INDEX

Abstract..01 Analyzing Advancements.01 Need for Understanding Sustainability in Contemporary Society.02 Sustainability as an Option04 Unsustainable Behavior and Identities.. 05 Analyzing Design..07 Holistic Design Approach..08 Summary.09 References.11

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Abstract The issue of sustainable development is one of the most important of all in the twenty first century. This paper analyses nature as the basis of universal existence. This view is critical in terms of a comparison with the expanding capitalist economy that defies nature. Indeed, the advancements have created a dependency on economies that social identities and behaviours are consequently finding way towards unsustainable consumer culture. Design is a powerful tool and can act as a harbinger of movements that can promote resonance with nature. The paper identifies the key issues that design needs to progress with so as to be a successful proponent of sustainability.

Analyzing Advancements Statistical figures in the media that keep projecting the used natural resources against the available ones keep reminding of the impact that humans have had on nature. The habits that people have adopted over time have abused nature to an extent which the present generation is realizing through unusual or unnatural changes in the environment. Rise in global temperatures, melting snow of the arctic, polluted cities of developed nations are all evidences of human habitual interventions. We have left no stone unturned to understand the environment around. Technology is a manifestation of this human act for understanding nature. Beyond doubt, technology has presented us the vast expanse of knowledge and advancements to date and a promise for the future. It could not have been a possibility under our reach, had it not been the drive to break things into

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smaller parts for comprehension as part of the advancing technology, though analyzing has been an integral aspect of the human nature. Evernden asserts: We pride ourselves on our ability to get to the bottom of lifes mysteries, that is, to reduce them to their basic components. The world is made of parts, just like a car. And, knowing the nature of those parts and the way they are put together, man can not only understand but also control nature (Evernden, 1993, p.14). It wont be an exaggeration to state that in an effort to analyze nature through its shred, and further synthesize it, nature itself has been reduced to a shred; a shred that is now beyond our control. It stands aghast in testimony to the way it has been analyzed. The questions still exists if the humans have really understood the environment, how many more shreds are to be seen in the future and will the synthesis be ever resplendent again? I presume nature is eager for answers to these questions.

Need for Understanding Sustainability in Contemporary Society Industrialization has brought opportunities beyond belief for us today. Indeed, it becomes difficult to comprehend, beyond belief, when the media projects the images of waste dumped into the oceans, when the glossy pictures in the magazine show the destitute breathing the polluted air of cities and drinking the polluted water. These are evidences of the magnitude of the adversity that we have created; I assume it is much higher than the magnitude in which the advancements took place. A neglect of the effects of industrialization on the environment has been an evident factor since developments started. Evernden suggests:

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Technology displaces its creator and sets him adrift in a world suddenly devoid of sense. we are trying to play a game with other beings who do not know our newly invented rules, or we their ancient ones Not only do we lack knowledge of how and for whom to care, but part of our new technological being hinges on the ability not to care, to remain dispassionate, unattached, and objective (Evernden, 1993, p.110). Considering the existing paradigm of systems in most spheres of life, economy is primarily the most important axis, around which the developments take place. The material needs developed out of the habits of individuals and the society as groups are infinite, and seemingly do not seem satisfactory enough. It is in this scope of an infinite growth that the current economic paradigm defines itself as a mode of production and one which is dependent on nature for resources. Indeed, it is a biased process towards economies in which the economic development when weighed against resource exploitation outweighs its replenishing capacity. Shiva has provided a greater insight into the unsustainable social approach, that to a large extent define the habitual needs of individuals. She asserts on a false notion of sustainability in the society by stating that: The false notion of sustainability is based on three flaws. The first is assigning primacy to capital. The second is the separation of production from conservation, The third error is assuming substitutability of nature and capital (Shiva, 1992, p.189). This drives the production processes to run economies in the twenty first century. Consumption as a manifestation of production process has become a phenomenon in the society and exists as its integral aspect. As a consequence the whole paradigm of social strata neglects sustainable practice by being driven through economics. It is also to be understood that,

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Nature shrinks as capital growsFurther, while natural resources can be turned into cash, cash cannot be turned into natures ecological processes (Shiva, 1992, p.189). Realization of adversity as being unidirectional makes it understandable and presses the importance of saving nature and which further makes it important for individuals to realize their responsibilities. The understanding of the problems and taking a responsible initiative to shift the social paradigm toward sustainable developments is necessary and the time is now. Are we ready for the change?

