Keeping up
with the trends has always been one of my favorite things to do. I’ve always
loved wearing “bold” outfits that were just now coming into style. I also like
decorating and designing my room and house to look up to date and stylish. This
week’s readings were very much reflected off of my own life style. I’ve always
been materialistic whether I want to admit it or not. Our culture is the same
way. I’ve realized this week with me being so materialistic can actually cause
harm to our earth. I don’t know the process that goes on behind the products I
HAVE to buy. I would buy things no matter what it took sometimes. Even if
things were way out of my budget, I’d still find a way.
This is
important to realize because this could be the way several other people think
too! It makes me think, what if sustainable products were the thing to be “materialistic”
about. I for sure would buy it, as well as several people who keep up with the
trends. So how would anyone get sustainable products to be trending nowadays?
It would be difficult!
One of the
things I also learned this week that could possibly make a difference, is by
raising awareness through a non-profit group. I feel like often times, groups
like these get popular quickly because they’re always put together for a good
cause. Creating a sustainable world is an incredible cause, so why not create
multiple non-profit groups with the same intentions of providing a better
environment? You would think that this type of group would trend rather
quickly.
My next step
for my idea is to research different ways to get a non-profit group started. Like
most I’m sure they start small and gain members who want the same intentions
over a period of time. With this research I also want to discover non-profit
groups that flopped. Why did they not do so well? What were they lacking? That
way when I do start a new one; maybe on our OSU campus, I could be more successful
with getting students on board!
‘“Materialism” suggests that you define yourself
in the terms of your material possessions and your physical appearance, placing
more importance on material wealth than other aspects of life” (Thorpe 2007).
Do you remember in middle school when the cool thing to do was wear clothes
that were ONLY purchased from Abercrombie, Hollister, and even American Eagle?
Ah, those were the days…going to the mall and begging my mom to buy me the
dinky, little, baby tee from Hollister for $30. Most mothers give their children
money for back to school clothes, say $100 to $150, and you can spend it on
whatever you wanted, but once that money was gone, it was gone. Naturally, most
of would use the money to buy a few shirts from Abercrombie, as in 3 shirts or
so, and then boom- moneys gone. So why did we make foolish decisions like this
when we were younger? Because it is our culture in America to fit into the
society we engage in. I chose to wear those shirts and booty shorts because all
of my friends I hung out with begged their mom’s to buy the same clothes too.
When taking an inside look at understanding
sustainability, the design aspect within our culture plays a huge role. Take
for instance the commercial culture; when designers advertise and market the
next, latest and greatest product coming out, other designers are pressured to
hone in on these economic interests and create a similar and even better option
for consumers. With how fast our industry has sped along over the past fifty
years, products have continuously been reshaped, reproduced, and even totally
recreated just to keep up with the fast pace of our culture. “Historically,
people relied on internal methods, such as prayer, cultivation of skills
(music, painting, or writing) or personal relationships, to meet need” (Thorpe
2007). Now a days people are relying on external methods such as owning several
material goods and constantly keeping up with the media. Designers have become
what are now known as “pushers”. They are given this title because they aid
businesses in pushing more artifacts through the market, therefore continuing
into the pile of a consumer’s possessions. Therefore, designers have a HUGE
impact on what our society consumes. If designers are ones who start the trends
and continue what our culture is about, why not put forth the notion of
designing sustainable?
Our economy is broken up into three main sectors,
private, public, and nonprofit. Private; meaning self individuals and companies
whose goal is to create a profit for themselves through the market. Public
demonstrates governments with a financial goal of collecting the public’s
resources to provide services such as education, legal systems, etc. And
nonprofit, which is neither a business nor related to the government. Their
main focus is working to meet the social needs of this world.
As I was researching I came across a man named
Peter York. He is the senior vice president and director of research for the
TCC Group. York came up with a simple, yet applicable formula for
sustainability.
