DESIGN IS THE PROBLEM IS THE PROBLEM DESIGN Product design can have a tremendous impact on the world in terms of usability, waste, and resources. In Design Is the Problem, Nathan Shedroff examines how the endemic culture of design often creates unsustainable solutions, and shows how to ensure that design processes lead to more sustainable products and services. “If a sustainable world is to be less about stuff, and more about people, what should designers design? Nathan Shedroff challenges designers to focus on what the experience of a sustainable world can be like. I hope every designer will read this book: they’ll be inspired to learn that even as they stop creating stuff, there’s still a lot of work for them to do.” by NATHAN SHEDROFF by NATHAN JOHN THACKARA Creator of the Door of Perception conference, author of In The Bubble “Our generation is paying for the mistakes—the design mistakes—of the past 100 years. Rather than trying to recycle materials and processes not designed to be so, we must redesign nearly everything to create a truly sustainable society. This is not only the challenge for our current generation of designers, but the opportunity for future designers. Nathan Shedroff shows us the path to this inevitable future.” ERIC COREY FREED Author of Green Building & Remodeling for Dummies “Design is the Problem illustrates that, when done intentionally and thoughtfully, design can be the solution to our most pressing social and environmental challenges. The book is a comprehensive primer for anyone interested in redesigning not just products, but the way we do business, the way we address problems, and the way we envision and forge our future.” SIMRAN Preeti Sethi Co-host/writer of Sundance Channel’s The Green and contributing author to Ethical Markets: Growing the Green Economy DESIGN IS THE PROBLEM www.rosenfeldmedia.com The Future of Design Must be Sustainable MORE ON SUSTAINABLE DESIGN www.rosenfeldmedia.com/books/sustainable-design/ by NATHAN SHEDROFF foreword by Hunter Lovins DESIGN IS THE PROBLEM THE FUTURE OF DESIGN MUST BE SUSTAINABLE Nathan Shedroff Rosenfeld Media Brooklyn, New York Enter code DITPDE for 15% off any Rosenfeld Media product directly purchased from our site: http://rosenfeldmedia.com TABLE OF CONTENTS How to Use This Book ix Who Should Read This Book? ix What’s in This Book? x What Comes with This Book? xiii Why a Book and Not Just a PDF? xiv Frequently Asked Questions xvii Foreword xxv Introduction xxix CHAPTER 1 What Is Sustainability? 1 What Is a Systems Perspective? 7 Diversity and Resiliency 10 Centralization and Decentralization 16 Cooperation and Competition 21 Ecological Vitality 24 Social Vitality 26 Financial Vitality 30 An Ecosystem of Stakeholders 33 A Careful Balance 36 CHAPTER 2 How Is Sustainability Measured? 39 You Get What You Measure 40 Social Measures 42 Environmental Measures 50 Financial Measures 57 Putting It All Together 67 A Better Way? 77 ii Table of Contents TABLE OF CONTENTS CHAPTER 3 What Are the Approaches to Sustainability? 80 Natural Capitalism 83 Cradle to Cradle 94 Biomimicry 109 Life Cycle Analysis 121 Social Return on Investment 147 The Natural Step™ 154 Total Beauty 158 Sustainability Helix 172 Other Frameworks 180 Putting Them All Together 182 Reduce CHAPTER 4 Design for Use 187 Usability 189 Simplicity Versus Clarity 193 Accessibility 195 Meaning 198 CHAPTER 5 Dematerialization 207 Design for Efficiency 209 Less Really Is More 211 Vampire Power 222 iii Table of Contents TABLE OF CONTENTS CHAPTER 6 Substitution 225 Material Substitution 226 Detoxification 233 PVC as a Toxin 234 CHAPTER 7 Localization 240 The Power of Local 241 Is Buying Local Really the Best? 244 CHAPTER 8 Transmaterialization 249 The Metamorphosis of Transmaterialization 250 Turning a Service into a Product 253 What Is a Service? 259 CHAPTER 9 Informationalization 263 Sending the Recipe 265 Taking the Recipe Concept Even Further 268 Reuse CHAPTER 10 Design for Durability 280 Planned Obsolescence—The Downfall of Durability 282 How to Design Products for Sustainability 289 iv Table of Contents TABLE OF CONTENTS CHAPTER 11 Design for Reuse 304 Two Types of Reuse 306 Think Long-Term Use 307 Recycle CHAPTER 12 Design for Disassembly 315 Disassembly, Step by Step 318 CHAPTER 13 Close the Loop 329 Create Take-Back Programs 330 River and Lake Economies 333 Industrial Estates 335 CHAPTER 14 Design for Effectiveness 344 Extrapolate into the Future 345 v Table of Contents TABLE OF CONTENTS Restore CHAPTER 15 Design for Systems 356 Leverage Points for Intervention 365 Work from the Inside Out 371 A Note About Caution 375 Process CHAPTER 16 Innovating Solutions 389 The Strategic Innovation Process 394 The Strategy Phase 401 The Development Process 414 CHAPTER 17 Measuring Results 426 Global Reporting Framework 433 Balanced Scorecard 435 Other Ratings and Metrics 436 Label Types 440 Reveal Rating System 443 CHAPTER 18 Declaring Results 449 LOHAS 451 Green Gauge 452 vi Table of Contents TABLE OF CONTENTS Conscious Consumers 455 Cultural Creatives 457 What Is Marketing? 