It all starts with us...

     Design activism is defined by Fuad-Luke as "design thinking, imagination and practice applied knowingly or unknowingly to create a counter-narrative aimed at generating and balancing positive social, institutional, environmental and/or economic change".  To me design activism means taking a stand against practices that are frankly wrong and need to be changed. 
     I learned during my internship that sadly the Interior Design/Architecture industry is probably more guilty of over consumption and wasting than most other industries.  The aspect I am speaking about is in the use and waste of paper.  During my internship I was tasked with scanning hundreds of architectural plans into a scanner to then be stored on a computer.  Yet instead of shredding or recycling the old architectural plans once I was finished, I had to put them in boxes to then be taken to a storage facility to permanently be stored.  The amount of space taken up for storage was incredibly disturbing, not to mention the amount of paper used.  When I approached my mentor about recycling these documents, she said to me that our industry would be the last ones to become sustainable and do their part by going digital and recycling all of these old plans.  She also said that these plans are not the originals, but that there were multiple copies of each set of papers, which meant hundreds or possibly thousands more sheets of paper being wasted.  This statement spoke volumes to me.  I couldn't believe how wasteful this process was and how the industry that I want to become apart of blatantly refused to change their ways.
     Ever since then and from taking this course, I believe it has led me to try and take a stand against such wasteful practices.  I believe that the interior design and architecture industries need to become more sustainable in order to continue and survive in the 21st century.  This is the consumer group that I will be targeting, and they are over definitely over consumers.  This industry and its people are over consumers because they over consume items instead of only taking and using what they need.
     Our reading this week provides many great examples of how I feel about this problem.  Faud-Luke says that "the first group of people that URGENTLY need to change their behaviors are the designers themselves".  I fully believe this to be true, because if we are telling people to live more sustainable lives, then we first need to live that way ourselves and set a true example that sustainability is the future of not just our industry, but all industries.  Fuad-Luke goes on to say that "sustainability is learning about living well but consuming MUCH less; it is a social learning process and will involve moving from a 'product-based well-being' to thinking about products, dematerialized products, services and enabling solutions to satisfy our needs". 
     It all starts with us.  We have to look at our everyday practices (ie. paper consumption) before we can even begin to look at the products that we use and our other design methods and practices.  Taking a stand against issues/problems within our industry is what design activism means to me.


Course Assessment:
     I believe the most important thing I learned in this course is about all of the issues that are out there and that affect our lives and the industries that we are choosing to work in.  This course was a real eye opener for me to the problems that our planet faces and as to what is actually going on.  I feel empowered now with knowledge about our planet and sustainability issues.  I am also confident when speaking to people about practices and policies that are unsustainable and what needs to happen to change them.
     The one thing that I would like to learn more about is Biomimicry.  This area is of real interest to me as they mimic natural practices.  I plan on doing more research on some of the areas we learned about in this course to see how they can apply to the work I will be doing.  This was a difficult course, but I am definitely glad it was that way.  I feel I learned more in the long run because of how difficult it was.

New Concepts

What if all textile/design products were some how biodegradable?  They could go back to the earth as food once their useful life was over.  These products would be using the biological metabolism in that natural materials would be going back to the earth as food.  Waste equals food.  One company that is trying this already is Frito-Lay.  They have a corn based compostable bag for their brand Sun Chips.  This bag will supposedly break down over a 14 week period of time.  Well what if we took this idea and incorporated it into the textiles/design industry?  Our items could be made to break down naturally once their useful life is over and turn into food for our planet?  I think this is something at least worth researching to see if this corn based compostable product could be used in other products.

Renewable Products

     My product idea is for renewable wall coverings.  The cradle-to-cradle metabolism that will apply to this concept is technical metabolism.  This wall covering will be able to be up-cycled once it has run it's useful life course.  The wall covering manufacturer would have incentives for consumers to return their wall coverings once they are finished with them, then that company would use that recycled material to create new wall coverings or durable materials.  It would be a constant ongoing cycle and would use the technical metabolism process because of some of the harmful materials or processes used in creating the wall covering.  According to our reading of Cradle to Cradle by McDonough and Braungart, most of the early industrial industries did not replenish the resources that they took from the earth, and by using this metabolism and system, this product would not be taking anything additional from the environment either.  In the video for this week, there is a company call Design Tex that has a similar process to the one I am proposing.  Also, Ray Anderson who is the author of our textbook Mid-Course Correction, also has a similar process of how he renews carpet and creates new products with it. 
     I believe that most anything that is manufactured today can somehow be renewed and remade into new products.  It just makes sense to do this instead of wasting so many items per company and having that surplus or extra go to waste.

New ideas

     This week, I would like to discuss two more biomimicry and IE (Industrial Ecology) ideas that would make a big difference in the way that buildings and companies impact the environment.  These two ideas are using morphotex (as discussed by Bradley Quinn in Textile Futures) for interior finishes such as fabric for furniture or curtains.  And the second idea is to use digital technology instead of paints and materials that can off gas or contain VOC's (volatile organic chemicals).
     The first concept is to use morphotex instead of regular fabric for interior finishes.  Morphotex as described by Bradley Quinn is a textile that does not contain any pigments, but instead consists of microscopic scales that reflect light in a manner similar to a photonic crystal (which angles and refracts light in a way that reflects blue wavelengths found in ambient light).  By using this technology, people would not have to worry about their expensive textiles fading in the sunlight or using large amounts of energy to dye this fabric or manufacture it.
     The second concept is to use digital technology in place of finishes like paint to create a desired atmosphere for a space.  The use of LED (Light Emitting Diode) and fiberoptic technology has greatly expanded the possibilities of the use of light.  Instead of using products like paint or wallcoverings to create a desired atmosphere, people can use glass display screens to project their desired image onto a surface.  The great thing about this technology is that it can easily be changed without having to use more physical material to change it.  There is a great video that I came across while researching this amazing technology that I would like to share.  The video is called "A Day made of Glass" and it is made by Corning. The video is attached.