This formula is made up with 3 main
goals in mind in order to earn sustainability. The TCC company digs deeper
within each section to acknowledge what each goal entitles. The first one,
leadership, shows that you are to have a clarity and vision of what your mission
is. With that, you also need to have others motivated towards that same
mission. You also need to be decisive when it comes to making challenging
decisions along with accountability involving the most cost-effective plan. The
most important component that comes with leadership is being able to have a
strategic plan throughout the entire process. When it comes to adaptability,
this is where all of the finances come into play. In order to adapt to
sustainability, you must have community leaders, institutional grant makers,
and board leaders be “all in” and ready to invest in sustainability. They need
to be people that you can form long term relationships with, that will support
you through the entire process of moving towards sustainability. Then as far as
program capacity goes, you must have adequate facilities and program staff with
the knowledge of sustainability in order to keep the process running and
improving even more towards a more sustainable world.
I happened to come across a group called Project H Design. This group is a non-profit organization that deals with several interior design issues. Their main mission in mind is to design, build, teach, and transform. Their team is made up of designers, builders, and teachers who all have the same goal: to build a creative environment to transform a unique way of teaching. Even though their focus isn't creating a sustainable building, they still have the right idea of getting noticed. By making themselves non-profit and building incredible atmospheres for children all over the United States makes me wonder, why not do the same thing, but with sustainability? The same results should be expected, but even greater once people realize how appropriate these buildings should be created in the first place. So, why not? I copied the link to their website just below.
http://www.projecthdesign.org/#studio-h
Check out this project! It’s run by a group called
Second Nature. They are a national non-profit organization that is located out
of Boston. Their focus is to create a healthy, just, and sustainable society by
transforming higher education. This group has moved by leaps and bounds to
where they are today. So maybe they’re right? Working to create a better future
by educating the students now about where our environment and economy is
heading, and what direction would be a much more sustainable and improved
environment. Could pressing this constant idea into their brains truly work to
change our nation’s future? Possibly. Whether it does or doesn’t, it’s making
some kind of impact on the students whether they realize it or not. And that my
friends, is a step in the right direction.
When I think about the phrase “waste equals food”,
to me it almost seems impossible to fully grasp how every single little detail
of this world can be used for something. How everything has a purpose,
literally everything. Waste equals food- to mean really clicks when I compare
it to “junk”, antiques, etc. equals a crafting opportunity. Because I had
always been raised to pay for things with my own income, starting as a child I
learned not to waste, and to spend as little as I could. Being an interior
designer, this concept really comes in handy. Most people like me don’t like
spending an extensive of amount of money on products. For designers who do use
the concept waste equals food, this is an easy way to save our clients money.
This is important to me because I know there lies
a certain quality in several pieces of furniture that get over looked just
because of a few scratches or a bad paint job. Because several designers like
myself, have an eye for good quality, it makes it easier for us find products
to up-cycle and reuse.
Take for example, if I was to own my own show
room, I would love for every item that I sell to either be used or crafted into
a great product. I feel like today, several people adore the country chic look
just as much as I do. Having my own store that up-cycled furniture would be
quite the dream. Another opportunity that could arise when it comes to owning
this show room would be informing my customers of the up-cycling process and
how it not only benefits them by providing a lower price, but also benefits the
environment.
One of the things I would really like to enjoy
learning about next would be learning the safest ways to enhance older
furniture. What are types of paints, stains, metals, and woods that are more
organic and natural? I really want to dig into what would be the best products
that are the least harmful for me as a person to use, as well effecting the
environment around us. I think with my future show room in mind, learning these
types of products would be incredibly beneficial.
You know what they say, “One man’s trash… is
another man’s treasure”. This is a trait I have lived by my entire life.
Growing up, I was raised to not waste anything. Literally, anything. I feel
like that’s why I was such a chubby toddler growing up. I was told finish
everything on my plate, and so I did. Food was never to be wasted or thrown out
in the Keffer family. Food wasn’t the only thing either. I still have childhood
birthday cards, toys, blankets, McDonald’s trinkets, you name it, and I could
find some within my house. My parents always thought towards the future. They
would tell me, “You might want to save that toy for whenever you’re tired of
your new ones”, or they would say, “Don’t you want to save your dolls for your
children when you get older?” Some people would think they were kidding, but
they were rather serious.
