Sustainability by design

John Ehrenfelds is grasping some of the fundamental systemic issues and mindset in his 2008 book Sustainable by design - a subversive strategy for transforming our consumer culture. He examines the main causes for the state of the world and presents a general critique of modernity, including proposals for changes in behaviour. His diagnosis of the earth's problems is that we have become addicted to ‘having’.

He sets out with the question “What is it about modern life that requires ever-increasing quantities of goods to produce satisfaction? Can this ever-accelerating pattern of consumption and waste last?" The answer is of course ‘no’ – as the increasing stress inflicted on the environment is showing at accelerating speed.

John Ehrenfeld calls for a focus on possibilities instead of problems and points out that our conversations about the problems the world is facing always focuses on getting rid of something bad, and never, or rarely, about creating something good.

Woven throughout the book is a subtext of respect; of simply caring about others and the world we live in enough to wrap our designs around that thought in a mindful and purposeful way. Within this also lies a deep respect for humans and an acknowledgement of the basic intentions of human beings, while also acknowledging that sustainability often seems impossible and out of grasp.

“When we do attempt to follow a positive route, we reduce the most basic human qualities to a simple formula equating economic output to goodness of life, welfare or some other intrinsic measure of being human. It follows, unfortunately, that this formulation simply leads to striving for more and more without much thinking about whether this mode of living is actually satisfying.”

Thus, the aim of the book is to hold on to respect as a core value and hold on to the tension created between where we are and where we need to be. This would move our designs, our innovation processes and innovative outcomes far in moving the planet toward a sustainable vision of the future.