Responsible Consumption and Design for Sustainability

Responsible Consumption Responsible Consumption and Design for and Design for SustainabilitySustainability

Design PhD Conference, Lancaster University | 15-16 June 2009Anne Marchand, Assistant Professor, École de design industriel, Université de Montréal

Summary of the presentation

| Responsible Consumption and Design for Sustainability, Design PhD Conference, Lancaster University |

1. Context and research questions2. Methodology3. Main results4. Advice for students

1. Context and main research questions

Context >>> The need for ‘lighter’ patterns of consumption is widely recognized as an essential step towards a more sustainable future (UN, 2002; OECD, 2002)

Context >>> Environmental gains from technological improvements in products eco-efficiency have been outweighed by an overall increase in consumption

(Carley, Spapens, 1998, after Cooper, 2005)

Context >>> “Consumers are increasingly interested in the world that lies behind the product they buy. Apart from price and quality, they want to know how, where and by whom the product has been produced.”(UNEP, 2005)

Context >>> Corporate environmental and social responsibility: A tangible trend

www.tetrapak.com/us/environment/pages/default.aspx

Research question >>>

Making links and building the research project…

…design for sustainability = sustainable production + sustainable consumption

Context >>> Design for sustainability sits at the interface of sustainable production and sustainable consumption

SustainablePRODUCTION

> supply side> efficiency

SustainableCONSUMPTION

> demand side> sufficiencyDesign

forSustainability

SUSTAINABILITY

…design for sustainability = sustainable production + sustainable consumption

…and sustainable consumption is about: consuming less and opting for greener products or solutions

…What about the profession and the nature of products if we really move towards sustainable consumption?

…and will this wreck the economy?

…What if a growing number of consumers actually adopt responsible, sustainable consumption patterns?

…Design for sustainable consumption: what does it mean?

…What kind of products would be valued in such a context?

…What place objects would occupy in our lives?

…What would visual cultures be like?

…What are the roles and contributions of design in this changing world?

…What about product design if we really move towards sustainable consumption?

…What about the profession if we really move towards sustainable consumption?

…What if a growing number of consumers actually adopt responsible, sustainable consumption patterns?

…What place objects would occupy in our lives?

…What would visual cultures be like?

…What are the roles and contributions of design in this changing world?

What are the implications of responsible, sustainable

consumption for product design?

Goals of the research were:(a) to gain insights into what might be termed a responsible,

sustainable material culture by seeking to understand the choices, preferences, and perspectives of identified responsible consumers with regard to functional products, and

(b) to use this information to identify key implications of responsible consumption (RC) for the design of products

2. Methodology

Methodology >>>

1. Participant observation among existing responsible consumers discussion groups to gain a global understanding of the attitudes and practices of RC

Methodology >>> 1. Participant observation

* More than 40 meetings of 2 hours duration were attended

* Data collection: Field notes

Le Soleil, 9 November 2008

Methodology >>>

2. In-depth interviews with identified responsible consumers to investigate their material cultures

Methodology >>> 2.Key informant interviews

* 18 individual interviews (1-3 hour duration) among 11 responsible consumers

* Data collection: interview audio recorded + photographs taken by participants

* Analysis: software ATLAS-TI

* Use of objects and images of objects to stimulates exchanges on the topic “representations surrounding sustainable-unsustainable products”

Methodology >>>

3. Research through design where the creation of experimental artefacts allows for exploring the meaning of some of the gathered information

Methodology >>> 3. Research through design approach

* Creation process, and the resulting artefact, as a mean of reflection

3. Main results

Some illustrative quotations…

Main results >>>

“I live a sort of detachment towards objects but, at the same time, it is like a different attachment, it is like a reverence to things. They are precious you know […]”

Main results >>>

“[…] we now put a product between us and all the things we wish to do ”

Main results >>>

Wooden Grasshopper

“My grand-father made this for his child, it’s a grasshopper that moves when you pull on it […] The mechanism is simple, it’s like if it gave you power over the objects, take a Barbie for example, we don’t know how to build a Barbie at home, whereas this, you can build it at home, you’re less dependent on structures ”

Main results >>>

“[…] there are electric woks, with buttons, a power cord and everything and you have a complicated opening system and I don’t know why whereas this one is simple, you’re not encumbered with buttons or functionalities, the object is simple and is easy to clean.”

