We talk about disruptive innovation a lot in design, but for better and worse few years have been as disruptive as the events of 2020. While there were many tragic consequences of Covid-19, the lockdown also reduced road traffic and had an immediate impact on reducing nitrogen levels and noise pollution. It offered a glimpse of a possible future with better air quality and flourishing nature in our cities. The consequences of COVID-19 on public health and the economy could have overshadowed the challenges faced by the environment, such as biodiversity loss, part of the underlying cause of the pandemic.
However, sustainability is still firmly on the agenda, and progress is being made. For example, big businesses known for their use of design have been making ambitious commitments with Microsoft pledging to be carbon negative by 2030, including taking responsibility for their historical impacts. We also see the first actionable results of the Global Resource Initiative Taskforce set up the British government as new laws are being passed to clamp down on illegal global deforestation in supply chains of British products. Unilever, meanwhile, is requiring suppliers to provide environmental reporting.
How long until these requirements impact design operations?
Where does design fit into all of this?
Many design companies have continued to make commitments to sustainability. Design Council developed its 20-24 strategy before COVID-19 but kept sustainable living as one of its 3 strategic priorities when it launched during the lockdown. Grassroot initiatives to embed environment impact reporting in consultancies are getting traction with the likes of Idean. Trend reports from the design industry such as the Fjord, point to radical changes in values and purpose of design holds, moving beyond user-centred design and towards a life-centred-design approach (first proposed by John Thackera).
However, 2020 has still only seen limited action from design in terms of work on sustainability. As with any process of change, the design industry can only start its environmental sustainability journey with a single step from where it is, not where it wants to be.
Last year’s Service Design Fringe Festival (watch the session here) highlighted 2019 as the year that mainstream design woke up to the environmental challenge. Maybe this year's discussions will bring 2020 into focus as the year design realised, it needs to get its house in order before getting stuck into making a meaningful impact with clients? We are looking forward to see how the conversation plays out in this year’s fringe festival. The hope is this discussion demonstrates, one step at a time, we are making good progress on our journey for a positive impact on the environment and society.
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Things to read and consider what design can do to tackle the environmental crisis
There has been a lot said about how society can address the challenges presented by the environmental crisis. There has been quite a bit of discussion on what design can contribute too. If you want to understand the fundamental challenges of sustainability, I would recommend three reads:
The tragedy of the Commons, by Garrett Hardin
Leverage points: places to intervene in system, by Donella Meadows
Doughnut Economics, by Kate Raworth
However, this will only give you thinking that is already well known and is still not helping the majority of service designers, who are still falling short on a key question:
"What can we do to embed sustainability in everything we do and still work successfully with clients?"
Through discussions and work aiming to help the design industry build capacity and get business from environmental projects, I concluded that designers need to develop those three strengths below. Each of the examples is accompanied by an article that gives insights and asks a question to prompt discussion on where service design could go in the future:
Credibility
Designers often lack credibility with clients, who fund work in sustainability. Instead, a lot of work goes to people with environmental credentials, even when taking a human-centred approach is critical to addressing the challenges. A part of building our credibility is demonstrating a commitment to our operations, so we are living the values that we recommend to clients.
What more should design to do to demonstrate its commitment to the environmental agenda?
Skills
When you add sustainability to a project from the start, the process can look quite different. The process and skillset of an environmentally literate designer will likely be somewhat different in the future. For example, last year’s panel discussion highlighted that very few designers had experience carbon footprinting.
Communication, Facilitation, Improvisation, Empathizing, and Curiosity. These are all well-recognised skills for a service designer. But how might our skills and tools change when the design is life-centered? (READ MORE)
RELATIONSHIP
A part of gaining our credibility and taking on new skills is understanding our limits and the need to build relationships. To tackle new design territory like sustainability, most designers will need to work with new contacts and learn languages. However, service design can use learnings from things like open innovation to harness networks that collaborate to meet big innovation challenges.
HERE are some excellent examples of harnessing relationships with open innovation in the context of the coronavirus crisis. What can we learn and apply to the environmental crisis?
Do you have different thoughts or experiences? Please share them. Rather than offer answers, the article aims to stimulate the discourse service design needs to meet aspirations addressing the environment. One way or another society will continue to change dramatically and how we carve out our path is still to be seen.
ROB MASLIN
chair or the SDFF2020 panel discussion
