The Designers Accord - Sustainability Pushing Design

The Designers Accord - Sustainability Pushing Design July 14, 2008

Filed under: Design, New Product Development, Sustainability — Mario Vellandi @ 9:33 am

Date: June 3, 2008
Location: Sustainable Brands 08 - Monterey, California
Organizer: Sustainable Life Media, Business & Industry News for Sustainability

Speakers:
Valerie Casey - Global Practice Head, IDEO
Lucas Daniel - Lead, Strategy, Gravitytank
Eric Park - Creative Director, Ziba
Lynelle Cameron - Director of Sustainability, Autodesk
John Creson - Executive Creative Director, Addis Creson
Peter Falt - Director of Strategic Planning, BMW DesignWorks USA

Introduction:

[PDF Full Transcript of this Panel Discussion available Here]

An Afternoon of Open Discussion with members of The Designers Accord and Business & Marketing Leaders.

Their official description is as follows: “A global coalition of designers, educators, researchers, engineers, and corporate leaders, working together to create positive environmental and social impact.”

They use the words “Environmental and Social Impact” because it is more meaningful to their mission, than using the word “sustainability”, which can be interpreted in various ways. There are 3 ways to join the Designers Accord, and 5 guidelines for each constituent category to follow.

There are fundamentally 3 arenas of participation:

the interrelationship between community, work, people, and places as seen from the Designers Accord perspective

People & Places - involves measuring the carbon impact and reducing waste/inefficiencies in your firm’s workplace, and establishing employee educational programs.
Portfolio or Work/Product - In all their work, adopters should consider sustainable alternatives, social & environmental impacts, and life cycles; ask questions to re-perspective the product/ service’s goal, core benefit, or desired experience first, before thinking about form.
Community - involves sharing best practices for waste reduction, material sustainability knowledge, and methodologies with other members of the design community.

a diagram of parties and areas that need to be integrated for sustainable design to happen. This, as seen from the Designers Accord perspective

Valerie describes the vision as follows:

“What we want to do is really get to the point where, when we talk about sustainability, we are putting it at the same level as thinking about organizational behavior, brand design, technology in business, and then human factors. So it should just be one of the many frameworks that we are using.”

She goes on to describe an interesting story of the community having an effect, as explained in this MindTribe blog post, about a Silicon Valley vendor getting stumped when asked by a firm if a material was recyclable, only to mention that he’d just been asked that question yesterday for the first time, by another Designers Accord member.

Panel:

Lucas Daniel from Gravity Tank is asked how involvement in DA is changing their practice, to which he replies with the following example. His firm was working with a client that was struggling with“how to interpret broad corporate sustainability initiatives at the ground-level and tactical level, and how does that actually impact making the product design we were going to pursue. So, rather than approach the process new and come up with a perspective of our own, we decided that it would be best to source the collective thought capital available.” So he spoke with another designer he saw give some great case studies from a previous sustainability conference, who shared this info with him, came to one of his firm’s workshops, and ended up having a great collaborative mutual relationship. He added that what’s really going to hurt everyone’s firm, is if they’re bringing their own definition of sustainability and sustainable design to the table.

Valerie added that for those who don’t know, the design industry is fiercely competitive. But for this particular topic, it’s so much more productive and beneficial to be sharing knowledge and methodologies. The net impact is just that big. She related a story of helping bring green innovation showrooms to some smaller agencies in San Francisco, before proceeding to ask John of Addis Creson, about his experiences.

John relates that working in an independent design firm, the importance of networking is incredibly important. As they’re working on some really amazing projects, they’re seeing the increasing need to reach out to get inspiration & help for particular areas in which their capabilities may not suffice. John adds that in the last few years, a shared ethos around broadly sharing, learning, and wanting to improve practices has arisen. As everyone shares the responsibility for sustainable design, the dialogue has definitely opened up.

