Reflections on recent appearances
Over the past couple of months I've been fortunate enough to be invited to contribute to the conversation around Australia's transition to a circular economy at several different events: the Product Stewardship National Forum (hosted by UTS and the Product Stewardship Centre of Excellence); the Global Sourcing Forum; and Enviro 2024.
Here are some of my key takeaways from these events and the conversations that preceded or followed my on-stage sessions...
1. The role of Design in transitioning from a linear to a circular economy is accepted, but not necessarily clear or well understood.
At the Product Stewardship event I had a brief chat with the Environment Minister, whose first words to me were: Design is critical in achieving what we're trying to do. I've also heard repeatedly the statistic that 70-80% of waste is locked in during the design phase of a project. And yet those same people will often follow up with a solution that involves more engineering and less design; or at least, less Designers.
There are a raft of ways in which Design and designers can contribute to the transition towards a Circular Economy. These include:
* envisioning a circular future;
* designing the transition from where we are today, towards that envisioned future
* reconciling competing visions of the future and creating a shared vision
* mapping and describing industry and social systems so that we're better able to design interventions - either technological or behavioural - to aid in the transition
* designing individual products & services to adhere to eco design principles - to the extent possible today.
2. There is a general dissatisfaction with the reliance on market dynamics to drive the transition towards circularity
At each of the three events numerous speakers and attendees spoke about the need for government intervention to drive change. Most of the main levers of government were canvassed: regulation, incentives and disincentives, procurement and direct investment. (Oddly, no-one was advocating for state-owned enterprises; although perhaps not so oddly. We've become used to the privatisation of public services.) Regulation was by far the most popular, to create a level playing field and avoid free-loaders in key industries. Similarly, there was a desire to see domestic guidelines imposed at the border, so that we stop importing sub-par goods from overseas.
3. Community behaviour has to shift
A common theme was around how we educate consumers as to the long-term harm caused by cheap goods, but they need better options. At a minimum, we need to stop encouraging the behaviours we want to see end - for example, ending R&D tax credits for products that create waste and pollution.
Founder/Owner at ZOE + LUCA
7moIm a big fan of Rothys. Get more design and product talent asap