Sustainability and Ethics: A Designers Manifesto

Club Pulse, Goldsmiths University

Jamie Oxtoby

Year 2 BA Design

Location

Name

Programme

“The future is no longer what it was thought to be,

or what it might have been if humans had known

how to use their brains and opportunities more

effectively. But the future can still become what we

reasonably and realistically want.”

Aurelio Peccei, 1981

Sustainable Design, a concept that present day designers are all too familiar with, and unfortunately something that had to be created because of what has happened before us. We designed, we created, we consumed, then we designed, we created, and consumed again. But recently we are beginning to see the error of our ways, that something that was lost in our haste. A sense of limits, and an awareness of the importance of the earth’s resources. The last two thousand years brought an extraordinary increase in wealth, in food supply, in scientific knowledge, in consumer goods, in physical security, in life expectancy and economic opportunity. But is this all beginning to fall?

We are at a point in existence when we need to suddenly act differently, and take responsibility for what has come before. Through my research I have become tangled in a mass opinions and ideas on how it went wrong, whose fault it was and how we can change. But from this I believe I am beginning to generate an idea of what the future of design is, and how we can implement our knowledge into sustaining the planet. Not by rising up on a grand scale waging war on the overuse of fossil fuels and mass consumption, but by making more from less. Design must become an innovative, highly creative, cross-disciplinary tool for the use of all of man. A big part of it is about sharing information about pre-existing solutions that have been proven to work. Design practice these days is about adapting solutions found in one context for use in another.

For my location I chose a local gym. Firstly for my love of sports, but secondly because the concept of a gym draws many parallels with the natural environment. It is a place where we go to burn fuel from our bodies, in order to gain something in return – good health. We are ‘recycling’ what we have consumed to produce another use.

However it is also an environment that is completely unnecessary in that everything that is paid for in a gym membership, can be done everyday, any time, in almost any location free of charge. Each piece of equipment is a mechanical extension of the natural environment that we are graced with already on this planet, yet we are not satisfied with this and instead we use natural resources to create an artificial environment of it. Which in a sense is a hugely confusing paradox. I myself have been a victim to this concept but it underlines how as a species we are never content with what we have, we always want more. The natural environment was the first ever ‘product’ made available to us, but we got bored of it or did not see its potential so we made more products to enhance our lives and the vicious cycle of mass consumption began. However consumption is both an integral and natural facet of human behaviour. Human behaviours are at the motivational core of today’s production and consumption cycles, and as a designer, you avoid them at your peril. In this respect, ‘asking people to stop consuming is a pointless endeavour, when what we should be pursuing is redirecting behaviour, which steers consumers to more greener and

more sustainable alternatives’ (Gant, N. 2007). Just as the response to the AIDS pandemic, is not to try to stop the world from having sex, but rather to think about safer ways to go about it.

My location is the Club Pulse Gym located on the Goldsmiths University site, which is available to both students and the public. Upon entering the gym there is a reception desk where there is a sign-in book. To enter the gym you must then swipe your card to get through a turnstile to use the gym. The bottom floor has an array of strength training equipment based around the outskirts of the room, including weight benches and multi-gym appliances, as well as dumbbells on a rack next to a large mirror. There is a sofa next to the reception, which is where I sat but it was also used for people wanting to fill in forms and sign up.

Taking the stairs in the centre of the room to the next floor, it opens up into a larger cardio and exercise area. Straight in front of the stairs is a mirror that covers the entire wall, in front of this a matted area for floor workouts with exercise balls and medicine balls located next to it. Nearer to the stairs is three rowing machines facing the mirrors. Down the left hand wall are large windows that show the college green on the other side, in front of these windows are 6 treadmills facing out to the green, and the opposite wall is another 6 treadmills facing a wall but with a TV mounted on it. Around the oval balcony that looks down to the bottom floor are various bikes, which can be used like a standard bike or some that you can sit back

in and just use your legs, as well as similar machines just for your arms. There are two more rowing machines facing each other on the wall furthest from the windows, and another mounted TV in this corner of the wall.

I can hear Capital FM radio playing on speakers around the facility despite most of the users wearing headphones. The TVs have Sky Sports News playing from them with no sound on. The air is very close as to be expected in a sweaty gym.

For this particular manifesto I wanted to concentrate on the particular elements inside the gym that could be reconciled and therefore make the gym something that is sustainable and ethically worthy. But I also wish to touch on some things that are brought to the gym by its users and thereby become part of the gym.

First of all I am going to comment on the exercise bike, however the points I want to raise on it, can also refer to all the machinery that is used in the gym. An exercise bike is a device with saddle, pedals, and some form of handlebars arranged as on a bicycle, but used as exercise equipment rather than transportation. A common bicycle is used also for exercise as well, however originally its use was to get you from point A to point B. The fact that the bicycle has been developed to serve more than one purpose is an underlining positive to sustainability. In this case the design has dedicated itself to, ‘nature’s principle of least effort, in other words minimum inventory for maximum diversity or, doing the most with least.’ However in the case of the exercise bike, we have produced something that looks like a bike, with pedals that move like a bike, but it does not travel. I am sure that avid athletes can tell me that there are benefits of such a product such as using it in any weather. But we are seeing an object that was intended initially for transportation, and now it has been remanufactured into a totally new object by discarding the most important use. The bicycle is already a long lasting, multi-functional product, but we felt the need the produce something ‘better’ or with a different use, despite losing the most beneficial use from the old.