Sustainability as an Option Even though we realize the importance of a sustainable behavior as individuals, it still exists as an optional approach. As discussed earlier economies drive everything around so economic statisticians and technological researchers have made the industrial production process effective and more efficient in economic terms. The products are produced in abundance and their use is promoted through media. The society in the long run has adapted the economic efficiency and has catered to the cause of industrialization, which introduces a way that appears to impede the path toward sustainability. At the same time Breit and Eckensberger sadly state the truth: The environment fares best if environmentally friendly behaviour is cheap, convenient and fun (Jucker, 2002, p.263). It therefore, becomes a question of providing sustainability as an economically effective option for todays consumers, presented in way of their habits and design choices. The material abundance encourages the

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exploration of new products designed to create an interest and also as an evidence of the advancing technology. This is to say that production and consumption is becoming increasingly an informative resource. Therefore the design itself is a tool in interface with the habits through which information can be conveyed. Given the fact that in contemporary time we are laden with information which makes it is easier for the consumerist society to realize the level of unsustainable practices existing today, the need therefore exist towards focusing action in sustainable direction. The question therefore is whether sustainability-conscious design can create a lasting change in consumption patterns?

Unsustainable Behavior and Identities The practices of consumer culture having materialistic objectives have given specific identities to individuals and groups. In defining the identity Brand, Poferl and Schilling believe that if people define their identity, what they think they are and what society is to see in them, their status and selfesteem via certain social-moral standards and cultural preferences for example, certain culturally constructed notions about perfection and cleanliness, or specific, symbolically laden ideas about mobility fixated on private cars, or narrow equations of living standard with material possessions or consumption based forms of social acceptance , then it becomes difficult to change perceptions of people1. Indeed, the habits have been ingrained

Brand, K. L., Poferl, A. and Schilling, K. (1998). Umweltmentalitaten. Wie wir die Umweltthematik in unser Alltagsleben integrieren. In Umweltbildung und Umweltbewubtsein. 39-68.

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within individuals and they give them their social identities. Sustainability as a behavioural need has taken prominence with the advent of twenty-first century. The change towards a sustainable behaviour and identities on societal and individual levels need, not only to establish sustainability as an identity with which individuals can relate to, but also to admonish the economically effective and efficient unsustainable behaviour that is a part of this century. The existing institutions do impede the developments for a change as Jucker points out: We know from historical experience how resistant deeply ingrained identities which defined the entire world view of people are to alterations by fact or moral insights. The inability of the vast majority of Nazi-killers to admit their guilt even many decades after the deed, the difficulty of former communists to accept the dimension and cruelty of Stalinist crimes or, on a smaller scale, the refusal of much of the older generation of Swiss to accept their explicit or tacit complicity in crimes against Jews and Gypsies through support for the relevant government policies are just a few examples (Jucker, 2002, p.263). This makes the advent of sustainability as an accepted institution far more difficult in the contemporary society. It seems quite contradictory that nature will have to prove itself of its existential values to exist in economycentered, human- controlled world, which itself got its base from the nature. Vouching on the fact that individuals perceive todays information laden world as a knowledgeable interface with the background of technology, and in which they position their faith, it therefore seems quite a possibility to change the world-view through initiatives that affect this knowledgeable interface. Design being one of the epicenters of the postmodern world provides a possibility to involve individuals in sustainable conversations.

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Analyzing Design Todays material and information abundance has made the existence of products and knowledge in the market short-lived and ever-changing. The increasing demands have increased the supply. This is to say that services and products are at the disposal of individuals to raise consumption. People are becoming aware of the products they consume through the media and the products themselves. Design as a media to promote the new and the upcoming has a greater role to play in making the users knowledgeable and aware. With sustainable practice being of prime importance I would like to emphasize, then on the role of sustainability and design in a world of abundance, as collective and integrated effort for successful operations. Design as an interface for knowledge has the potential to influence the tactile sphere of perception. Design has a meaning. Descartes explicitly formulated the reductionist method, which involves the reduction of complex ideas into their simpler parts, followed by their reconstruction through reason2. This puts design interface as a body of knowledge having reasons for its existence and whose analysis through reduction leads to generation of knowledge and awareness. Therefore, design analysis as a manifestation of sound design approach results in raising the knowledge base of society and if sustainability be given prime focus in the process of design, informed decisions as a result of analysis are imminent. Wissner and Walker state:

Hargrove, E., C. (1989). Foundations of Environmental Ethics. New Jersey: Prentice-Hall. p. 39.

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The objects that we design will be unique to the designer, but they must also relate in some meaningful way to the culture of which we are a part, our own time and place (Wissner and Walker, 2002, p.4). Sustainability being the prime focus of current societal paradigm shift provides a responsible opportunity for the designers be its integral part and help convey the message. But it is still a question whether sustainabilityconscious design can create a lasting change in consumption patterns and bid farewell to unsustainable practices.

