UNIVERSITY OF CINCINNATI Date:___________________May 14, 2007 I, ____________________________Vanessa Kanan Corrêa _____________________________, hereby submit this work as part of the requirements for the degree of: Master of Design in: Graphic Design It is entitled: Marketing Sustainability This work and its defense approved by: Chair: _______________________________J.A. Chewning _______________________________Craig Vogel _______________________________ _______________________________ _______________________________ 1 Marketing Sustainability Spring 2007 Vanessa Kanan Corrêa B.A., Humanities, University of Colorado, Boulder In partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of MASTER OF DESIGN in the School of Design at the College of Design, Architecture, Art and Planning Thesis Committee: J. Chewning Craig Vogel i Abstract Thinking and acting sustainably is not new – nor are the calls to heed sustainability’s lessons – but if the recent and increasing scramble to jump on the sustainability bandwagon is any indication of things to come, then the future may a sustainable one after all. Marketing Sustainability has been conceived as a look at both the theoretical and historical underpinnings of sustainability, alongside an analysis of contemporary representations of and discourses on the topic. This thesis considers a few exemplary models of representing and motivating sustainability in a diverse array of cultural contexts and examines where representations of sustainability might go in order to ensure sustainability’s continued impact on current cultural conditions. As it has become one of the preeminent challenges of our era – logistically and ethically – the author hopes to have contributed to what will be a successful paradigm shift. ii iii Preface Sustainability’s fundamental premises are grounded in the basic, timeless laws of physics and thermodynamics, so it’s ironic that the discourse on sustainability has exploded as the topic du jour in the past year. Thinking and acting sustainably is not new – nor are the calls to heed sustainability’s lessons – but if the recent and increasing scramble to jump on the sustainability bandwagon is any indication of things to come, then the future may a sustainable one after all. Marketing Sustainability has been conceived as a look at both the theoretical and historical underpinnings of sustainability, alongside an analysis of contemporary representations of and discourses on the topic. Chapter 1 frames the questions and possibilities inherent in living sustainability by examining three recent proponents of sustainable thinking: the graphic designer, Bruce Mau; Michael Pollan, a bestselling journalist; and former Vice President Al Gore. By examining the approach of each as they tackle the challenges of representing sustainability in an effort to motivate a cultural shift, we gain a sense of the current discourse, as well as establishing terminology useful for further discussion. A theoretical basis of sustainability will be discussed in Chapter 2, focusing primarily on the underlying scientific principles (applied both scientifically and culturally) as the foundation for a working definition of sustainability. By examining the philosophical foundations for sustainability and providing a comprehensive definition of the term, problems and opportunities related to representing – and marketing – sustainability can be clearly articulated. Looking first at Niels Bohr’s notion of complementarity and the laws of thermodynamics coupled with its ramifications on Georges Bataille’s formulation of “the general economy,” Chapter 2 then moves to R. Buckminster Fuller and closes with William McDonough and Michael Braungart’s Cradle to Cradle – an explicit articulation of general economic thinking as the foundation of sustainability. iv Chapter 3 pursues a genealogical description of the complementary nature of the historical discourse of sustainability via an analysis of the fragmented whole represented on a cover of Dwell magazine. By examining a meeting of discourses on this magazine, sustainability’s history will be briefly discussed. Additionally, the cover provides a context for examination of some of the fragmented audiences compelled by the sustainability imperative. Each of these audiences is imprecise, potentially misinformed and almost certainly contradictory, and yet, this meeting of motivations provides sustainability with its cultural weight – and marketing challenge. Looking more closely at this heterogeneous whole that is the hallmark of sustainability, Chapter 4 examines the problem of marketing sustainability. It begins with some critiques of current attempts to exploit the consumers’ growing interest in buying “sustainably,” and moves to the “consumption solution” that