     This product is currently being tested by organizations like NASA for uses in deep space and by other organizations.  I believe that by using products like these, it will create a vision for a sustainable future and help guide us in the beginning steps of getting there.

What comes next...

     Industrial Ecology has been defined as a "systems-based, multidisciplinary discourse that seeks to understand emergent behavior of complex integrated human/natural systems".  Basically saying that it is a way to look at industrial processes and change them to become closer to emulating the way nature processes. 

     One principle covered by Janine Benyus is a no waste system in Biomimicry.  Building water waste needs to be filtered naturally and then reused for other purposes.  My idea/concept is to reuse building water waste by filtering it and then reusing it for cleaning, restroom, and cooling purposes.

     Another principle covered is storing energy.  The concept described by Benyus in Biomimicry is one of leafs storing solar energy and using this energy efficiently.  I imagine buildings to use this same type of energy storing and efficiency.  They can use and store large amounts of energy and use appliances and building parts that "sip" energy or use very little of it at a time.  Once this energy is emitted, it could be recaptured and used again in some way.

     Every industrial system needs to take a lesson from nature in the way it functions.  Nature is a great example of how to thrive on this planet without destroying it in the process.  I believe that the idea of Biomimicry will be the beginning of the next Industrial Revolution.

"I have a dream..." - Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

     "I have a dream...", is an extremely famous introduction to a famous speech by Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.  Well, I also have a dream.  A dream for a sustainable future where generations to come are able to live substantially better and healthier lives than our current generation.  A future where little to no natural resources are used or wasted.  Where people understand how fragile this planet of ours is and how lucky they are that the generations before them changed their unhealthy, unsustainable ways before real permanent damage was done to this planet.
     I believe that my vision of the future is an optimistic one.  The people who occupy this planet would need to understand a few things in order to truly achieve a sustainable future though.  Some of these understandings would include: realizing that global warming is not a political game used by politicians to scare people into voting for their agendas; it is not a quick fix issue; every person can make a difference and must participate in order for this ideal future to come about; and change has to start with our generation.  There are many other "understandings" that must be realized by people in order for a sustainable future to really be a possibility, but the above few are just scratching the surface of where we need to begin.  First we need to realize that having a sustainable future really is a possibility.  According to the reading by Lombardo, we must first change our thinking from pessimistic to optimistic through the use of psychotherapy.  Believing in ourselves is the beginning step in achieving our future goals.
     I believe that one of the hardest parts to realizing this sustainable future will be changing our habitual routines and beliefs.  As stated by Durning, we need to achieve a balance between under-consumption and over-consumption.  People will have to change the ways in which they consume and what they believe about consumption habits.  It is like they have a blindfold on and can not see what their consumption/waste/etc. is doing to their environment.  They are blind to the consequences of their actions.  All the more reason to make what they are so used to doing as blatantly obvious as possible, so that maybe it will cause them to realize what they are doing.
     That is where this change will need to start.  Where it will need to take root in peoples lives, habits, and routines in order for us to make any sort of difference.

Good vs. Bad

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The topic I chose to write about this week is eco-promising.  I had not heard of the term eco-promising before taking this class.  For those who are unfamiliar with the term, it is defined according to the Business for Social Responsibility as: the practice of making claims about the environmental attributes of products.  In other words, eco-promising is something that corporations try with their products/services.  This can either be a good thing for their companies, or it can be a bad thing.  Sometimes it can have a negative impact on a companies credibility.  If for instance a company claims that their product is completely sustainable in every aspect of the production process and it is found that some part is in fact not sustainable or is really harming the environment, then that company will lose some of its credibility with consumers.  For example, in my opinion, one of the best eco-promising companies out there is Timberland.  Timberland has started creating in-house eco-labels for their products, and increasing their use of electronic tags embedded into their labels.  By changing these seemingly small practices, they have started to reduce their carbon footprint.  On the other hand, I believe that one of the worst eco-promising companies out there is BP (British Petroleum).  This company claims that they are creating cleaner fuels that both make your engine run "as it was designed to" and are less harmful for the environment.  In my opinion, the simple fact that BP is responsible for the disastrous oil spill in April of 2010 is enough for me not to trust their attempts at cleaner fuel.  For each day that the oil spill went on, 2.5 million gallons were released into the Gulf of Mexico.  Now just imagine how much of an impact that spill and BP's lack of good management had on our already decreasing oil reserves.  I am not one that will be looking to BP for anything to do with improving the environment, because I do not believe they are capable of handling something so important.  I think that when companies eco-promise, they are mainly looking out for their own interests instead of the consumers interests.  I think that it is all about guilting people into spending more money on their products because of their claims to be green.