A thought about applying sustainable design in a world that is at the mercy of stakeholder capitalism. I have played the role of ‘sustainability champion’ through out my career. I have gone through the paces and failures of attempting to get a larger organization to change and adapt more sustainable processes and methods. This has taken the form of working with office managers to institute better waste management practices, working on marketing campaigns and events to promote styrofoam recycling, and currently I find myself coming to grips with how to sell this type of design work to small and medium sized enterprises. The long and short of it is it hurts.
This is why when I came across Raz Godelnik’s work around the concept of sustainability-as-usual a note rang clear to me. I recognised myself in his words. I had lived what he was describing.
“In this state, efforts to make companies more sustainable are the normal course of things, but at the same time, these efforts are subjected to the shareholder capitalism mental model, which significantly limits their effectiveness.”
We are in a paradigm where it is a hygiene factor to have a corporate sustainability strategy. This is something that any working designer with even a passing interest on the topic has come to learn. EVERY client you will work for has a policy on how their company tackles climate change and is doing everything in their power to deliver their end of the bargin. But as yourself, how did this policy come to practice if you tell a large auto manufacturer that in order to be truly sustainable they need to reduce the amount of vehicles that they produce annually? How do these policies land when you ask of the Jevons paradox or rebound effects brought on by increases in efficiency?
They most likely fell on deaf ears. Why? These topics are uncomfortable because they strike too close to the core of the issue, the company’s extractive business model that is predicated on the access to inexpensive, and often times free, natural recourses. In a sense we are stuck in the mud. We move forward, but at a pace that is far too slow and far too ineffective.
There are ways forward, but they require leadership that is willing to invest in initiatives that have a higher risk, but we know the risk of continuing business-as-usual. It is high time we as designers look in the mirror and are truthful about the risk of sustainability-as-usual.
What am I reading?
Flourish by Sarah Ichioka & Michael Pawlyn
The Creative Act by Rick Rubin
The Imperial Mode of Living by Ulrich Brand & Markus Wissen
What is on the turntable?
Meddle, Pink Floyd
Quarters, King Gizzard & the Lizard Wizard
In a Silent Way, Miles Davis