How can design be used as a force for good?
It is my long-held belief that design can be a vehicle for positive change, both environmentally and socially. But, sadly, my experiences have often been the opposite. If anything, the industry is part of a system that is perpetuating environmental damage – accelerating the exploitation of resources, polluting the environment, and applying unrelenting pressure on the poor and voiceless who often produce our goods. I have spent many years working in design, investigating where materials come from, where products and materials are made and what happens when we no longer want or need them. The relationship between design and environmental damage is a huge problem, but what can we do about it? How can I ever justify creating something new when the world desperately seeks ways to be more sustainable?
Confronted by this problem, I set up Sibley Grove in 2010 with my wife, Kate Sibley. We aimed to create a sustainable design company – in this case, interior design – that could address the environmental and social concerns that are exacerbated by our industry, such as resource depletion, waste and exploited labour markets. However, over the first couple of years, we ran into problems. Neither of us felt hugely enthusiastic about what we were creating. Through our projects, we had substituted conventional materials for so-called sustainable alternatives. However, it was clear that we were still contributing to the same problems of overconsumption and waste. Sure, our projects were slightly better than they otherwise would be, but if we were brutally honest, it wasn't enough, and we knew it. We were not alone. In fact, I often encounter fellow creatives who feel conflicted when they create something new. Is it sustainable enough? Can I justify its existence? It leaves an underlying sense of guilt and a feeling that anything you do is not quite good enough.
Early on in my design career, sustainability was unquestionably a good thing. I never felt it needed examining. But everything needs to be questioned and stand up to scrutiny. More often than not, the things that seem untouchable require the most attention, e.g., globalisation, capitalism, or religion, because inevitably, they are defective in some capacity. Through our work, we want to create outcomes that have a positive impact on the environment and people. However, over time, we came to realise that sustainability is not a designer's best friend, and only when you release the eco shackles and the guilt, can you truly start to address the environmental and social problems at the core of the design industry.
Our light bulb moment came in Hamburg in 2011, where Kate and I met Michael Braungart, co-author of the groundbreaking book Cradle to Cradle. Braungart did not believe that sustainability, in the typical sense, can deliver the outcomes we need because it is fixated with correcting the problems of the past and reducing our impact. But as Braungart put it, 'you are not being good by beating your children two times a day instead of five'. We should focus on being good rather than less bad. It is not to say that sustainability is a bad thing. It is just the very least we can do. We should be looking to create positive outcomes beyond simply being sustainable. After all, there are only a few ways to make people less bad, but millions of ways to support people to be good.
As long as we remain tethered to the simplistic notion that the solutions to our environmental and social crises lies in creating efficiencies and doing less, then we will never be doing enough, and we remain in a cycle of perpetual guilt. In trying to be sustainable, we create a system where no one can win as you can never be sustainable enough. Well, you can, but it isn't helpful when the most sustainable thing you can do is not to exist at all! Sustainability can feel like a form of religious dogma, where humanity is born in sin and our every action is impactful.
It is not possible to be sustainable; everything has an impact to some degree – both positive and negative. But when creating something new, it is my job as a designer to ensure that the positives outweigh the negatives and understand the far-reaching implications of my decisions.
Design is at the centre of the industrial world. It governs what materials to use and how to use them. Therefore, designers must use their platform to support better companies and direct capital towards businesses engaged in change. If not, we end up supporting and reinforcing the production of problematic materials and services, soon to be obsolete.
Designers are better off thinking in terms of quality and holistic beauty rather than focusing on sustainability—designs that encompass aesthetics, history, culture, people, and the environment. There is nothing beautiful about a toxic product or a material created using exploited labour. Still, there is something wonderful about products of cultural value, clean air, clean oceans and a closer union between humanity and the natural world. This might seem like fanciful stuff, but there are designers and manufacturers throughout the world doing extraordinary things. In Switzerland, a fabric mill, Rohner Textil AG, has re-engineered production so clean water enters the factory and clean water leaves. In the Netherlands, Mosa, a tile manufacturer, has re-developed its product so 100% of pre-consumer and post-consumer waste can become brand new tiles. There are carpet suppliers using new polymers that can be used again and again, so old carpet fibres can be reprocessed into new yarn to make clothing, accessories or more carpet. These are not sustainable products, just better products and better design.
The role of a designer is to engineer solutions that benefit clients and customers. Designers shouldn't try to design sustainable products or try to reinvent or tweak the past. Instead, as an industry, we should create designs that are appropriate for the future. This means products and spaces that look great, are of good quality, are priced competitively, and leave a positive environmental and social footprint.
But we also need to have the freedom to create. The problems of today require bold, creative solutions, and we shouldn't restrict that creativity in the pursuit of sustainability. Designers should thrive when confronted with a problem, so don't worry about what you get wrong and focus on what you can get right. After all, good design should inspire and motivate people and it will drive the change that the world badly needs.