1. Background
With the increasing environmental problems, the living environment of human beings has been threatened to a certain extent. More and more attention is being paid to keywords such as sustainability and environmental protection, which have gradually become the focus of social attention and also provide new opportunities for some innovative development. However, the same opportunity is also accompanied by unknown, many thought sustainable innovation does not well balance the relationship between the existing social structure, or fall into the dilemma of balancing relationship and interests.
This is why most exploration-oriented and problem-oriented sustainable innovation faces a number of obstacles and constraints.
2. Multi-Perspectives Thinking: Priority List
Based on the current widespread cognition of sustainability, we analyze the definition of multiple dimensions and the deeper causes and opportunities from the perspective of human beings.
- Multiple priorities due to individual structural differences
Individuals in a society have different definitions of sustainability, whether it is cognitive, implementation, or the different understandings brought by different fields. Without regard to the priority of benefits, the understanding of diversity has posed great challenges for the large-scale sustainable application or management of standardization. From a macro point of view, it is honest to say that all actions or plans for environmental protection are inseparable from their own interests and values. Even non-profit environmental protection organizations, their ultimate purpose is to think about how to better let people live in this objective ecological circle from the perspective of human beings. So trying to analyze what is the core element of sustainability or environmental protection? Again, what is the highest priority for human beings on this topic? Now narrow our vision and observe each individual in the orbit of life, what is the meaning of environmental protection for each individual human being? Is it passion or interest? Or a fear of a negative future, a belief in survival, or just a sense of responsibility and mission for human society. One might argue that every human individual can achieve a large degree of sustainable progress from different perspectives by making a few small behavioural changes in their life, such as driving less and walking more, buying fewer plastic bags when shopping, etc. But the same priority also plays a role in every individual's life. In terms of conclusion orientation, environmental protection and sustainability are near the bottom of the list of priorities in every individual's life. Part of the factor may be that these behaviours do not work or benefit every individual in real-time or in the short term. To put it in a more mundane way: You're in the park on a Sunday and you want to ride your bike across the park to your destination because in a sense you're not in a hurry to get somewhere and you can personally reduce your emissions. But this also only works when there is no comparison of priorities. It is a busy working day on Monday, and I have to take a taxi to the company to ensure my attendance is normal because I am tired and want to sleep for a few more minutes without being late for the commute. Environmental protection and sustainability under these circumstances as keywords in the daily life in the priority list automatically come at the end (like A dictionary in the first alphabetical order a-z, and sustainability for individuals brought about by the responsibility in our daily life can be automatically attributed to Z), because it is directly related to personal interests and relations of factors will determine the priority of relativity.
After we have a clear understanding of the concept of prioritization, how about we try again to reflect on what it means to be sustainable and environmentally friendly from the perspective of the human individual? What does it mean to you personally? What does it mean to be human?
3. Critical Thinking: Manufacturing is Repairing
According to the same analysis of social structure, individuals are extremely passive as consumers, and the more rational and appropriate changes that individuals can make are also limited. Part of the conceptual case is from the Angle of the reflection in the process of production and manufacturing, to some extent, the operational and processing more resources of the enterprise or group of relatively more manipulability and executive ability should be either manufacturing or supply chain process involves different levels of consumption and accumulation. With a series of environmental factors on the impact of humans, through the macroscopic organization or agency, control and optimisation limited to some extent is affecting companies and enterprises of the importance of sustainable reduction, many enterprises in the manufacturing or assembly line work has through the core idea of sustainable development of the corresponding optimization, Whether it is due to the corporate social responsibility in the macro sense or the promotion of corporate culture and influence, or just the motivation of interest correlation.
