How can one use the practice of design to implement sustainability approaches in organizations and in their surrounding ecosystems?
This is a daunting challenge especially with regard to ecosystems because the ecosystem of even a small polluter can be inhabitants of the entire planet or certainly a region of the globe.
One really needs to take a whole-earth perspective to fully comprehend this. This is vividly demonstrated in the recent "school-strike" catalyzed by Greta Thunberg of Sweden which involved 1.6 million young people in almost 1700 cities and towns in over 123 countries in every continent.
We do have to start somewhere in terms of organizations and one place to start is to gain a concept of the system with which we are dealing. This involves viewing the organization in terms of what may be a more linear, value-chain as well as seeing the organization as part of a larger ecosystem.
The nature of the value chain may vary from organization to organization. In some enterprises, it may be a less linear value-network. In others, it will have aspects of a traditional value-chain albeit an expanded one. This value-chain or network may cross an entire business, industry or even reach outside of the industry.
Using a value-chain perspective from which to view an enterprise is more traditional and manageable though still challenging. One could work with a specific value-chain in doing an energy audit or environmental audit in order to improve sustainability. One can look at how resources are used, how waste is produced and disposed of. One can assess this against an independent standard or a global environmental sustainability standard. Where does the actual use deviate from the standard and how can this be improved upon?
One can assess this against the ideal standard shared with me by Jib Ellison from Blu Skye Sustainability Consultants which is that the use "should never take value, should add value or at least be neutral." According to Jib, one should look at the gestalt of the overall process. Is this a process that is not providing safe working conditions? Is this a process that is creating avoidable hazardous waste? There is likely a sweet spot where one looks at enough detail to support finding remedies while working at this overall higher level.
Having a conceptual framework is helpful here. In his HBR article, "The Collaborative Imperative," Jib provides an interesting 4-box model which I have adapted into two overall aspects. One is the operational-process aspect involving selected stakeholders which I call improving the value-chain. Here one can act to "reduce resource consumption and waste and protect natural resources."
The other aspect is "coordinated outcomes" which I see as an intervention into the larger extended environment involving both businesses and non-corporate partners. This takes an ecosystem approach. It involves challenges like defining desired outcomes and creating standardized metrics. Disposing of hazardous materials improperly impacts downstream residents and likely an entire community. This requires addressing the related ecosystem.
One can deal with the larger stakeholder community and the ecosystem through such initiatives as creating standardized metrics. One example of this is the Latin American Water Funds Partnership. This partnership is an aggregation of 32 local funds totaling $27 million in a number of Latin American countries. The goal of this partnership is to "ensure both the quality and quantity of ecosystem services and reduce the need for expensive mitigation efforts in the future." This large-scale ecosystem intervention does in turn impact the value-chains of specific businesses while improving water quality in the ecosystem.
Getting the system in the room
It is certainly more difficult to get all of the people in the larger ecosystem into a room and into a decision-making process. The Paris Climate Change Accord and the U.N. Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) are examples that this is ultimately possible. The March 15, 2019 School Strike is another example. Generating an ecosystem-wide conversation or discourse remains an ongoing challenge.
Ultimately, it is up to the owners of individual value-chains or enterprises and residents of individual or aggregated communities to make the connections that put them in this larger global room. See: Blueprint for Business Leadership on the SDG's.
Work with the links between individual value-chains and the larger ecosystem
The U.N. SDG Blueprint is an illustration of how to link individual value-chains with the larger ecosystem. I have explored this in an earlier post. The expanding number of documents following on to the SDG's reflects a growing discourse. Though it is yet unclear where this is all moving towards, it certainly includes creating a conversation about global best practices and of global support to each entity taking initiative to design in sustainability.
Ecosystem members co-creating designs
Getting stakeholders in the room can be an in-person or a virtual activity or a combination of both. In this convening, design is a value-creating effort in which skills and knowledge are exchanged by members of the design community in an effort to co-create a design.
Lucy Kimbell from the University of Oxford states that design can be a distributed effort in which the role of a central designer is not privileged. In this view, design is carried out by professional designers and by end-users and others. (Kimbell, Rethinking Design Thinking, 2011, 2012)
How the system acts in the the act of redesigning becomes a foundation for what ends up being set out in the design for the future. Or, as Kimbell states in one of her articles, "Structures are enacted by users in practice." I see Kimbell's comment as asking us to give special credence to the processes of emergence.
Developing a privileged narrative
We can take things a step further and say that the conversations that people are having in exchanging skills and knowledge in the process of design constitute efforts at meaning-making in the system. They are creating a new discourse, a new narrative in the system. This moves beyond the narrative that is currently privileged, e.g. we have no choice but to continue to use coal; to a new narrative that is not yet privileged, e.g. we have a choice as to the kind of planetary community we wish to live in; we can control our relationship to the Biosphere.
Develop design practices
There is a difference between implementing critically needed individual initiatives and designing in a larger system. Examples of encompassing design efforts involving enterprise value-chains have been set out in an earlier post describing efforts at reducing waste at Unilever and reducing waste and increasing the use of renewable energy at Walmart. Traditional models of process design and socio-technical design can be helpful in these types of efforts.
The intriguing question is how to design at an ecosystem level. The example of the Latin American Water Funds Partnership provides some instruction. Developing network solutions are among design options that can be utilized. The RE-AMP Network, which focuses on reducing coal usage and increasing alternate energy usage in the American Mid-West, is another example. Still, a design process needs to serve as a basis for getting to an appropriate network solution. Approaches such as Collective Impact or other large-scale vehicles for convening can be helpful here.
The area of designing in ecosystems is a new area of focus and at the moment there are only a few examples that represent divergence from traditional paradigms. These few initiatives have embarked upon this voyage into a new paradigm by utilizing Innovation Labs, Social Innovation Labs, Design Thinking and the idea of customer touch points and the customer journey. For example, a micro-design might deal with an individual touch point and a larger system design might deal with a customer journey comprised of a series of touch points. These approaches are valuable examples.
Beyond this, do we even know what designing in sustainability at a larger ecosystem level would look like? Could it even involve a meta customer journey of the interaction of our species (and other species) with the Biosphere? (e.g. We can control our relationship to the Biosphere.) What models and methods will be helpful? Is there a point of intersection among design principles; Greta Thunberg and the school strike; and the U.N. SDG's that creates exciting synergy? Do the SDG's represent an intermediating mechanism between each of us and the Biosphere in our global ecosystem? Should this SDG mechanism replace unhelpful and outdated mediating mechanisms that our societies have continued to support.
All of this is the space over the horizon. However, a new privileged narrative says that this is accessible.
Please share your thoughts about the use of design in the pursuit of global sustainability.
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