Sustainability and Sustainable Consumption: Themes for Designers John Manoochehri, RVC

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

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

Structure of sustainability Sustainability Sustainability Sustainability Impact Demand Ethics - Pollution - Stock conservation - Preservation - Efficient/ - Different/ - Conscious/ Consumption - Attitudes to nature - Attitudes to sufficiency

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

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)

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

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.

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

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.

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.

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.

Consumption: UNEP Co-Op Framework

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

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]

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]

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

Themes for Designers: Consumption 2 Conscious Information education Shopping/using experience Appropriate Psychological aspect of design Leisure design and attitudes Nature inclusion