Similarly, inspired by an exhibition. Some are experimenting with a series of structural innovations with a longer-term vision of a more plausible, closed-loop sustainable economy. As a reference to the exploratory case in the diagram, analyze the existing product cycle loop through the existing material and product manufacturing process to explore a feasible solution based on this loop. Based on the existing production supplier relationships to product life cycle together to form the half-closed loop of the product life cycle, however, in the breakthrough products processing stages into a completely material before a series of technical barriers, in the face of a large number of products and combination treatment will have to start thinking about this part defined the waste processing and use again. Through factory reprocessing, through the uniform distribution of macro resources or creating reuse value, etc. Followed to imagine and reflect on the future of human survival resources required by the ecosystem, it is close to saturation of the advancement of industrialization and commercialization of human-centred, perhaps the human is hard to find the so-called "raw material" because most can be combined use of resources have been used or is being in the process of processing. Therefore, it is not difficult to imagine that the use of materials in the future starts from the abandoned "disposables", and human beings have only to create and excavate new solutions for the use of disposables to meet the needs of human beings in the future.
First of all, the word repair. I don't know what the picture is in your subconscious mind. I can start by explaining what I mean by the word "repair." To some extent, the value of repair to me is reuse or re-effect. From a materialist perspective, a product unit is undoubtedly a functional structure synthesized by different elements and materials. Through the process of the time dimension, the structure cannot meet the function of the specific original demand. In turn, humans can process or supplement the semi-abandoned or abandoned objects so that they can meet the specific function again, or they can be reused to provide solutions for new needs. From a more microscopic perspective to analyze the use of any product or merchandise process, whether it is recycled or is unable to recycle things still exist in the ecosystem in the form of material, and are used in a certain corner of this world, or have already gradually from human vision also cannot continue to observe its subsequent process, Or perhaps human beings have accelerated its original process of decomposition and re-synthesis as a new commodity to meet human needs or realize new values. But what remains constant is the relatively constant and closed-loop relationship of resources. Let's further narrow our vision. From the perspective of molecules or elements, if you keep tracking a molecular unit indefinitely, It must be constantly driven by external forces (both human and non-human) and in the process has been synthesized or decomposed numerous times to satisfy numerous human and non-human needs or influences. Therefore, we might as well partially reduce the time dimension of this large span. In a sense, is all production and manufacturing in the current society already a process of repair from the material point of view? But most people don't know that, right?
4. Reflection: Practical Opportunity Analysis
- Practical analysis: responsibility design after the end of the commodity cycle
From the perspective of designers, we need to think about the responsibilities of existing designers. For a specific position, we need to think more about the value and benefits that products themselves can bring to the company and the enterprise, and meet the balance of cost and material application through market demand or problem-oriented functionalization. As all companies or industries that take the total interest as the core of execution, with the impact of sustainable development and other environmental issues and social constraints, enterprises are also constantly starting to establish a long-term vision to achieve sustainable industrial chain construction based on the current production and manufacturing or processing process of emission reduction. From the perspective of the balance of interests, it is more reasonable and effective for the company to optimize the existing industrial chain to achieve sustainable development and improve efficiency. Once again, we jump to the perspective of individual consumers. As mentioned above, consumers are extremely passive under the conditions of priority, and most people's behaviours in their original daily life are based on the satisfaction of needs and the constraints of the objective product cycle. To some extent, even in the context of environmental protection as a priority, consumers, as well as the recipients of the results of manufacturing, have no more options to participate in the whole process of sustainable optimization. What consumers can do still depends on the touchpoints around them and the usability of the product itself. Then, do users really have enough information and choices to fix the product compared to the repair after using the product?
Hypothesis content: repair designer/commodity reuse scheme/commodity closed-loop thinking, etc.In the short term, whether the role of designers in the manufacturing and production industry can design the post-life scenarios of products in the short term includes not only the recycling and reuse of the products but also more possibilities given by designers to the products themselves. This possibility is a responsibility and also provides more options for individual consumers. In terms of specific ideas, whether the product at the end of its life cycle can provide an executable solution for repair and reuse according to the specific usage scenarios of the target group, or combine with any contacts in that situation to develop their value again or new value, etc. When this complete closed loop is more carefully and completely considered and designed it may be enough to bring about significant improvements.
(The ownership of the project and the information belongs to the individual only for communication and sharing. Do not copy or use it for commercial purposes.)