'Greener Gadgets' Isn't an Oxymoron

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SPECIAL REPORT

Green Design

• America's Green Policy Vacuum
• Using Nature as a Design Guide
• Rise of the Carbon-Neutral City
• Cities: A Smart Alternative to Cars
• 'Greener Gadgets' Isn't an Oxymoron
• Green IT: Corporate Strategies
• Nice Guys Don't Finish Last

EnerJar, by Matt Meshulam and Zach Dwiel, was the winner of the popular vote at the recent Greener Gadgets contest. It allows consumers to monitor power usage of any given device with a kit they build themselves. © Core 77

Theo Richardson proposed Green Cell, a universal format for rechargeable power supplies. © Core 77

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And then there's the third half (if you'll indulge me) that is all about social sustainability: What are the labor practices in a gadget's manufacture, for instance? What social value does the device bring when it's in use? (Does it create a system for sharing? Does it isolate people from one another? Does it create greater digital divides? Does it promote the idea of cooperation?) These are some of the more humanistic concerns in creating sustainable products and services, but they don't get talked about very much. They're also some the best entry points to groundbreaking innovation.

Do you think consumers are confused or overwhelmed by the idea of sustainability?

I think that's the story the media is running with these days, and perhaps it's true that there is a general feeling of malaise. But the sensitization to the issues of sustainability on a popular level is just getting started, so I resent the fact that the media is telling everyone that it's already over, that people are tired and confused and overwhelmed. I think people on the contrary are just waking up, and for the design community, the challenges surrounding the creation of sustainable products, services, and systems are incredibly fertile.

What do you make of companies' claims that amount to little more than greenwash? Given the many standards out there jostling for acceptance or adoption, how can or should business progress in terms of adopting sustainable standards?

I believe that change needs to come both from the bottom up and the top down; that we need government regulation as well as a groundswell of initiatives from consumers, designers, and producers. I think that we will see a shaking out of standards over the next five years, but that designers—as the "first movers" of many products and services—must take the lead in their design thinking.

Which labeling systems do you think have potential?

Initiatives like the Designers Accord are all about getting the design community on board, equipping them with shared tools, and compelling clients to have discussions around sustainability right from the first meeting.

What should executives looking at the ideas submitted to this contest in particular take away as an important lesson?

Executives, managers, businesspeople—really anybody involved in business and innovation—should understand that one of the most powerful tools designers possess is the ability to visualize powerful ideas; that design is a way of trying things on for size using sketches, models, prototypes, or photorealistic renderings to enable us to imagine products and services that don't yet exist. My favorite entry from the competition is Green Cell, and in particular the image of the vending machine in Green Cell, because in one second, that image communicates an entirely different and totally defendable way of solving the problem of nonstandard power supplies and batteries, even going so far as gesturing toward a system of how they might be distributed. In that one image you have a new product, a new service, and a new business model—if not a few new business models. That's the power of design.

What role can designers play in the greening of tech products?

Designers need to play an absolutely central role in the greening of tech products. It's my belief that the problem with designers is that they do not understand the power they have—that when you are equipped with the skills to move decision-makers by imagining things in new and innovative ways, and the ability to communicate those ideas in visual, tangible, and strategic ways, then you have a direct line to their hearts. Designers can make things emotional, employing user-centered methodologies and storytelling techniques and that can persuade very effectively. So if designers have this power, then with that power comes responsibility…especially if they're involved with mass-production. I've said many times that designers think they're in the artifact business, but they're not. They're in the consequence business.