I am an interaction & product designer, studying in my third year at the school of interactive arts & technology. Before entering Business of Design, I was gluten free and peanut free. I am now attempting to be plastic free. Surprisingly, I have learnt that it is a lot easier to avoid plastic than peanuts. My mindset regarding sustainability has been very similar to the mindset I live day-to-day with, being seriously allergic to nuts. Consider alternatives, go without, & pack at home are all insights that are key to a sustainable mindset. They also happen to be the insights that run constantly through my head while I scan through my lunch options in a food court. In our first weekend of the program, Rob Woodbury had a conversation with us about systems thinking. To understand sustainability, one must understand the greater systems they reside in. There may not be peanuts in the ice cream, but they are plentiful in the factory where it is made.
This frame of thinking must be present in your mind - every single day. To be sustainable, you must be constantly considering how your daily actions can be adapted towards sustainability. There are few things that run through my mind every day. Top on the list include my girlfriend, skateboarding, project deadlines...sustainability. In the beginning, it was such a foreign frame of thought. The only things that stay present in our minds are the things we really care about. This was something that our cohort was quick to identify. The visual reminders for sustainability are not so ever-present as when we want to lose weight, and the effects are not so personally measurable as when we try to quit smoking. However, I could tell when it set in mid semester as I packed my lunches from home and refused grocery bags. Sustainability is a lens through which one may view the world, a set of green tinted glasses that bring clarity to our everyday waste.
In Business of Design I quickly iterated through prototype after prototype, eventually to settle on the Yatai. The Yatai is a cumulative result of my research and making. A vehicle that aims to allow people to peer into that lens, and hopefully return with a splash of green.
Group Project:
Yatai