Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Simone Veldema on February 23, 2012 at 23:28

Hi Andrea!
Great question "How will sustainability change our approaches to design and innovation over the next few years?" Where can I find the discussion? Or would you just like an answer?? Well in that case.. 

First of all there is still a debate between sustainable believers and the non believers whether sustainability will change our lives? In my perspective: a huge increase of the world population, climate change and a large shortages of raw materials can only imply that we will change, whatever your stand it in this debate is. We will adjust to these circumstances otherwise we simply cant continue..

Secondly: the way to make these adjustments is the big question. For our mindset its really weird to make assumptions about the future who will undoubtedly be sustainable and react to these maybe fantasies. Especially for people who only rely on facts and evidence.. There might be other solutions too.

And thirdly about the "how".. At this point the main driver for sustainability is innovation. Its economically rooted into being a first mover, subsidies, greenwashing etc etc. And a the current economic crisis surely helped to make a more swift transit. Nevertheless in a world were current heavily used raw materials will be less widely available (and more expansive) and new innovations will come to market soon regarding polymers, energy etc etc, we will need new productdesign to produce new products differently. A big hit will be biomimicry, the way we will be inspired by nature to look at new innovation and design.  

Also in this "new" world where there are more people and were there new technology emerge everyday, social innovation will be leading too. We will see a shift in the world view as we see it now. Of course, th rise of China and the BRIC countries will be more omnipresent, but also the lower developed countries will be in the spotlight more positive. We in the west will learn from their low energy methods and they will be a huge supplier not only of expertise but also of energy. Another example of social innovation is the way nonprofits, governments, education and commercial enterprises will interact which each other. The current silo's of interaction will change, in order to come up with new needed innovation. Diversity and different angles is a pre for the new solutions needed. This will lead to new interactions, new insights, new philosophies, new economies, new jobs and a new way of living. Or like more spiritual people tend to say a new spirit or inner calling.

Lastly: in the near future we will regard practises as we know them now differently. In contrast to the linear practises, we will come up with holistic and circular thinking methods.  Cradle to Cradle is a fine example and more developed method already. We will change our mindset from thinking in simply profit, to values, to impacts and find ways to find different usages for them. DesignThinking and Service "eco-system" design tools offer perfect tools to help with this transition. 

So to conclude yep, sustainability will change our approach to design and innovation. We will transform from lineair thinkers to eco-system impact thinkers. its my view we will use DT and Service Design tools to make this transit more swiftly and will use nature as a inspiration source.