sustainability presents. By looking at several recent articles, products and books, successful and unsuccessful strategies of marketing sustainability are considered. The tension between the niche – which is the essence of marketing – and the holism of sustainability reveals itself as one of sustainability’s main marketing challenges. Another is the reliance on branding found in most marketing campaigns. Sustainability, however, requires an engagement with the object, whereas branding sells the idea. This re-engagement with the material insists on a revised mode of representation. This chapter considers a few exemplary models of representing and motivating sustainability in a diverse array of cultural contexts. Chapter 5 briefly considers where representations of sustainability might go in order to ensure sustainability’s continued impact on current cultural conditions. This final chapter proposes the tension between Alex Steffen’s WorldChanging project as a collaborative effort of many disparate actors with Bruce Mau’s multimedia attempts as auteur to harness and propel the conversation forward. Taken together the two evidence the challenges of representing the whole. ✤ ✤ ✤ This research was undertaken for Lucia, my daughter, who will be born in the next few days. My hopes for her life and my dreams of a vibrant, healthy and glorious world for her – and her children – have fuelled my continued interest in this project. VKC April 28, 2007 v Table of Contents Thesis Abstract ii Preface iv List of Illustrations vii Chapter 1. Now That We Can Do Anything… 1 Chapter 2. The Philosophy of Sustainability 21 Chapter 3. The Genealogy of Sustainability 36 Chapter 4. The Niche and the Whole: The Problem of Marketing Sustainability 52 Chapter 5. What Next? 70 Endnotes 76 Bibliography 81 vi List of Illustrations 7 May 2006, Wired. (Cover) May 2006, Vanity Fair. (Cover) May 2006, Elle. (Cover) 36 September 2006, Dwell. (Cover) 40 2006 Bluegrass Energy & Green Living Directory (Cover) 50 Design Like You Give a Damn. (Cover) 60 Loreto Bay website. (Screenshot taken February, 2007) 61 Loreto Bay website. (Screenshot taken February, 2007) 70 Massive Change. (Cover) 70 WorldChanging. (Cover) vii Chapter 1. Now That We Can Do Anything… Bruce Mau’s Massive Change: The Future of Global Design exhibition at Chicago’s Museum of Contemporary Art (September-December, 2006) promised to be, as the museum literature would have it, “a celebration of the human capacity to change the world and a call to recognize both the power and the responsibility of design.”1 As I sat in the museum’s restaurant – a tony Wolfgang Puck enterprise replete with herbed goat cheese appetizers and well-heeled, black-turtlenecked patrons – after taking in a good part of Mau’s installation, I noticed that Mau had followed me into the space. While design-lovers contentedly munched on their arugula, the “military economy” portion of the show hovered on the walls, above the chef’s station and across the back of the restaurant. The installation, and its unconventional extension into our “non-museum” space in the restaurant, should give us pause. Mau clearly intends to provoke and incite, filling, as he does, this rarefied and privileged environment, replete with gourmet diners, with the challenges and contradictions implicit in the technologically innovative military economy. I couldn’t help wondering, should I posit a relationship between my lunch and the military industrial complex as I munch on my herb-crusted focaccia? Do the oversized graphics to my right, illustrating the relationship of the Super Soaker water gun and the M16 rifle, in any way relate to excessive number of designer eyeglasses in the dining room? Why is the only riveting reading material for the patrons of Puck’s 1 trendy food emporium the menu – not Mau’s carefully presented provocation? The fact is, nobody is even looking at Mau’s cleverly constructed instrusion. The rest of Mau’s installation featured excerpts from Massive Change (the book) enlarged and placed directly on the MCA’s walls, coupled with enormous reproductions of some of the book’s illustrations. All this worked with new, interactive features that tried to elucidate each of Mau’s economies, as well as point to areas of overlap and commonality. Maybe it was the MCA’s rooms, perhaps it was the subject matter presented in such a way, but the sense of dissatisfaction with the show did not end simply with the military economy encroaching on lunch. It’s a question, it seems, of the mode and manner of presentation. How do we capture attention, engage audiences and motivate change? In Mau’s case, good intentions run afoul of the restaurant ritual, or to be more precise, the expectation of sophisticated, upscale dining interiors found in major