Main results >>>

Dishes

“This is pottery, a dish set I bought in a yard sale […] I like the fact that colors are blended, and there are yellow ones as well in the set, none of them is identical, and there are square ones […] finally, I think I like things I know I could build myself, things that you know how they are made”.

Main results >>>

SB: “ To have useless things, or semi-useless things around, it clutters my thoughts […] In thinking about my relationship with things, I want to be in charge, I don’t want them to run my life, it is there for me to use, that’s all”

Preferences for products:

* Presenting a limited number of features and options

>>> Perceived as longer lasting

Main results >>>

* Allowing users to be involved in the activity of “doing”

>>> In relation to a search for greater autonomy with regard to the world of objects

Main results >>>

* That can easily be understood in terms of constitution and functioning

>>> Feeling of control over their objects (can repair them if broken, or at least understand what is wrong)

41| Responsible Consumption and Design for Sustainability, Design PhD Conference, Lancaster

University |

Main results >>>

Preferences for:

* Products or systems allowing users to invest less time, money, and care in replacement, maintenance and repair

>>> Perceived increase in quality of life

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3. Main results >>>

* Presenting prototypal characteristics (in the case of mass-produced objects)

>>> Reaction against aesthetic obsolescence

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Main results >>>

* Identification of the issue of visual culture as being of interest in relation to sustainability

>>> Exploratory designs looking at the notion of ‘alternative visual cultures’ have been developed based on gathered data

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Main results >>>

University |

Main results >>>

Research through design work realised points at the unsustainability of dominant western visual cultures

University |

Visual diversity: “rather innappropriate”

Main results >>>

Aesthetics conventions

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Visual uniformity: “rather appropriate”

Main results >>>

Aesthetics conventions

PhD examination, Anne Marchand, Faculty of Environmental Design, University of Calgary | 20/10/08

Design explorations

Continuity in Diversity

Main results >>>

Red Dot on Drinking Glasses49

Cutlery Pieces with Red Handles50

Chairs with Slip Covers51

Chairs with Slip Covers52

Key design implications of sustainable consumption

1. Products’ Transparency: products should be designed in a way that users experience a certain amount of control with respect to the products they own and use

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2. Users’ Autonomy: product should be designed in a way that users can look after and maintain their own products —either through their own efforts or via local services

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3. Inclusive Methodologies: design should allow users to be involved in the generation of (their) design solutions

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3. Inclusive Methodologies: design should allow users to be involved in the generation of (their) design solutions

4. Design Responsibilities: product design should critically rethink its role and its responsibilities in the production of aesthetic conventions or norms

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4. Advice for students starting, or in the early stages of, their Ph.D.

Advice for students >>>

* Focus on ONE main research question >> Don’t try to find an answer to all the questions you have when starting

* PLANNING >> Fix some precise objectives and plan an schedule (ex. 3 months to gather data; 2 months to transcribe data; 1 month to analyze, etc…) >> feeling of advancing

* Consult your supervisor REGULARLY >> Especially in the early stages in order to develop a reasonable research project (scope)

* PRESENT AT CONFERENCES >> Brings you to produce material and get used to academic writing

* DISCIPLINED >> Iterative process DOES NOT MEAN unorganized research plan! >> Build a good research plan and follow it

* “UNDISCIPLINED” >> If you reach your objectives in advance, you may want to take a few days off

*** Exercise***

Describe in LESS THAN 1 PAGE the followings: 1)Context2)Research question3)Objectives 4)Methodology5)Relevance

Thank you

Design PhD Conference, Lancaster University | 15-16 June 2009Anne Marchand, Assistant Professor, École de design industriel, Université de Montréal

Responsible Consumption and Design for Sustainability

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