Holistic Design Approach Design is not a unitary body existing on its own. It is the conglomeration of ideas from diverse range of fields that aid in realizing the end product. Capra has well pointed out the fact that: to become ecologically literate, we must learn to think systematically- in terms of connectedness, context and processes (Jucker, 2002, p.270). In context of sustainability, design is connected to a vast body of knowledge from other fields that affect its process and product. At large, a holistic understanding is presumed to create products that react in synchrony to the environmental forces and do not affect the course of nature. A subject in isolation imparts its disjointed understanding, while the degree of association of the subject in question to other subjects becomes a fiction; difficult to comprehend in realistic terms. Kiefer and Kemple suggest: Fragmented subject areas taught in schools engender segmented, disconnected knowledge without an organic understanding of our connection to nature and to one another (Jucker, 2002, p.270). Therefore, the integration of a extensive body of knowledge into a

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practical design solution with sustainability in mind is a product that becomes an extension of nature. It exists in resonance to the environment. It forms a pattern combining human interventions and natural processes, which is beautiful to its core, and has both the face and place values imbibed in it. This notion of holistic design, comprising of sustainable elements, which defies the capitalist economy, uses the technology in favour of nature is the need of the contemporary intervention for saving the green. Manasc and Mahaffy express the holistic approach quite intricately as: A whole is defined by the pattern of relations between its parts, not by the sum of its part: And a civilization is not defined by the sum of its science, technology, art, and social organization, but by the total pattern which they form, and the degree of harmonious integration in that pattern (Manasc and Mahaffy, 2003, p.8) Nature, as we see around holds unaccountable realms of survivals incredibly in a pattern that speaks of sustainable existence. It is a design having an ever-lasting aura, and is an ever- inspiring testimony to sustainability. It is when design heralds authenticity of survival instincts that it can find a true meaning of sustainability as Juhani Pallasmaa has expressed: The practice of design is existential - who am I, what am I doing here? Design is an expression of the authentic values of life" (Wissner and Walker, n.d., p.4). Summary The answers for the questions raised by the unsustainable social behaviours lie in the paradigm shift of the same towards sustainability. Unless humans see themselves as an extension of nature and define their act in complementation to the natural process, there will be no dearth of sad stories of oppression; an oppression in which humans become a distinct identity,

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playing a villainous role whether knowingly or unknowingly. The efforts for a sustainable approach towards problem-solving and promoting the essence of such solutions are marked notions in promoting sustainable behaviours. The society needs a waking call to get aware of the present situation, which is flourishing at the stake of future. With all the advancements in hand, we have the capabilities, but all we need is to reach for nature beyond economic development and self- interest. This is to say that our capabilities have grown manifolds, but we need to focus ourselves out of unsustainable practices into sustainable ones. Brundtland suggest: Humanity has the ability to make development sustainable to ensure that it meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs. The concept of sustainable development does not imply limits- not absolute limits but limitations imposed by the present state of technology and social organization on environmental resources and by the ability of the biosphere to absorb the effects of human activities. But technology and social organization can be both managed and improved to make way for a new era of economic growth (Evernden, 1993, p. 14950) In every act of promoting sustainability and trying to educate the masses there is a hope of returning ourselves to our roots and returning to our innocence. Conscious of our actions, the innocence will ensure a sustainable world.

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References: Breit, H. and Eckensberger, L. H. (1998). Moral, Alltag and Umwelt. In Umweltbildung und Umweltbewutsein. 39-68 Brundtland, F., H. ( 1987). World Commission on Environment and Development. Our Common Future. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Capra, F. (2000, November/December). The Challenge of our Time. Resurgence, 203, 18-20. Evernden, N. (1993). Humankind and Environment. The Natural Alien (2nd ed.) Toronto: University of Toronto Press. Jucker, R. ( 2002). Education as if the Earth and People Mattered. Our Common Illiteracy. Frankfurt am Main: Peter Lang. Manasc, V. and Mahaffy, C. (2002). Engaging in Sustainable ArchitectureAgora Borealis. Edmonton, AB: Partners in Design Books. Shiva, V. (1992). Recovering the Real Meaning of Sustainability. In Cooper, D. E. and Palmer, J. A. The Environment in Question. Ethics and Global Issues, (p.187-93). London: Routledge. Hargrove, E., C. (1989). Foundations of Environmental Ethics. New Jersey: Prentice-Hall. Wissner, H. and Walker, S. (n.d.). Developing Guidelines and Product Examples. Authenticity, Sustainability and Design. Retrieved November 6, 2004, from http://new.idsa.org/webmodules/articles/articlefiles/ ed_ conference02/46.pdf