OMG, What is She Wearing??

‘“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.