Peter of DesignWorks (a subsidiary of BMW), is asked about his level of flexibility in taking on initiatives like the Designers Accord, within the corporate, multi-divisional environment. Peter replies that while BMW has its own sustainability policies, the car brands are looking to make an impact in the marketplace, while DW pursues some of its own policies. They certainly benefit from the BMW’s resources and knowledge bank. There isn’t really a mandate given down from above, but rather just guidelines that as a subsidiary, they can adhere to. Participation in the Designers Accord has given them access to individual designers outside of DW, which has resulted in a “flux between consultancies and industries, rather than just inside the DesignWorks team and our efforts.”

Lynelle from AutoDesk is asked, as a panelist from a software company, how she has experienced this change in perceptions or behaviors within her company’s relations. She replies that while her firm works with many leading green innovators, but also many firms who aren’t very knowledgeable on sustainability, the majority of their customers are at the very beginning of the learning process. These firms know its importance to the environment and their brand, but feel completely confused and overwhelmed. So AutoDesk has worked with its reseller community to educate customers on available tools that can help them in this process.

Eric from Ziba is asked about his experience on the collaboration front, to which he replies that it began in 2001 with a conference hosted by Natural Step, proceeded by some interesting dialogues and discussions on what sustainability meant to consumers, how change can be made, and how sharing and “cross-pollination” could be achieved. At the time, collaboration was about operations, corporate social responsibility, and brand stakeholders. However today, the discussions and collaborations are between more disciplines. While collaboration is the way of the future, Eric points out the key points are to: Make it simple, share resources, and also try really hard not to speak in vague, subjective terms (business/consultant speak).

Questions & Answers:

Q: Are there some examples of collaborations, shared assets, and so on?

A: John mentions that his firm works a lot with the academic community, particularly a prestigious local university from which they have PhD candidates and other leading thinkers help them and his firm’s clients with open thinking and unique projects. At first there was just a sense of moral conviction, but now it has expanded into thinking about economic opportunities.

Valerie says that often collaboration happens in private, quieter settings. Scenarios where one designer asks a peer from a competitive firm for some basic info related to a material or process when the net environmental & social impact is at stake, all the while not disclosing any confidential info like the client name or intellectual property issues. While material sustainability and substitution is important, Valerie stresses that understanding consumers through ethnography, in an effort to change their consumption habits, the way they think about business, and about what being a consumer and their interaction with their environment is what the DA is all about.

Eric adds that the topic of sustainability and product impact has resulted in increased client receptiveness in welcoming external packaging and supply chain management experts, among others, to the table. Of course there’s still behind the scenes analysis and discussion on what can/cannot be shared. While this is never easy, the collaboration happens because the net value is recognized.

John adds that brand strategy has come more into the picture in design, as more MBAs and other parties have joined the table. With this changing of the times, bringing in various specialized individuals is going to become more important in order to address the problems we have today. He adds that his firm has partnered with a larger agency to bring a unique component to their work, while providing their mutual clients increased benefit from collaboration.

Lynnelle mentions this as an important question, since there aren’t many case studies to learn from. She briefly discusses how her firm has been trying to work in getting disparate materials databases specifically on sustainability, to come together and be under a sort of shared system because data accuracy and updates are extremely important in this emerging field, in order for clarity and faster progress to be realized.

Q: Audience member asks Lynelle, since she’s at the heart of the matter, if she could elaborate a bit her work and perspectives

A: Lynelle says her company’s software can analyze & compare multiple designs’ energy impact, materials usage, and how they’d react. Some of the best benefits is in optimizing the designs early on, so that the number of prototypes made can be minmized. On their website, is a special section for new tools related to sustanability.

Q: Designers are at a hinge point with respect to materials influencing strategy. Since there are many individuals from different disciplines creating ripple effects, how does one network and bring in others?

A: Valerie says that in getting designers to change their habits and open their minds, one should question if impact (itself) is desired, and then to critically question and think about ways it can be done. Oftentimes what helps is re-framing a problem into a business problem, at which point other people will also become interested. Extending these questions and bringing in new voices is what they’re trying to do. Simultaneously, the effort is very grassroots. Although the members have other jobs and additional responsibilities and tasks, they do the best they can to push the dialogue, collaboration, and progress forward.

Mentioned earlier, is a joint collaboration with Architecture for Humanity and their Open Architecture Network, upon which a special beta network for Designers Accord members to collaborate will be launched this summer.

Additional Resources: