KKH Resources 06 - Sustainable Consumption - Notes for Designers

Transcript

1. Sustainability and Sustainable Consumption: Themes for Designers John Manoochehri, RVC
2. History of Environmental Awareness Ancients: Plato, Asoka, Lao Tzu: c.500 BCE Romantics: Muir, Ruskin, Thoreau: late 19th C Scientists: Brandeis, Pinchot, Leopold: 19th-20th 20th C disasters: Minamata, Torrey Canyon, Chernobyl: 60s-80s Scientists: Carson, Meadows, Commoner, Ehrlich: 60s, 70s Green ideologues: Kelly, Bahro, Porritt: 80s
3. History of International Policy Action 19th C: National parks, game reserves, scientific conservation Post-war: Some intl interest (UNSCCUR ‘49) 50s-70s: Anti-pollution legislation, toxics legislation, government ministries 80s: Green parties, consumer action 90s: Rio (UNCED ‘92) decade, international meetings
4. Structure of sustainability Sustainability Sustainability Sustainability Impact Demand Ethics - Pollution - Stock conservation - Preservation - Efficient/ - Different/ - Conscious/ Consumption - Attitudes to nature - Attitudes to sufficiency
5. History of International Sustainable Consumption Action 1949: UNSCCUR 1972: Limits to Growth 1992: Agenda 21 Chapter 4 1999: UN Guidelines for Consumer Protection updated 2002: 10-Year Framework of Programmes mandated
6. State of current consumption systems research Underconceptualised; no agreement on what SPCS is. “Systems” everywhere: true but useless; just slogans. Systems definition?: network not just hierarchy; emergent not just linear properties; multi-featured not narrow-focus; goal-oriented not just comprehensive?; pragmatic not perfect? Problem with reduction to variables!! SPC Systems definition?: see summary…(very heterogenous)
7. Summary of current research Flows: e.g. Suh, Giljum (I-O); Fischer-Kowalski (ind metab) Actors: Various types (SCM; experimental) Flows and Actors: natural sci/business studies Institutions: e.g. Cohen, Miller, Schor (retail- consumer interface); Layard („happiness“) Institutions: social sciences
8. Conceptual critique of SC science R/U ratio: Optimise for each use of resources, maintain total R within limits. ?? Value added and costs accrued >> „Profit“ ?? Welfare actually experienced >> „Consumer expenditure“ Profit does not equal U+: distortion, competitive dynamics, etc. Expenditure does not U-: irrational consumption, etc. Problem: track creation and consumption (etc) of value without money proxy (> ecol econ). Current research cheats and uses money proxy; and generally is a very narrow (prod-side) attempt to track value.
9. From impact management to demand management Impact management: pollution (substitition, waste management), conservation of single-stocks (sci management), preservation (species and area protections). Vo§lume of resource demand outweighs impact management success > Demand management required as separate agenda. Confusion: Demand management used for impact management in some instances. Consider: Symptom, Sector, Strategy, System
10. From consumer demand to systemic demand When (if) demand is understand as additional agenda to impact management, consumer demand is implicated (due to assumptions of economic model). Tools: fiscal, information, regulation. Problems: political!; technical (costing of impacts of overconsumption, „economic fist“ (displacement), etc) Economic fist: tax on consumer product could lead to factory shift to less regulated country. Systemic demand: no Factor-X, no services, unskilled consumption; systemic demand exists beyond cons demand.
11. Formalising systemic consumption Where I = impact, R = resource use, P = production (physical), FS = functional surface (available value), UC = use consumption (use but not utility), U = utility/welfare, we have a systemic resource consumption identity: I/R. R/P. P/FS. FS/UC. UC/U Systemic sustainable consumption requires optimisation of each parameter of this identity. This requires demonstration that economics, conventionally, does not do this directly, or at all.
12. Optimising systemic consumption Formalise variables: R/P, FS/UC Avoid shift to monetary proxy: R/P (distortion, factor substitution, competition dynamics, path dependence, etc), U (non-autonomous consumption, priority (non-preference) consumption) etc) New optimisation techniques: e.g. functional surface/organisational efficiency, use consumption parity; spatial, institutional, behavioural.
13. Consumption: UNEP Co-Op Framework
14. Themes for Designers: General History background and policy context Science: Transformation ratios R/P . P/FS . FS/UC . UC/U Overarching principles: Cycling, Intensity, Functionality, Welfare Thematic principles: Spatial, Material, Institutional, Behavioural
15. Efficient Consumption Kalundborg: System design - eco-industrial park [cycling; spatial] Pratt & Whitney: Process design - machine optimisation [intensity, functionality] RMI Hypercar: Product design - superlightweighting, fuel [intensity; materials]
16. Different Consumption Swiss mobility: Shift to services - car-sharing service [functionality; institutional, behavioural] Xerox: Extended producer responsibility - Product remanufacture [functionality, cycling; institutional] Abraham Building: Multifunctionality - Greywater system, thermal mass [cycling, functionality, welfare; materials]
17. Themes for Designers: Consumption 1 Efficient Clustering of plant, factory layout Passive, user-powered products Different Multi-functional objects and services Shift-to-services from products
18. Themes for Designers: Consumption 2 Conscious Information education Shopping/using experience Appropriate Psychological aspect of design Leisure design and attitudes Nature inclusion