458 What to Say (and Not) 463 CHAPTER 19 Conclusion 482 APPENDIX A Super Summary and Checklists 488 Basic Checklist 489 Detailed Checklist 490 APPENDIX B Resources 498 Books 499 Articles 502 Online Documents 502 Web Sites 503 Index 510 Acknowledgments 529 Photo and Illustration Credits 532 About the Author 534 vii Table of Contents Design Is the Problem: The Future of Design Must Be Sustainable By Nathan Shedroff Rosenfeld Media, LLC 705 Carroll Street, #2L Brooklyn, New York 11215 USA On the Web: www.rosenfeldmedia.com Please send errors to: [email protected] Publisher: Louis Rosenfeld Editor/Production Editor: Marta Justak Interior Layout: Susan Honeywell Cover Design: The Heads of State Indexer: Nancy Guenther Proofreader: Kezia Endsley © 2009 Rosenfeld Media, LLC All Rights Reserved ISBN: 1-933820-01-2 ISBN-13: 978-1-933820-01-9 Library of Congress Control Number: 2008943283 Printed and bound in the United States of America Enter code DITPDE for 15% off any Rosenfeld Media product directly purchased from our site: http://rosenfeldmedia.com HOW TO USE THIS BOOK Who Should Read This Book? I believe that design is how we change the world. Designers are incredibly optimistic people—believing that they can, absolutely, change the world for the better. However, even without a design background or edu- cation, it doesn’t mean you don’t or can’t make change in the world—and change for the better. This book was written for the designer in all of us. While it is primarily targeted at those who call themselves “designers,” it doesn’t use any design jargon and is just as help- ful to engineers, managers, students, and anyone who wants to build a better, more sustainable world. Whether you are involved with the creation of products, services, on- line experiences, events, environments, or mechanisms that drive systems (like the economy), understanding sustainability is- sues, frameworks, and strategies can help you create better solutions. ix How to Use this Book HOW TO USE THIS BOOK This book won’t make you an expert—only experience and time can do that. However, it’s designed to help you get acquainted quickly with state-of-the-art methods in the sustainability domains and to put you far out in front of most of your peers. What’s in This Book? This book is a summary of what I feel are the most important approaches and aspects of sustainable design. It doesn’t cover every- thing and it only goes into so much depth. However, it should serve not only as a good introduction, but also help people put sus- tainable design practices into their work, no matter what they do. It is also filled with a number of references and resources that will serve as great next steps as readers decide to explore more. x How to Use this Book HOW TO USE THIS BOOK This book is organized into five main sec- tions: Reduce, Reuse, Recycle, Restore, and Process. These sections contain 15 chapters filled with advice and examples for making better strategies regarding sustainable solutions. Section 1: Reduce This section, “Reduce,” focuses on the strat- egies for reducing material and energy im- pacts. It is the first place to start in designing or redesigning anything because reducing these impacts is imperative. Section 2: Reuse The two chapters in this section focus on strategies for making solutions (products, services, environments, or mechanisms) last longer and finding other uses when finished. xi How to Use this Book HOW TO USE THIS BOOK Section 3: Recycle Just because something is recyclable, that doesn’t mean it’s actually recycled. There are several strategies for developing prod- ucts to be more easily recycled that both reclaim as much residual value as possible and prevent virgin materials from needlessly being used. Section 4: Restore Developing a more sustainable product or service is important, but it’s often not enough. Aside from reducing the impact our activities have on the future, we have a lot of work left in order to correct for the impacts we’ve had in the past. This section describes how we need to rethink systems in order to have positive results, rather than merely reducing our negative results. xii How to Use this Book HOW TO USE THIS BOOK Section 5: Process Once we have an understanding of the strat- egies we can use, we need to understand how to put them into the processes we uti- lize every day. These three chapters describe how easily sustainability can be inserted into processes we already use, how to measure our results, and how to talk to other people about them.