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Responsible Consumption and Design for Sustainability

Responsible Consumption and Design for Sustainability. Design PhD Conference, Lancaster University | 15-16 June 2009 Anne Marchand, Assistant Professor, École de design industriel, Université de Montréal. Summary of the presentation. Context and research questions Methodology Main results

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Responsible Consumption and Design for Sustainability

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  1. Responsible Consumption and Design for Sustainability Design PhD Conference, Lancaster University | 15-16 June 2009 Anne Marchand, Assistant Professor, École de design industriel, Université de Montréal

  2. Summary of the presentation • Context and research questions • Methodology • Main results • Advice for students | Responsible Consumption and Design for Sustainability, Design PhD Conference, Lancaster University |

  3. 1. Context and main research questions | Responsible Consumption and Design for Sustainability, Design PhD Conference, Lancaster University |

  4. Context >>> The need for ‘lighter’ patterns of consumption is widely recognized as an essential step towards a more sustainable future (UN, 2002; OECD, 2002) | Responsible Consumption and Design for Sustainability, Design PhD Conference, Lancaster University |

  5. Context >>> Environmental gains from technological improvements in products eco-efficiency have been outweighed by an overall increase in consumption (Carley, Spapens, 1998, after Cooper, 2005) | Responsible Consumption and Design for Sustainability, Design PhD Conference, Lancaster University |

  6. Context >>> “Consumers are increasingly interested in the world that lies behind the product they buy. Apart from price and quality, they want to know how, where and by whom the product has been produced.” (UNEP, 2005) | Responsible Consumption and Design for Sustainability, Design PhD Conference, Lancaster University |

  7. Context >>> Corporate environmental and social responsibility: A tangible trend www.tetrapak.com/us/environment/pages/default.aspx | Responsible Consumption and Design for Sustainability, Design PhD Conference, Lancaster University |

  8. Research question >>> Making links and building the research project… | Responsible Consumption and Design for Sustainability, Design PhD Conference, Lancaster University |

  9. Research question >>> …design for sustainability = sustainable production + sustainable consumption | Responsible Consumption and Design for Sustainability, Design PhD Conference, Lancaster University |

  10. Context >>> Design for sustainability sits at the interface of sustainable production and sustainable consumption Sustainable CONSUMPTION > demand side > sufficiency Sustainable PRODUCTION > supply side > efficiency SUSTAINABILITY Design for Sustainability | Responsible Consumption and Design for Sustainability, Design PhD Conference, Lancaster University |

  11. Research question >>> …design for sustainability = sustainable production + sustainable consumption | Responsible Consumption and Design for Sustainability, Design PhD Conference, Lancaster University |

  12. Research question >>> …and sustainable consumption is about: consuming less and opting for greener products or solutions | Responsible Consumption and Design for Sustainability, Design PhD Conference, Lancaster University |

  13. Research question >>> …What about the profession and the nature of products if we really move towards sustainable consumption? | Responsible Consumption and Design for Sustainability, Design PhD Conference, Lancaster University |

  14. Research question >>> …and will this wreck the economy? | Responsible Consumption and Design for Sustainability, Design PhD Conference, Lancaster University |

  15. Research question >>> …What if a growing number of consumers actually adopt responsible, sustainable consumption patterns? | Responsible Consumption and Design for Sustainability, Design PhD Conference, Lancaster University |

  16. Research question >>> …Design for sustainable consumption: what does it mean? | Responsible Consumption and Design for Sustainability, Design PhD Conference, Lancaster University |

  17. Research question >>> …What kind of products would be valued in such a context? | Responsible Consumption and Design for Sustainability, Design PhD Conference, Lancaster University |

  18. Research question >>> …What place objects would occupy in our lives? | Responsible Consumption and Design for Sustainability, Design PhD Conference, Lancaster University |

  19. Research question >>> …What would visual cultures be like? | Responsible Consumption and Design for Sustainability, Design PhD Conference, Lancaster University |

  20. Research question >>> …What are the roles and contributions of design in this changing world? | Responsible Consumption and Design for Sustainability, Design PhD Conference, Lancaster University |

  21. Research question >>> …What about product design if we really move towards sustainable consumption? …What if a growing number of consumers actually adopt responsible, sustainable consumption patterns? …What about the profession if we really move towards sustainable consumption? …What are the roles and contributions of design in this changing world? …What would visual cultures be like? …What place objects would occupy in our lives? What are the implications of responsible, sustainable consumption for product design? | Responsible Consumption and Design for Sustainability, Design PhD Conference, Lancaster University |

  22. Research question >>> Goals of the research were: to gain insights into what might be termed a responsible, sustainable material culture by seeking to understand the choices, preferences, and perspectives of identified responsible consumers with regard to functional products, and (b) to use this information to identify key implications of responsible consumption (RC) for the design of products | Responsible Consumption and Design for Sustainability, Design PhD Conference, Lancaster University |

  23. 2. Methodology | Responsible Consumption and Design for Sustainability, Design PhD Conference, Lancaster University |

  24. Methodology >>> 1. Participant observation among existing responsible consumers discussion groups to gain a global understanding of the attitudes and practices of RC | Responsible Consumption and Design for Sustainability, Design PhD Conference, Lancaster University |

  25. Methodology >>> 1. Participant observation * More than 40 meetings of 2 hours duration were attended * Data collection: Field notes Le Soleil, 9 November 2008 | Responsible Consumption and Design for Sustainability, Design PhD Conference, Lancaster University |

  26. Methodology >>> 2. In-depth interviews with identified responsible consumers to investigate their material cultures | Responsible Consumption and Design for Sustainability, Design PhD Conference, Lancaster University |

