From The Rooftops

Story Plotting Sustainable Design

What does sustainable design mean to you? That is the question posed by this evening’s AIGA SHIFT event here in Portland. Simple enough, right!? If you think so, then you should probably be presenting in my place!

Sustainability is often discussed by virtue of the United Nations’ Brundtland Commission (1987) definition of sustainable development: “Sustainable Development is development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs.” While many alternative meanings have been suggested, I think that the Brundtland definition is a fine place to start, especially since it dovetails nicely with sustainable design in addition to sustainable development.

But I can’t think about sustainability without also pondering John Elkington’s triple bottom line of People, Planet and Profit, because I have not seen a better reflection of the complexities associated with sustainability. While the potential for profit often motivates initial product or service design, anything falling short of the above two definitions of sustainability is simply, um, falling short. But how do you know, when you set out to create something, that it will deserve the badge of “sustainability”!? Well, among other things, I think you need some damn thoughtful planning.

Sustainable design should be Considered, Intentional, Rigorous, and Engaged (with the world around us).

So, thanks to AIGA’s prompting, I offer up the following model which can be applied in the initial product/service concepting stages to see just how well your idea stacks up on the sustainability scales. Based on the Story Plotter Framework, originally conceived by the fine folks at On Your Feet and sometimes presented by Gary Hirsch (of OYF) and yours truly, I’ve simply taken the grid, turned it into a gauntlet of doom, and applied it to sustainable design thinking. And I think it could work.

You take your concept or idea, and you insert it from the left in the Sustainable Design Maker 9000, and out the other end comes a screaming, bruised and perhaps totally unrecognizable version of your original idea.

Here’s what to consider at each step:

1. Facts: What are the facts about your current design that make it more sustainable? Perhaps it will be made from a renewable resource? Distributed via bicycle? Improving the efficiency of an existing product? Etc. Continue until you’ve listed all such facts.
2. Contradictions: What are the inherent contradictions in your design? Maybe it requires wasteful packaging? Maybe parts have to be sourced from exotic locales? Continue until you think you’ve explored all of the contradictions in your current concept.
3. Possibilities: What are the possibilities for addressing your contradictions and even going further to improve the sustainability of your idea? Could you find a local source for parts? Create a package that is reuseable? Really reach here. What if…
4. Anxiety: Addressing these issues, exploring the realms of possibility will most certainly lead to anxiety. If we do THAT, then we won’t be able to grow as fast or those mill workers might lose their jobs. Sustainable design comes here to die, so deal with your anxieties and figure out which are real and which are imagined, then deal with them. Don’t let them hold you back!

That’s it in a nutshell. I think it works but it’s just a start. A new way to think or at least some new things to think about. What do you think?

-Scott

Why Simple Innovations Will (help) Change the World

I love mass transit and I love Google Maps. I love them both together. LOVE ‘EM. I love Google because they are all about beautiful information and lowered search costs. Google Maps promptly provides gobs of useful information, entertaining streetview images, great bus connection information and, now, it even has bike routing info! One major shortcoming for us mass transit advocates, however, is that Google Maps only knows when the buses are scheduled to arrive, not when they’ll actually arrive. While Trimet buses are pretty decent about on-time performance, these discrepancies are painfully apparent on cold, wet days such as Portland is known for. This is something I’ve often pondered: how can we make mass transit more appealing to more people? I think that reducing the wait time is a pretty good place to start, eh?

Waiting 10 extra minutes for a late bus is not terribly appealing but, as a pro-mass transit car owner, I’d really prefer to not drive to work when the bus can do it for me. What if, instead of waiting for an extra 10 minutes for a late bus, I could know precisely when the bus was actually going to show up? Meet PDXBus. A free iPhone app that, working with the GPS-based location of buses that Trimet themselves use, can tell you just when that (possibly tardy) #72 bus will be gracing your presence in all of its carbon-efficient, crossword-friendly awesomeness.

It’s simple, yet ingenious; clean, yet robust. The best thing is that PDXBus doesn’t reinvent the wheel. The buses already have GPS tracking in them. My phone already has GPS in it. Trimet already knows—and, while it leaves something to be desired, does share—the specifics of when the buses will actually arrive. All that PDXBus does is connect things that already exist: pertinent Trimet information with my location in a manner that is streamlined and intuitive.

PDXBus allows me to know that, instead of spending 10 curbside minutes losing my non-driving eco-resolve, I can sit in my warm, cozy tea shop and amble out right when I need to be there. The full implications of this are not insignificant: by reducing the lag time for picking up a bus, it effectively shortens the time required to make a bus-based trip, thus stripping away some of its disadvantage in relation to driving a car. In other words, it lowers one of the most common barriers to mass transit participation.

True, PDXBus isn’t groundbreaking, but that’s one of the things I like best about it: it demonstrates to all of us that we can make real sustainability inroads today. And all without depending upon congress, eco-coercion or cold fusion. It’s a simple product that might have big implications and it’s precisely these sorts of small, modest and immediately achievable advances that we need to champion. There are, of course, some huge environmental and social problems that require game-changing and adaptive solutions. But some of those will require dozens of years and billions of dollars. PDXBus enables everyday people to streamline their lives and reduce their carbon footprint. Today. For free.

Bravo.

What other simple, useful and accessible solutions have you come across? I’d love to hear about it in the comments!

- Caleb

ps – PDXBus is on Twitter, too. And no, they’re not a client.