As I was reading Cradle to Cradle by William
McDonough and Michael Braungart, chapter 4 was titled Waste Equals Food. This chapter goes into complete detail of our earth’s
components that go through a cycle of life, hopefully to be reused again for
the same purpose or for a greater purpose. I nearly laughed out loud when I
read one of the first lines that said “…there is no such thing as waste”
(McDonough and Braungart 2002). This entire chapter would have been praised by
my parents. They went into further discussion of how material flows can be
divided into two categories consisting of a technical mass and an industrial mass.
The goal for all products is to be easily decomposed and “consumed” by nature
once again. However, today several durable products are tossed into the dump.
Why, you ask? Simply because now a days, it is much easier to buy a new product,
rather than send in parts to be repaired or replaced. This has become the norm.
One
up and coming website that has been progressing the past year is Pinterest. This website has a section
called DIY crafts & projects. DIY stands for “do it yourself”. This
category consists of hundreds and hundreds of crafts you can make at home,
typically using several items around the house. Myself, as well as several of
my friends have each done several of these projects. On this project to the
left, I used older doilies around my house to make a gorgeous lantern for my
room. The process was easy, fun, and a great way to use material that had been
tossed in the closet for years. In a sense, this type of project could be
considered “up-cycling”. In Ann Thorpe’s book, The Designer’s Atlas of
Sustainability, she talks about unused materials that are recycled into a
high-quality material. Looking at this previous project of mine, I took
materials that no longer had a use in my house hold, put my crafting skills in
gear, and came up with a more glorified and useful product. Thorpe also talks
about the opposite of up-cycling, which is “down-cycling”. Sadly, this process
continues to degrade the materials that no long have use. “With each recycle,
the materials lose structure and concentration” (Thorpe 2007). That project is
one of the many DIY projects I have completed. After showing my mom this
website, we started a shelf of items specifically for DIY projects off of
pinterest. These items consist of cardboard rolls, food cans, plastic bottles,
plastic milk jugs, you name it, and it could be there. This activity could be
one way you could “up-cycle” with your family at home!
When I began looking online for other people who
had the same idea, I came across this YouTube video posted below. This girl,
Shelley, treats old clothes very similar to how I treat random materials within
my household. Her job is up-cycling clothing. She goes through several thrift
stores looking for quality clothing, and remakes outfits into something
fashionable. It may not be in style today, but she had the same up-cycling
concept a couple years ago. Wouldn’t it be great if we all learned how to reuse
items around our house in some sort of fashion? Taking the quality of the
product it already is, and warping it into a more useful product. Sounds like a
great way to not only have fun crafting, but also saving money for the future.
So what really is Cradle to Cradle, or in some
cases known as C2C? It really represents a model of the human industry on
nature’s process. It shows the lifecycle development of what takes place during
a materials life time in this world. How to do we keep this cycle going one
might ask? The answer was stated clearly in chapter 4 of Cradle to Cradle by
McDonough and Braungart. They stated, in order “to eliminate the concept of
waste means to design things-products, packaging, and systems—from the very
beginning on the understanding that waste does not exist”. In the short run, it
could be very difficult to get this concept wrapped around everyone’s brain. But
when looking at it in a long run, if every single designer in this world
created their products with the idea that it was going to be reused someday,
the design process and production could be vastly different.
Some designers have already taken a bit of a leap
on that concept. LEED certified is the goal for almost every architecture,
interior designer, or engineer when it comes to creating a building. LEED
stands for the Leadership in Energy, and Environmental Design. This is the
standard for Green building design. In order to be LEED certified, designers go
through an extensive process of discovering ways to make their building the
most environmentally friendly for the area around it as well as the people that
work inside of it. A huge section is within the materials and resources. This
is an easy way to use several recycled products along with organic materials.
For more questions about lead, go to the link: www.usgbc.org
to find out more!