  27. Methodology >>> • Key informant interviews • * 18 individual interviews (1-3 hour duration) among 11 responsible consumers | Responsible Consumption and Design for Sustainability, Design PhD Conference, Lancaster University |

  28. Methodology >>> • Key informant interviews • * Data collection: interview audio recorded + photographs taken by participants • * Analysis: software ATLAS-TI | Responsible Consumption and Design for Sustainability, Design PhD Conference, Lancaster University |

  29. Methodology >>> • Key informant interviews • * Use of objects and images of objects to stimulates exchanges on the topic “representations surrounding sustainable-unsustainable products” | Responsible Consumption and Design for Sustainability, Design PhD Conference, Lancaster University |

  30. Methodology >>> 3. Research through design where the creation of experimental artefacts allows for exploring the meaning of some of the gathered information | Responsible Consumption and Design for Sustainability, Design PhD Conference, Lancaster University |

  31. Methodology >>> 3. Research through design approach * Creation process, and the resulting artefact, as a mean of reflection | Responsible Consumption and Design for Sustainability, Design PhD Conference, Lancaster University |

  32. 3. Main results | Responsible Consumption and Design for Sustainability, Design PhD Conference, Lancaster University |

  33. Main results >>> Some illustrative quotations… “I live a sort of detachment towards objects but, at the same time, it is like a different attachment, it is like a reverence to things. They are precious you know […]” | Responsible Consumption and Design for Sustainability, Design PhD Conference, Lancaster University |

  34. Main results >>> Some illustrative quotations… “[…] we now put a product between us and all the things we wish to do ” | Responsible Consumption and Design for Sustainability, Design PhD Conference, Lancaster University |

  35. Main results >>> Some illustrative quotations… Wooden Grasshopper “My grand-father made this for his child, it’s a grasshopper that moves when you pull on it […] The mechanism is simple, it’s like if it gave you power over the objects, take a Barbie for example, we don’t know how to build a Barbie at home, whereas this, you can build it at home, you’re less dependent on structures ” | Responsible Consumption and Design for Sustainability, Design PhD Conference, Lancaster University |

  36. Main results >>> Some illustrative quotations… Wok “[…] there are electric woks, with buttons, a power cord and everything and you have a complicated opening system and I don’t know why whereas this one is simple, you’re not encumbered with buttons or functionalities, the object is simple and is easy to clean.” | Responsible Consumption and Design for Sustainability, Design PhD Conference, Lancaster University |

  37. Main results >>> Some illustrative quotations… Dishes “This is pottery, a dish set I bought in a yard sale […] I like the fact that colors are blended, and there are yellow ones as well in the set, none of them is identical, and there are square ones […] finally, I think I like things I know I could build myself, things that you know how they are made”. | Responsible Consumption and Design for Sustainability, Design PhD Conference, Lancaster University |

  38. Main results >>> Some illustrative quotations… SB: “ To have useless things, or semi-useless things around, it clutters my thoughts […] In thinking about my relationship with things, I want to be in charge, I don’t want them to run my life, it is there for me to use, that’s all” | Responsible Consumption and Design for Sustainability, Design PhD Conference, Lancaster University |

  39. Main results >>> Preferences for products: • *Presenting a limited number of features and options • >>> Perceived as longer lasting | Responsible Consumption and Design for Sustainability, Design PhD Conference, Lancaster University |

  40. Main results >>> Preferences for products: • * Allowing users to be involved in the activity of “doing” • >>> In relation to a search for greater autonomy with regard to the world of objects | Responsible Consumption and Design for Sustainability, Design PhD Conference, Lancaster University |

  41. Main results >>> Preferences for products: • * That can easily be understood in terms of constitution and functioning • >>> Feeling of control over their objects (can repair them if broken, or at least understand what is wrong) | Responsible Consumption and Design for Sustainability, Design PhD Conference, Lancaster University |

  42. 3. Main results >>> Preferences for: * Products or systems allowing users to invest less time, money, and care in replacement, maintenance and repair • >>> Perceived increase in quality of life | Responsible Consumption and Design for Sustainability, Design PhD Conference, Lancaster University |

  43. Main results >>> Preferences for products: • * Presenting prototypal characteristics (in the case of mass-produced objects) • >>> Reaction against aesthetic obsolescence | Responsible Consumption and Design for Sustainability, Design PhD Conference, Lancaster University |

  44. Main results >>> • * Identification of the issue of visual culture as being of interest in relation to sustainability • >>> Exploratory designs looking at the notion of ‘alternative visual cultures’ have been developed based on gathered data | Responsible Consumption and Design for Sustainability, Design PhD Conference, Lancaster University |

  45. Main results >>> Research through design work realised points at the unsustainability of dominant western visual cultures | Responsible Consumption and Design for Sustainability, Design PhD Conference, Lancaster University |

  46. Main results >>> Aesthetics conventions Visual diversity: “rather innappropriate” | Responsible Consumption and Design for Sustainability, Design PhD Conference, Lancaster University |

  47. Main results >>> Aesthetics conventions Visual uniformity: “rather appropriate” | Responsible Consumption and Design for Sustainability, Design PhD Conference, Lancaster University |

  48. Main results >>> Design explorations Continuity in Diversity PhD examination, Anne Marchand,Faculty of Environmental Design, University of Calgary | 20/10/08

  49. Red Dot on Drinking Glasses | Responsible Consumption and Design for Sustainability, Design PhD Conference, Lancaster University |

  50. Cutlery Pieces with Red Handles | Responsible Consumption and Design for Sustainability, Design PhD Conference, Lancaster University |

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