Week 8 Reflection

There were a lot of interesting sources we looked into this week.

William McDonough’s approach to sustainable design was very interesting, and something that I was more familiar with. The idea of creating this circular system in which our products end up as nutrients and resources for the environment. This cradle to cradle design, in my perspective, is essentially integrating humans and their activities more into the natural ecosystem. It is a design thinking method that doesn’t try to structure the ecosystem with our technology and products, but letting the ecosystem influence and structure our design. I do, however, question the feasibility of McDonough’s approach. In order for these changes to happen, companies and governments that are stakeholders in these projects need to have an incentive to initiate such products. However, as we see in the current status quo, that is an extremely challenging thing to do. If McDonough’s method of design and Ray Anderson’s suggestion on getting the attention of corporations could integrate, I believe that it could definitely bring sustainability initiatives closer to our goals.

In regards to Barry Schwartz’s talk on practical wisdom, I was at first a little confused as to how it related to the subject of sustainability. Now I am beginning to understand that what Barry Schwartz is suggesting is crucial to how we design for sustainability in the foreseeable future. When applying practical wisdom to the idea of sustainability, I believe that what is being suggested is to make sustainability efforts meaningful to people in our society. While rules and incentives sometimes offer quick and effective regulations, as stated by Schwartz it also has the ability to make work meaningless. This, ultimately, results in uncaring practitioners simply adhering to given instructions. A very powerful way of designing for sustainability would be designing policies, systems, products, and initiatives that do not instruct people how to be sustainable, but rather gives people the will to be sustainable. This, in turn, would bring more permanent and effective changes that not only help achieve our sustainability goals, but also improve the general health and happiness of the members in our community.