Monday, June 11, 2012
When looking back over this past week of an intense session of sustainability, the most important issue I learned is that there is a gigantic problem of consumerism going on in this world whether we realize it or not. It really got the wheels turning in my head when I began to think through, "where does all of my old clothes, furniture, bedding, and possessions go when I dispose them?" Do they all really go straight to a landfill? More than likely, yes. A sense of guilt overcame when as I realized I hadn't been doing my best whatsoever to prevent this. This guilt made me even more proactive to be changing the future of my possessions for whenever I am ready to "get rid of" or dispose of them. Learning more about sustainability and how it can truly impact the world around us made it clear to me that I can help with the issue by starting to do the little things myself. After developing a better knowledge of this issue, my new goal is to help discover ways to prevent the situation that has consumed our lifestyles. I want to feed off of ideas that have already been suggested such as recycling, and narrow it down to specific products that are needed to be recycled the most. I want to discover what products are constantly being needed by consumers, and what materials our world lacks the most of. This is my goal for the next few weeks.
Thursday, June 7, 2012
Mean, Green, Designing Machine
Sustainability, an issue that should always be
addressed when buying something new. Think of the last time you decided to
transform your home into a more updated look. How long has it been? When’s the
last time you decided to update any room for that matter? Most people would say
every few years, every other year, or they simply haven’t at all. My point is,
most people tend to buy things for their home that they can use for an extended
amount of time. Decorations and accessories for your home on the other hand,
can easily be updated every so often. But what I’m really trying to hone in on
is the basic commodities that each individuals home desires. Carpet, wall
coverings, paint colors, wood flooring, and tile are all components of a home
that tend to stay the same for several years. So my question is this, because
those items are last to update in a home, why not spend a little more money on
a product used for the same purpose, but remarkably more efficient?
Is money the real issue when it comes to
converting people over to a sustainable side? Technically, yes. In Armstrong
and LeHew’s article, “Acknowledging the Pink Elephant”, they prove a very clear
point that several people have trouble getting past. They remark how products
are sold at a market price rather than their ecological value, but when
sustainable products are developed, their cost reflects an actual pricing of
resource use. “This is why sustainable products typically cost more than
traditionally made products” (Armstrong & LeHew 2012). I completely agree
that it is much harder to purchase an adorable, sustainable side table for
$150.00, instead of purchasing a very similar table, “unsustainable” for half
the price. What do you think it will take for people to make that shift? A
lower price? Most definitely.
LCA stands for Life Cycle Assessment. Within the
life cycle of any product is has five stages, material, design, distribution,
use, and disposal. (Armstrong & LeHew 2012) Now none of these stages are anything
surprising, but where does all of your old furniture, carpets, and rugs go when
you are ready for an update? Maybe a consignment store or the trash? In
Fashioning Sustainability, they discuss unsustainable consumption and how
several items end up in a landfill when they could have been recycled. That’s right;
almost all of your furniture and other household items can be recycled when
ready for disposal.
What I discovered is that several manufacturers
are beginning to take a stand. I am currently working with Herman Miller. Several
of their fabrics they use have a section in there library for eco textiles. Textile
manufacturers such as Architex are designing new lines of Eco-Tex fabrics every
month. Several other popular upholster designers such as Maharam, Momentum, and
C.F. Stinson follow the same pattern of beginning to convert the same designs
that they know and love into something more environmentally friendly. As I
researched, I was curious to know what other type of products were currently
being made to serve the same standard. I came across a company called Woven
Image. This company designs the EchoPanel which is a wall covering made with
60% recycled materials. Their product is also green tag certified. I posted a
video link below that shows you more about their product.
My next
question is how do we get consumers to think like these companies when it comes
to sustainability? Is it convincing people to buy products that really need
compared to products they want for a short amount of time? The “Fashioning
Sustainability” article does an incredibly job of walking you through the
process of clothing. It shows you the process clothes go through and how fast
they are consumed by people. What I like best about this article is that it
shows you other options of buying clothes. It compares buying unsustainable
products to sustainable products. “Acknowledging the Pink Elephant “ article
also does an excellent job of opening consumers eyes, like myself, to a whole
new world they never even thought of before. So what will it take for you to
make the switch over to sustainable products? A higher paying job? A greater
love for the earth? You decide.
