Design Is the Problem
The Future of Design Must be Sustainable
Product design can have a tremendous impact on the world in terms of usability, waste, and resources. In Design Is the Problem, Nathan Shedroff examines how the endemic culture of design often creates unsustainable solutions, and shows how to ensure that design processes lead to more sustainable products and services.
Product design can have a tremendous impact on the world in terms of usability, waste, and resources. In Design Is the Problem, Nathan Shedroff examines how the endemic culture of design often creates unsustainable solutions, and shows how to ensure that design processes lead to more sustainable products and services.
Testimonials
If a sustainable world is to be less about stuff, and more about people, what should designers design? Nathan Shedroff challenges designers to focus on what the experience of a sustainable world can be like. I hope every designer will read this book: they’ll be inspired to learn that even as they stop creating stuff, there’s still a lot of work for them to do.
John Thackara, creator of the Door of Perception conference, author of In The Bubble
Our generation is paying for the mistakes—the design mistakes—of the past 100 years. Rather than trying to recycle materials and processes not designed to be so, we must redesign nearly everything to create a truly sustainable society. This is not only the challenge for our current generation of designers, but the opportunity for future designers. Nathan Shedroff shows us the path to this inevitable future.
Eric Corey Freed, author Green Building & Remodeling for Dummies
Nathan Shedroff has demonstrated a new discipline as a design deviant. He deviates from the norm of cause (perceived need) and effect (delightful fetish) to question whether we can design to fulfill experiences or true needs by crafting not what is simply less, but something different. This is an opening volley for the next new economy.
Ric Grefe, Executive Director, AIGA
Design is the Problem illustrates that, when done intentionally and thoughtfully, design can be the solution to our most pressing social and environmental challenges. The book is a comprehensive primer for anyone interested in redesigning not just products, but the way we do business, the way we address problems, and the way we envision and forge our future.
Simran Preeti Sethi, co-host/writer of Sundance Channel’s “The Green” and contributing author to Ethical Markets: Growing the Green Economy
Table of Contents
Chapter 1: What is Sustainability?
Chapter 2: How is Sustainability Measured?
Chapter 3: What Are the Approaches to Sustainability?
Chapter 4: Design for Use
Chapter 5: Dematerialization
Chapter 6: Substitution
Chapter 7: Localization
Chapter 8: Transmaterialization
Chapter 9: Informationalization
Chapter 10: Design for Durability
Chapter 11: Design for Reuse
Chapter 12: Design for Disassembly
Chapter 13: Close the Loop
Chapter 14: Design for Effectiveness
Chapter 15: Design for Systems
Chapter 16: Innovating Solutions
Chapter 17: Measuring Results
Chapter 18: Declaring Results
Chapter 19: Conclusion
FAQ
These common questions about sustainable design and their short answers are taken from Nathan Shedroff’s book Design is the Problem: The Future of Design Must be Sustainable. You can find longer answers to each in your copy of the book, either printed or digital version.
- What is sustainability?
Sustainability is an approach to design and development that focuses on environmental, social, and financial factors that are often never addressed. Sustainable solutions strive to improve the many systems that support our lives, including efficiently using capital and markets, effectively using natural resources, and reducing waste and toxins in the environment while not harming people in societies across the Earth. Sustainability focuses on efficient and effective solutions that are better for society, the environment, and companies. Sustainable organizations are often more successful when they pay attention to the details of waste and impacts, allowing them to function more cleanly, increase profit margins, and differentiate themselves from other organizations.
For more information, see page xxi.
