Over consuming planet
Human consumption has increased at a rapid pace in recent years. We have reached a point at which our planet’s ability to sustain our consumerist culture is being questioned.
As humans we all need to consume: to eat, keep sheltered and be healthy, to clothe and educate ourselves; all fundamental necessities and tools needed to survive. Being social animals, humans are also biologically in need of love and a sense of belonging, which ultimately stems from our fear of isolation. This need is satisfied by a sense of conformity to others and has been manipulated through design. It has developed us into a society that defines our sense of belonging and worth through being involved with (and following) current product, fashion, service and technology trends. We have been conditioned to consume well beyond our basic survival consumption instincts in order to demonstrate our meaning, position and worth in society.
But what has design got to do with our need to consume?
Design uses tools to deliberately convey false information to exploit and persuade us to purchase particular products or services. Products are even designed to become obsolete in a short time to further encourage us to buy more. Advertising’s relentless invasion into our everyday lives ensures we are continuously being told that what we have is not enough, that we are not good enough and what they have to offer promises a better, easier and more fulfilled life. Advertising thrives on our lack and sense of inadequacy and suggests that our emotional longing can be filled with material commodities. We have been lead into a continuous cycle of buying and producing new ‘stuff’, which in turn has lead to a society that is consuming beyond our planet’s capabilities. Design, therefore, has contributed to our society’s consumerist behaviour through the production of disposable design, and seductive advertising, in order to maintain our capitalist system. So what can we, as designers, do about it? I believe the questioning of design and advertising’s role in our society’s need to consume requires a deeper, more meaningful, response. One that does not avoid the fact that as a human race we are over-consuming and, in turn, negatively impacting society and damaging our environment through the extraction of raw materials to produce goods. Design, having implemented most of the issues that surround consumerism, has a responsibility to focus not only on improving the quality and physical durability of what we consume but also begin to address the more challenging and pressing issue of the reasons why we consume, and in such a high quantity.
Within design practice, those considering sustainable practices often start with the physical materials used within design. For example, within my own practice, I have begun working with found or waste materials, such as old newsprint, using recycled and sustainably sourced paper and attempting to reduce the amount of ink and energy used in the process of creating by taking analogue and hand crafted approaches to working and avoiding unnecessary printing. Much is being done to improve the quality and ethics within the production of goods. Although these practices do play a large part in reducing our environmental impact, they have come to make our over consumptive behaviour ‘greener’, almost justifiable even, rather than attempt to address or respond to emotional need and desire. Phrases like ‘eco’, ‘organic’ and ‘fairtrade’ have been coined through advertising to provide a guilt-free shopping experience for consumers. We can find a justified reason for purchasing products because it will benefit someone or something else, as well as getting us what we want. Every possible hurdle from our decision to purchase is slowly being removed so that nothing can deter us from consuming. So if we are to begin to reduce the quantity of what we consume, perhaps we need to explore the idea of advertising being controlled by regulations and legislation.
In the UK, the effects of advertising on our health is already being considered and controlled: a ban of cigarette displays and their advertisement in supermarkets and retailers which has been legally implemented, following concern that people are being targeted by unsolicited advertisements. Design can further explore other areas within sustainable consumption, such as the idea of instilling emotional responses within what we create to encourage users to want to keep, even cherish objects, as well as sustaining prolonged use.
Ultimately design is married with the world of commerce, which main concerns are to stimulate and continue our capitalist society, so of course in order for it to survive it needs people to keep consuming. So any meaningful change will not be easy and certainly won’t be improved by simply slapping a green sticker onto products. We need to begin actively exploring a sustainable economy that can support and reduce our consumption rather than solely focusing on the quality and ethics of products and services.
This does not mean that designers should refuse to design unless a brief is set to meet a genuine need that is completely sustainable, but we should be changing how we create and implement design, utilising how we use natural resources and considering the effect that what we create has on individuals, society and the environment in a holistic sense, both conceptually and physically. Modern technological capabilities are more than adequately equipped to resolve ethical and environmental issues. Therefore our challenge is to look at how we can create products that are not only longlasting, durable and sustainable in terms of quality, but also look to fulfil genuine need, transcending our every whimsical wants and desires, by creating more meaningful responses to consumer issues in an attempt to reduce the quantity of our consumption.