Reset | 01. The mess of sustainability.
Hello and welcome to issue one of Reset.
In this issue, we’re jumping right into the mess of ‘sustainability’, tackling common myths and misconceptions to clarify the meaning of sustainability. Using a few well placed case studies, we showcase the role design can play as a catalyst for positive change.
What is sustainability, and how did we get to this point?
The United Nations Brundtland Commission describes sustainability as “meeting the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs”.
But what does that mean in a design context?
Since mass production boomed in the 1950s with cheap materials readily at hand, alongside a mix of overproduction, overtrade and overconsumption, design has been associated with desire and consumption.
Within Europe, 26kg of textiles are used per person per year, and 11 kg of them are discarded that same year. This results in 87% of the clothing ending in landfill, or incinerated, every year.
If that wasn’t bad enough, in 2019, global electronic waste reached a staggering 50 million metric tons and is predicted to reach 20 million metric tons by 2029.
New trends for design and systems thinking.
Fortunately, we’re starting to see a shift in approaches to design, systems thinking and expectations. Younger demographic groups are pushing for sustainable action and change while policymakers are forging new laws such as the right to repair and the green claims code.
The most radical and positive approaches within sustainable design can be seen through a system change such as; Cradle to Cradle (C2C) and the Circular Economy (CE). They focus on the three main principles: Eliminate, Circulate and Regenerate.
Sustainability, to a point, can also be implemented at material selection. Just think of Bio-composites and PCR materials. Designing for circularity means taking key aspects of reuse, repair, redistribution, remanufacturing and refurbishment into consideration.
With this mix of differentiating sustainability levels, consumers and businesses are at a point where knowing what makes a product sustainable requires a wealth of knowledge — let alone implementing the correct end-of-life strategy.
The entwined, complicated layer of sustainable myths, commonly known as ‘Greenwashing’, doesn’t help, either.
Mass confusion, sustainable myths & a lack of facilities all mixed along with greenwashing.
Already, greenwashing has become an industry-wide problem. Through the “careful” selection of materials like rough cardboard, speckled plastics or the use of green text, some businesses are attempting to steer consumers towards the preconceived ideas of what is thought to be sustainable.
In reality, these greenwashing tactics serve marketing strategies more than sustainability.
Labelling products, such as recycled Ocean plastic, as “sustainable” is creating a false sense of what makes a product actually sustainable. Because in practice, reutilising a material and recapturing a material from the ocean — whilst laudable — is only scratching the surface of designing for sustainability.
Remanufacturing Ocean plastic into a new plastic requires huge amounts of energy and water. Plus, it typically requires more Post Consumer Recycled (PCR) plastics due to the low ocean plastic quality. And these materials will still emit microplastics when in use.
Too often, the emphasis is put on cleaning up, rather than pushing for radical change to prevent waste in the first place.
The disposable coffee cup is a prime example. Labelled as ‘compostable’ and marketed as sustainable, through the use of sustainable looking materials, results in unknown best end-of-product disposal. The vast majority of these so-called sustainable coffee cups are actually ending up in landfills, instead of industrial composting, giving off a much worse greenhouse gas (methane) which is 23–34 times more dangerous than CO2.
Even if the cup reached an industrial composting facility, all of the 50 industrial composting sites in the UK don’t even deal with this product.
The current systems we are operating sustainable design within are simply not working. They are not effective enough to bring about mass sustainable change.
A future-facing response can be seen through McDonalds and Burger King’s trial of a Circular packaging scheme. Implemented in partnership with Wrap and Loop, the system is incentivising customers behaviour adoption through a £1.00 deposit and a monetary incentive of 20p off next purchase.
Changing the whole system through a monetary incentive, alongside a reward, could be the way forward for both consumers and businesses to bring about this change. It also enables a clear and confusion-free material recovery path for both consumers and businesses.
Nordic countries are leading the way, and the UK should start following suit.
In 2019, Norway’s approach was labelled as a blueprint for the rest of the world, with 97% of their plastic being recycled and 92% at a high enough standard they are remanufactured.
Consumers are often incentivised and have already adopted best practice as a day-to-day behaviour. To us, the Norwegian recycling system is proof that design and system innovation are critical in overcoming the confusion with our current systems.
“It is a system that works” Maldum, the chief executive of Infinitum goes on to mention that the Uk could learn a lot from this system.
In Scandinavian countries, material recapture has already been integrated into people’s lives through design. Their systems actively encourage good behaviour through simple innovations like easily accessible bottle drop locations such as shopping centres and outside collection bins.
Now, there is even talk of Sweden pioneering a fully circular economy system for everyday products. This would lower the overall country’s waste and reliance on virgin materials through a reuse only system. Currently, any waste in Sweden that can’t be recaptured and reused is used to create energy.
“Rubbish is burnt in low-carbon incinerators and food waste is turned into climate-friendly biogas fuel.” The energy created is used to power buses, apartments and heating systems.
So, what does this show? Clearly, well-thought out design of a product, service or system can have a major influence on the adoption of new, more sustainable, behaviour.
Finally, the UK is starting to follow suit with these Nordic countries, with talk of adopting the collection of plastic bottles. But there are many more areas of day-to-day life we can start to rethink and re-design towards circularity and sustainability.
Positives & negatives of sustainable change over past years for business.
Inevitably, changes to design, systems and behaviour need to be aligned with business, which has traditionally operated on the standard principles of return on equity, return on assets, return on invested capital and total return to shareholders.
Too often, the more sustainable approach to business is rejected in favour of potential initial higher outgoings, such as extra overheads and lower ROI, without thought to the potential of increased returns:
However, we have now reached a point where change is not only vital in protecting our planet, but beneficial to both businesses and consumers.
For a start, designing for a circular economy business model brings lower waste, the COGS (Costs of goods sold) increase. Plus, using a sharing economy model leads to a higher return for OPEX (Operating expenses reduction) and earnings before depreciation and amortisation increase.
Conducting business within the new economy, which puts people and the planet first, is slowly evolving business models to incorporate sustainability from the get-go. In turn, this is enabling businesses to reach a better product margin and competitiveness than ever before.›
So what is needed to bring about real sustainable change?
+ Fundamentally the design community and our clients must resist greenwash. We need to level-up both on the understanding of the terminology and downstream implications of the design choices we make.
+ Quick-fix solutions of swapping to ‘sustainable ’materials do not work alone, system change with long term thinking is required to bring about circularity. Ensuring we think about the 5 r’s: Reuse, Repair, Redistribution, Remanufacturing and Refurbishment, are all key drivers of sustainable design.
+ Emphasis should be equally placed on how we use, innovate and align products, services and systems too. Analysing the larger contexts of business parallel to the sustainable needs of a product is pivotal to bringing about positive disruption and real sustainable change and innovation.
Next Issue | Democratising sustainable design for scale.
We ask, does this lead to more sustainable behaviour & use of products?
A little bit about the Reset team.
Rodd have teamed up with Emma Lacey a sustainability researcher and strategist to jointly explore the landscape of sustainable design. Through a series of illustrated thought pieces we are looking to raise awareness, and create a greater understanding, of the important consumer brands and the design community alike — play in instigating and accelerating critical regenerative sustainable behavioural change at scale and how user centred innovation can massively increase the chances for success.
