New Design Process: Business Minded

Nathan Shedroff is the chair of MBA in Design Strategy in the California College of Art and author of the book, Design Is the Problem: The Future of Design Must Be Sustainable. In his lecture on November 18th in Kleiber Hall, Shedroff introduced his unique approach in design that was based on his profession and sustainable business. Shedroff’s speech was exceptionally attention-grabbing because he presented us a different design concept– “there is no sustainable design, but a more sustainable design.” He revealed the truth that there is no actual sustainable design because of the fact that design is driven by social capitalism and financial capital. Shedroff explained this matter by using a wide range of data and statics that he combined with his business strategy. By comparing the data he collected globally, Shedroff was able to show, as for today, Cuba is the most sustainable country, followed by Brazil, which is also sustainable by using their resources and financial capital well. India has the least consumerism. Shedroff’s effort in the lecture was trying to use data and statistic and combine them into a well managed and effective sustainable design. For example, he depicted how faulty and inaccurate the common economic data, GDP (Gross Domestic Product) is by comparing it to the GPI (Genuine Progress Indicator). The numbers of GDP has been historically used by politicians to show to the public, and it does not reflect the actual living quality standard. Base on Shedroff’s graphic, as the GPA doubled in the past the 50 years, the living quality standard actually dropped by half at the same time. Therefore, among other solutions to the issues of sustainability, it is important to redesign the system to have an effective sustainable design in this “Age of Data”. Other solutions offered in the lecture are Design for Use, Reuse, Durability, Disassembly, Dematerialization, Substitution, Localization, Transmaterialization, Informationalization and Restoration.

Overall, Shedroff’s speech was an effective one. He successfully proved his theories by providing cross reference with the world’s economical data and graphs which coincided with his effort in convey business strategy into the design process. As a designer himself, Shedroff had effectively demonstrated in his lecture that there is no sustainable design but only a more sustainable design by integrating the economy into design thinking.