Activating the consumer for a behaviour change towards sustainability.

For the general information, as this blog is also dedicated to my thesis research, I post here today the general idea. Otherwise there will be information, updates, links and workshop materials on everything else interesting related to the topic I come across, or do myslef while working on the thesis.

INTRODUCTION

Overconsumption and its numerous negative effects caused by exploiting natural resources in a completely unsustainable way is one of the major threats facing the future of our planet. Indeed, our current society is overwhelmed by the constantly increasing production of new goods, which are supposed to fulfill our life, although they are rather decrease the quality of life by creating an addiction.(1) In order to pave the way towards a self-sustained society without exploiting the resources of the future generations our system based on capitalism needs to shift away from its consumption dependency.

Especially, the practices of fashion and textile design must change. A change must happen, because research studies within the fashion industry concluded that “fashion cycles and trends contribute to very high levels of individual material consumption that are supported by the apparent instability of consumers wants”.(2) A transformation must occur to move away from the fast and inexpensive fashion, which is causing tonnes of waste for the landfill. Due to the poor product quality, ”it is no longer even profitable to process the textile waste... ”.(3)

Moreover, the sustainable treatment of our planet is endangered by the problematic process of industrial cotton production. During cotton cultivation, the intense use of hazardous pesticides accounts for poisoning the soil, the workers as well as causing desertification due to very high water consumption. For example, one kilo of cotton uses up to 29 000 liters of water, depending on the location.(4)

Organic cotton as well as the massive reduction of textile consumption would offer possibilities for an increase in sustainable practices. In other words, the current economic system, which is based on “effective industrial mass-production, low end-prices and short lifetime of the products”, (5) needs to slow down. In fact; designers, consumers as well as industries need to shift their current ways of thinking and change their behaviour towards a more ethical way of consuming and enjoying goods. Jackson states that consumer behavior can be the key factor to “the impact that society has on the environment”.(6)

For this reason, especially designers have an opportunity to have an impact by creating better goods and services. Hence, they must first understand the wants and needs of their consumers, in order to generate products for an enduring satisfaction. One real material human need is protection, which can partly be satisfied by clothing. But the present fashion industry in close cooperation with the media presents clothes as a tool that can satisfy our non-material needs like the personal expression of freedom and belonging, as well as to impose greater happiness.

As a result, designers must operate within the consumer needs. The consumer needs to be activated and encouraged in their daily routine for purchasing responsible, and consider consciously the wider effects. Providing the consumer with valuable education and information on sustainability will play a key role in offering the consumer a way out of the addiction. The importance of education for sustainable consumption was manifested in the following citation by a paper for the United Nations Environment Program: “Education can reconcile consumption with freedom and responsibility”.(7) In other words, by providing the consumer with transparent and beneficial information on products, the responsibility and freedom of choice lies in their hands. This concludes, that consumers tend to improve their consumption judgment when better informed. For this reason, information should be perceived as a major factor of decision making, and can therefore result in a change of consumption habits.

However, in order to change consumption patterns, we need to understand the behavior of consumers´. We have to understand how and why consumption decisions are made, and what can possibly influence this behavior. Is there a chance to change the relation between real human needs and their satisfiers, which are dependent on how we are taught to consume? The way we express and fulfill our needs must be redesigned through a change in the society and the distinct habits of the individuals. As pointed out in “Human Scale Development” by Manfred Max-Neef, “The reason that a satisfier may have divers effects in various contexts is due to the breadth of the goods generated, how they are generated and, how consumption is organized”.(8)

Likewise, a key solution is offered by creating a closer attachment between the consumer and the product. This relationship offers space for the designer to interact within the cycle of consumer, producer and product by applying various design methods. The consumer has to be included and activated through design strategies like open source design, universal design, slow design, participatory design as well as design activism. These design strategies aim to put the consumer in a closer position and relation to the purchased product, which then in the longer run will maintain a longer lifespan.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

1) Manfred Max-Neef, Human Scale Development – Conception, Application and further reflections,

(New York: The Apex Press 1991) pp.23-24

2) Kate Fletcher, Sustainable Fashion and Textiles (London:Earthscan, 2008), 9

3) Kirsi Niinimäki, “Product attachments and longevity in sustainable design strategies”,

in Lens - Learning Network on Sustainability, (Helsinki: Aalto University, 2010), 1

4) Fletcher, Sustainable Fashion and Textiles, 117

5) Niinimäki, Product attachments and longevity, 1

6) Tim Jackson, Motivating Sustainable Consumption - a review of evidence on consumer behaviour and behavioural change, a report to the Sustainable Development Research Network (University of Surrey, 2005), 5

7) Victoria Thoresen, HERE and NOW! Education for Sustainable Consumption,

(United Nations Environment Program (UNEP), 2010), 4

8) Max-Neef, Human Scale Development, 26