Designing Our Future

I attended the Energy, Water and Food Stress Nexus event hosted by Professor Judith Rees at the Royal Geographical Society, before Christmas. There were a number of interesting speakers that evening, but it was Tim Brown, a designer and CEO of IDEO, that stood out for me. His message for the evening was all about collaboration, working together to share and create a more sustainable future.

 

Shell’s leaflet on ‘Understanding The Stress Nexus’ outlines the message that as the world’s population and prosperity increases, our demand will grow for energy, water and food creating substantial pressure on these resources. The additional environmental stresses related to Co2 and the effects of climate change will also create a ‘zone of uncertainty’ which is documented in Shell’s Energy Scenarios for 2050.  

 

The World Economic Forum has predicted that if our demands for water consumption continue, the world could face a ‘40% shortfall between global freshwater demand and supply by 2030’. Oxfam, despite the headlines of food wastage, has also estimated a doubling of food prices by 2030. And by 2050, Shell expects that ‘the gap to be bridged between business-as-usual energy supply and demand could equal the size of the whole industry in 2000’.

The challenges we face are substantial, perhaps we are more familiar with the voices of politicians, scientists, engineers offering solutions. But for me hearing a speech from a designer gave a refreshing new perspective on some ideas that could be considered. He did not give a five point plan to solving the 'stress nexus' that Shell proposes, but he highlighted the type of movements and trends that are happening that could perhaps provoke us to get involved in designing our future together.

As a designer, Tim Brown, believed that we need to innovate our way out of these problems and find a positive direction that inspires us and encourages behaviour rather than regulates or frightens us into doing the right thing.

Tim made the point that as a society we spend a lot of time trying to regulate behaviour. But design can help enable behaviour rather than rely on a heavy handed approach. His amusing story of the fly and the urinal gives such a point. A design solution was found for the unhygienic problem of men ‘splashing’ when using public urinals. In Amsterdam’s Schiphol Airport they discovered an innovative solution, by simply placing a picture of a fly in a toilet it improved the hygiene of the area as men found it useful to aim at something. In an amusing way, ‘flies are enablers of behaviour’.

Image from Methodshop.com on Flickr

I guess the point he was making was that behaviour change and new social norms will be needed in order to tackle the strains on natural resources but clever design can also help us do this. Shell proposes that we need to promote 'extraordinary demand moderation' as well as 'extraordinary supply acceleration'  to meet our future energy, water, food needs. And simple design can play a part, like creating a simple system for charities to collect our tax Gift Aid, that makes it easy for the charity to collect and easy for us to donate. Clever conservation design can make behaviour effortless, such as creating water taps with ‘touch-free’ sensors which stop water flow automatically when you remove your hands, making it a design solution for water wastage.

However, Tim's main message was focused on behaviours to do with collaboration, working together to create more good. And he highlighted Paul Saffo who suggested that we have moved from an ‘industrial economy’, to a ‘consumer economy’ and now to a ‘creator economy’. An economy which Tim suggests is a 'shift from a very small number of producers and a large number of consumers, to us all consuming and producing in different ways in the future’. 

Collaborative consumption and a sharing economy:
Tim highlighted that we are changing the way we consume. There are many more consumers and producers. This notion of a shared economy means we are making more efficient resources by sharing their use. Tim used the example of Whip Car which allows you to rent out your own private car to other people. So instead of sitting in the garage when you’re not using it, it can be out on the roads being used by someone else and making money for you as well. I also saw an advert for a  ZipCar with the slogan; ‘Pay-as-you-live: The Future of the UK’s Sharing Economy’.

Zip Car, Image by Frank Smith on Flickr

 

This attitude was also noticeable in the design of Whole Foods, a big organic store in Kensington London. I enjoyed a ‘bowl of goodness’ in the restaurant that was designed like a canteen. The fashionable shared tables felt a symbolic move away from the age of individualism and a move towards a new shared way of living. Office designs have also moved in this direction too. The BBC’s New Broadcasting House building near Oxford Circus is not only open-plan but has set up a hot-desking solution, the idea being that there are less desks as people can simply logon to areas when people are in meetings, so everyone moves around and shares the office space together making the most efficient use of space.

 

Collaborative Production

Collaborative production is also about the ‘spreading-out the production away from the notion of centralised factories’ as Tim states. He notes the revolution we are seeing in 3d printing and other digital technologies. MakerBot enables the average consumer to start designing 3d objects at your desk, giving freedom to the consumer to design and produce things to their own individual need. These boxes act like robots that follow your design on the computer and build the plastic objects you require, enabling a new type of production at home.

 Makerbot finders & final prototypes. Image by MakerBot Industries on Flickr

Maybe collaborative production can cut the need for long supply chains in many areas.

 

Collaborative Conservation

Looking at collaborative conservation, Tim used the example CoolBiz – a movement in Japan, started by the then prime minister. It was an attempt to meet their Kyoto targets in Co2 reduction by persuading Japanese business men to wear more casual clothing, so that the use of air conditioning in offices could be reduced and energy saved. This campaign involved the Prime Minster and CEOS of every major corporation. There was also a ‘warm biz’ for the winter. This idea shows communities collaborating to conserve.

Image by CoCreatr on Flickr

Design for collaboration

The final idea was design for collaboration. Open ideo is a community of 20,000 people around the world who are working together on food and water innovation challenges in places like Africa, Australia, America and Europe. Tim is finding people all over the world who are interested in looking for solutions to some of these problems. 

 

Tim ended his speech by emphasising the importance of this bottom-up approach, building on an evolution of progress which is never finished, but constantly changing. Some of his principles in designing behaviour and behaviour change include; focus on starting with people rather than stuff. Look at extremes, where you can find people doing really interesting and creative things.  Behaviour change isn’t just about regulation. Put new choices on the table and develop your divergent thinking – considering new perspectives, using your creativity and knowing there is a ‘mosaic of solutions’.

 

Lastly, Tim offered the idea that ‘we have to find alternatives to making ourselves happy through consuming more’. Well I will end with a quote which I liked from another designer, Karim Rasid, who perhaps offers one alternative:

‘Consume experiences not things…

Experience is the most important part of living and the exchange of ideas and human contact is all life really is…’