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Sustainability does not mean compromise, now or ever

Published: 12-Mar-2009

If we are to believe the rhetoric of the newly inaugurated American president, a new era of investment and innovation in green technologies that aims to revolutionise American infrastructure is beginning.

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From mass transit and power generation to urban planning and agriculture, Mr Obama has committed to investment across the board in the hope of stimulating a flagging economy, and building a robust and reliable platform for future economic development that will extend well beyond this century.

Although this investment may not immediately affect our work as designers of consumer experiences, I think we can certainly draw inspiration from its scope and ambition and the optimism with which it has been announced.

For too long now, the idea of sustainable design has carried negative connotations of compromise in materials, techniques and processes – of being held back from delivering our best work. Limited material choices, a singular look and feel, restrictions on production techniques, and a host of other issues, have meant that sustainability is often viewed as an impediment to creativity.

To the contrary, Fitch believes that it represents a catalyst for real innovation and fundamental change in consumer behaviour. It is vital for this industry’s survival that we teach our clients and their consumers that sustainable design should fundamentally be good design; design that innovates, pushes the boundaries, and continues to deliver the depth and richness of experience expected by sophisticated consumers.

Modern brands need to remain relevant and competitive in the modern marketplace. We believe that even with a genuine commitment to sustainability there should be no compromise in experience; achieving it doesn’t require human development going back 500 years (as some would have us believe), but by being at the leading edge of technological innovation.

Factoring the consumer into a sustainable design response, as opposed to only responding to commercial or ecological needs, also drives solutions away from a focus on ‘savings’. It creates true innovation around sustainability and sustainable consumer experiences that will ensure that we can be uncompromising in our approach to designing them.

As is often the case, it seems that taking the middle way will be the most successful route for us to achieve this. Effectively combining two mutually exclusive ideas – the commercial and the sustainable informing and inspiring each other– will be the only way to bring about tangible change in society and in our clients’ organisations.

Despite environmental issues being overshadowed by the current global economic and financial crises, I think that we can safely say that public awareness of them and concern will continue to grow, and will certainly outlive the current downturn.

In a world where skeptical consumers believe in cold reality, not polished corporate image, any business that wishes to succeed must put sustainability at the core of its organisation – and as designers we are uniquely placed to help not just educate, but also actively promote and deliver sustainable design projects for our clients.

The real step-change in this area over the next few years will be the move away from the ‘eco concept projects’, that are often little more than PR exercises with few practical applications, to truly strategic design projects with implementable ideas that can be rolled out across an entire portfolio of properties.

Till now this shift has been most dramatic in the retail sector. Marks & Spencer in particular has led the way with its Plan A initiative which, although packaged inside a very slick PR campaign, is underpinned by a genuine commitment to sustainability across its entire organisation and supply chain. It is already beginning to show tangible results.

In order to support this shift, in the past 12 months we have committed to the development and deployment of sustainable design practice throughout our business. For us, this is about making informed choices in everything we do as designers to assist ourselves, our clients and their customers in supporting and sustaining the environment.

It is an ongoing project, which will continue to evolve as new materials, technologies and best-practice examples appear. Involving our clients and suppliers in this process has allowed us to begin understanding how these issues are shaping our world and will continue to do so.

I’m sure that many of you reading this will be able to empathise with how difficult this process has been. The more work we have completed, the more questions and ambiguities we have uncovered, and it seems that there is a distinct lack of support in the wider design industry to help agencies take the positive steps required towards delivering truly sustainable design.

For architects, there are industry bodies that provide in-depth research and analysis into the sustainability of every conceivable process and material – giving absolute clarity and understanding of the environmental impact of a building, from design concept to project completion and beyond.

For experiential and brand designers, the position is less clear, and we think that it is vital that bodies such as BRE begin to work alongside design consultancies to develop new benchmarks, allowing us to make informed decisions on the way we work.

If the design industry is to embrace and promote sustainable design, then the heavy research and industry bodies must embrace this opportunity to help designers shape the cultural and societal changes that are required now, and in the future.

This article was first published in FX Magazine www.fxmagazine.co.uk

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