Why these tools exist
Read any reputable news site and you’ll know we are in crisis - climate change, pollution, resources overuse, and ecosystem collapse are all real and all accelerating. If you don’t know what I am talking about read some of these articles.
Despite the fact we’ve known we need to address these issues for years, in 30 years in design I have yet to see a brief that even mentions environmental impact, let alone requests it be minimised. Time is running out.
A few years ago I started doing talks called “Stop Designing for Yesterday”. That’s where SDFY comes from. The premise was: if you are creating new products and services without considering their impact on our planet you are designing for a world that has long gone - a world where we didn’t understand the huge negative impact we are having. And while you personally cannot fix everything, you can use your sphere of influence to bring about change.
I would go as far as to say you have no right to be making anything unless you are trying to minimise the environmental impacts.
Speaking of which, it appears that that most folk in the digital industry are barely aware that their work has any impact at all. That’s beginning to look like wilful ignorance.
And the scary thing is that digital scales so fast. Musical.ly (now TikTok) created it it’s first prototype in 2014. Three years later it had 200 million users. Three years on from that, TikTok had 800 million active users. Social media globally has nearly 4 billion users.
If you are not factoring in the impact, the consequences can be extreme and rapid. That bastion of relatively benign and sustainable transport, the bicycle, has been turned into a shocking example of yhe unprecented level of waste that digital can enable.
I decided to create some sustainable design tools because I didn’t want the SDFY talks (intended to spread a sense of urgency and trigger change) to be like watching a documentary where you learn how bad things are and then, at the end, are given no way to act. You’re left feeling depressed, anxious, and powerless.
I wanted people to feel inspired and empowered.
I’m trying to address what I see as three fundamental barriers.
People seem to be unconsciously waiting for someone else to fix things, unaware of their own power to bring about change
People feel unable to consider sustainability when there isn’t already an explicit request to do so
Change is hard and they don’t know where to start.
Doing things more sustainably can be really easy. It can also be really hard. But the only time it’s impossible is when you don’t try.
I noticed that a feeling of powerlessness in the face of these crises actually becomes the cause of powerlessness. You don’t feel like you can have an impact anything, so you don’t even try.
So some of the tools are specifically designed to help get started when there is no mention of sustainability in the project you are working on.
Others are there to help you collaborate with people from different areas of an organisation to uncover far greater opportunities than you could alone.
The tools are in no way intended to replace existing movements such as the Circular Economy and Transition Design. They are designed to address the challenges of people who work in environments that have been slow to change, for whom meaningful change seem far out of reach. Think of SDFY tools as a kickstart for those who are new to sustainability.
Since I began develop them, the clanging alarm bells have got louder and louder. To me they are almost deafening, but plenty of the C-suite seem to be wearing some highly effective ear plugs.
So get on with it anyway. If you are concerned, imagine what a bad look it is berating someone for trying to make something more sustainable.
Be brave, and good luck.
Alex Crowfoot
Acknowledgements
I’d like to thank ustwo, Futurice, Service Design Fringe Festival, It’s Nice That, unboxed, Method, Lars Chresta, Jess Eade, Joe Macleod, and all the other organisations and individuals who’ve encouraged or supported this project and given feedback in workshops over the last few years.