. 1-54.

Assignment due next class: Choose one product and evaluate a published, peer-reviewed Life Cycle Assessment or Analysis, for discussion in the next class.

•What were the system boundaries chosen by the authors of the study?

• What life cycle stage had the greatest impact?

JENVANDERMEER AT GMAIL DOT COM