Sustainable Innovation: Designing for People, Planet & Profit
Chris Bellamy
Agenda • Measuring the problem • Sustainability myths • The growth paradox • What consumers want • Sustainable innovation recipe • Sustainable design tools
Car of the Year x2 A’ Design Gold Award Innovation Award 2 x ISPO Innovation AwardsDMM, Llanberis
The Problem to Solve
Population increase since 1970
3x
69%
decline in wildlife
CUT EMISSIONS BY HALF EVERY DECADE 50% REDUCTION BY 2030
86 MONTHS LEFT
TASK
2 football pitches 23 Olympic pools
Source / Global Footprint Network
Source / Global Footprint Network The UKs Ecological Footprint is 4.1X our national biocapacity
Source / Global Footprint Network
6% per annum improvement minimum
5.6% reduction in emissions during 2020 SOLD United in Science Report 2021
can’t manage what you can’t measure”
W. Edwards Deming
“You
It’s not easy being green . . .
VS SOURCE / CIRAIG Rappot ACV Tasses et Gobelets, 2015 Reuseable cups must be used 20 to 1000 times to repay their energy
Source / Regenesis:
George Monbiot
4.45kg CO2e Source / Plate up for the planet // Saola 3.85kg CO2e
29g CO2e 4-50g CO2e
SOURCE // https://www.salomon.com/en-us/index01-life-cycle-analysis
SOURCE / https://www.salomon.com/en-us/index01-life-cycle-analysis
TASK:
the top
things society can do to mitigate climate change
List
5
LED Lighting: 14.45 Gt – 21st /// Electric Cars: 7.66 Gt – 37th /// Recycling Plastic: 0.52 Gt – 84th
sciencebasedtargets.org
What does this mean for me?
Task:
• Name a species endangered in your area?
• Name an extinct species in your area?
• Name an edible species in your area?
• Name one ecological challenge in your area?
~16% of UK endangered species are caused by tourism & recreation
Source / IUCN Red List
SO WHAT CAN I DO?
/ Cause no unnecessary harm / Build the best product / Use business to inspire and implement solutions to the environmental crisis
/ Cause no unnecessary harm / Make the best . . . / . . . BUSINESS X
GROWTH GROWTH GROWTH
“Growth for the sake of growth is the ideology of the cancer cell.”
Edward Abbey
THE GROWTH PARADOX PIZZA
TAKE MARKET SHARE
EFFIENCIES
NEW BUSINESS MODELS FIND
GROWTH GROWTH GROWTH WIN – for you WIN – for your customers WIN – for the planet
If we succeed in sustainability or when we also succeed in business
/ Kasper Rorsted, Adidas
DESIREABILITY
FEASABILITY SUSTAINABILITY
VIABILITY
DESIREABILITY
SUSTAINABLE MARKETING SUSTAINABLE ACTION
ACTION ADVOCACY
>
GREEN IS A DESIRED OUTCOME NOT YOUR BRAND’S IDENTITY
Brand Attractiveness
Willingness to Pay for Sustainability
Choose Uber Green to have good karma because it costs less
For once, the ecological choice is also the most economical
When your marketing campaign solves a problem, you earn the right to be a part of peoples lives”
Alain Lin, Saatchi & Saatchi, New York
SUSTAINABILITY
WASTE
HOW MIGHT WE . . .
ELIMINATE IT 100%
REDUCE ITS WASTE up to 90% MAKE IT LAST LONGER up to 60%
CHANGE THE USERS BEHAVIOUR up to 50%
WHERE, WHO, AND HOW IS IT MADE? up to 30%
CHANGE WHAT ITS MADE FROM up to 25%
CHANGE THE SYSTEM?
RECYCLE IT up to 20% OFFSET IT . . . . .
3.7%
Of global greenhouse gas emissions come from our devices, the internet, and the systems supporting them.
Source / The Shift Project
Dezeen: Emissions per page fell from 21 grammes to 7.18 grammes, a reduction of 65.8 per cent. Load time reduced by 58.3 cent to 3.5 seconds.
On average - clothes are only worn
times before being thrown out
Source / The circular fashion report
7
waste reduction years reduction in energy
8% 14 77% annual
BIOMIMICRY
Nature balances its systems
Nature likes to collaborate
HOW WOULD NATURE DO THIS?
Source: Casey Cripe
SYSTEMS THINKING
System Thinking
FRUGAL INNOVATION
FRUGAL INNOVATION
REGENERATIVE DESIGN
SUSTAINABLE DESIGN HISTORY
Renewable Eco Environmentally Friendly Sustainable Regenerative Anthropocentric Planet-Centric Conservation
FUTURES
2005 2013
SUMMARY
• Measure and Improve
• Action
• Data
Advocacy
Common Sense
• The growth paradox
Myths
• Win Win Win
Sustainable Innovation
• Desirability
• Waste
• Biomimicry
• Systems Thinking
• Frugal Innovation
• Regenerative Design
• Futures
>
>
>
•
Motivation and Meaning • What makes you angry? • What scares you? • Only 1 % of manufactured materials are still used after 6 weeks • UK trucks are only 27% full • 50% of edible food not eaten • Clothes are only worn 7 times before being thrown out • We make 25 billion pairs of shoes per year
Pretend to be an endangered animal
Q&A
Bibliography
• WWF living planet report: https://www.wwf.org.uk/sites/default/files/2022-10/lpr_2022_full_report.pdf
• Footprint Network
• https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2022/aug/16/most-damaging-farm-products-organic-pasture-fed-beef-lamb
• https://www.drawdown.org/solutions/table-of-solutions
• Manufacturing sustainability: Identifying and eliminating waste - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-aDFKeAcxQQ
• https://falling-walls.com/discover/videos/how-industrial-sustainability-can-drive-economic-growth/
• United in Science Report: https://public.wmo.int/en/resources/united_in_science
Organic pasture fed beed
EXAMPLE – Making a cup of tea
What can you do right now
• Switch your energy supplier • Switch your pension provider
How to measure your change?
Kg reduced?
•
CoVid19 – Have you rebuilt back better?
- You don’t chop down a tree that’s been growing for 100 years - you let it keep growing - do the same for clothes
- Write a book about the environmental impacts of a book - the benefits vs the impacts. This is a carbon neutral book . . .
Who am I
Chris is an expert in sustainable design and strategy. After starting his career in North Wales, he has spent the last 12 years finding ways to solve this sustainable growth contradiction – from electric vehicles at Jaguar Land Rover to recyclable outdoor equipment at Salomon. Chris will guide you through tools, techniques, inspiration, and examples to help you find ways to have a successful business whose growth can also benefit our environment and society.