The rowing machine or treadmill also convey this misuse of our resources and further isolate us from the natural environments and terrain of the world, serving up an ethical dilemma. This is a perfect example of not making do with what already works, so to conserve materials and resources. Instead of producing a product that already exists in abundance such as the bicycle, why not situate one in a gym if needs be, making it stationary. The electronic stats and figures on the exercise bike is perhaps what is most valued from it, but are they unnecessary. There are smaller cheaper more efficient ways of keeping track of your rates and distances. Or failing that get out in the open air and ride a bike there!

“Designers and students have to familarise

themselves with many other fields, and by knowing

them, redefine the relevance, of the designer to our

society. The insights of the social sciences, biology,

anthropology, politics, engineering and technology

and much else must be brought to bear in the

design process.”

Victor Papanek, 1985

As discussed earlier, the gym and sustainability relate greatly between energy, and use of, as well as fuel. Particularly in the cardio area, vast amounts of electrical energy are used to run the machines, and vast amounts of human kinetic energy are used to exercise on them. Yet these two energies seem to be unrelated in the gym scenario, thus creating a dilemma. The energy we burn to use the machines could be used to run machines themselves or even the air conditioning or lighting of the gym (below left). By re-appropriating the energy we can make the exercise machines more sustainable and energy efficient. Now this could become really sophisticated and involve the swipe cards to calculate how much energy you produce (right), and rewards of membership discounts for high-energy producers. Whether this is cost effective or technically possible, I cannot say, but perhaps by what Victor Papanek believes is the future of the designer:

Something that instantly hit me when I went upstairs was the humidity of the gym; it reminded me a lot of being in a greenhouse. Now this got me thinking that this man-made atmosphere could perhaps help the growth of plants in the gym, serving a dual purpose to the environment. Tracking my mind back to GCSE biology, this growing process could recycle the carbon dioxide in the room and produce oxygen that the gym goers could then use to respire. Plants are also known to have de-stressing effects on the mind. The green colour that the plants possess relaxes the mind. Projects like MetaboliCity have shown the benefits of using recycled computer wiring as climbing frames from the plants. A small intervention but one that could have a great effect on the overall environment of the gym.

When observing the gym, I felt that there was always a great competitive edge to the users. Further how the layout of the gym lends itself to competition. Treadmills are lined up accordingly, rowing machines placed face to face so that you can see whose moving more frequently. And the weights are designed so that the bigger the weight looks the heavier the mass, so it is easy to see if someone is lifting more than you. This has led to awkward tensions around the gym, perhaps feeling emasculated if you are not as fit or strong as someone else. Envy is something that is common in a gym. It is a feeling that we might be something other than what we are – a feeling transmitted by the superior achievements of those we take to be our equals – that

generates anxiety and resentment. If we are small and live among people who are all of own height, we will not be unduly troubled by questions of size. But if others in our group grow so much as a little taller, we are liable to feel sudden unease and dissatisfaction and envy – even though ourselves we have not diminished in size. Particularly on the weights, this can lead to a ‘dual’ of strength. Dueling symbolizes a radical incapacity to believe that our status might be our business, something we decide and do not revise according to the shifting judgments of out audience. For the dueler, what other people think of him will be the only factor in settling what he may think of himself. So how can design enhance these etiquettes, or can we design new ones for the gym environment?

If you’re doing multiple sets on a machine, it’s common courtesy to let others work in during your rest periods. This may not always be practical, but could mean that there is less need for so many machines in a gym? By working out in shifts it enables communication between users and allows for teamwork or more friendly competition. The layout of the gym could lend itself to an efficient total workout and sharing the equipment around evenly, such as small circuits or a path to follow around the gym that works all of the body if required.

Gym clothing and textiles have a big impact on the environment. When working out, we get sweaty, which is not always accepted in a gym. So we get home and wash our clothes, but the fact is that the energy needed to wash clothes in their lifetime is six times that needed to make them. Just by washing clothes half as often, energy consumption is reduced by 50%. Alternatively, gym clothes could be rented out and handed in at the end to be washed for the next user. Now this is not a mainstream design solution but it engages with the issues of sustainability in a new way. The constantly changing relationship between design and culture means that novel products or ways of working are not likely to come from the mainstream. Instead we need to start looking to ad hoc projects.

Drink holders are common in gym apparatus, however there lacks any recycling facilities in this gym for such items. You would think that being in an environment that plastic bottles are a common place that a bin would be on site, alternatively something that could sanitize the bottles (left) to be used by others in the future would be a welcome feature. The benefits of recycling bottles are evident in Nike’s most recent international football shirts that are made from eight recycled bottles (above), and sold in re-used plastic bottles to the public. Perhaps we need more mainstream companies to set that type of example, to know their responsibility to particularly the youth of today.

Throughout the analysis of the gym location I hope that a few of my ideas on sustainability and ethics have come through. Designers have been blamed in the past for the not dealing with the global environment situation or even making it worse. Whatever your feelings on this, we must take responsibility for the future of the world through our design decisions. Someone has to redesign the structures, institutions and processes that drive the economy along. Someone has to transform the material, energy and resource flows that, unchecked, will finish us. Most elements of a sustainable already exist. Some of those elements are technological solutions. Some are to be found in the natural world, thanks to million years of evolution. The majority are social practices, some very old ones, learnt by other societies in other times. Which leads on to another of my points – the importance of multi-disciplinary teams. With this element we can really design in context for everyone and everything, we must appreciate and take in as many fields of study as possible, so that we know we are making the right move. A more durable kind of design thinking sees the product as a link between man and his environment. In reality, we must think of man, his means, his environment, and his ways of thinking about, planning for and manipulating himself and his surroundings. But sustainable design is also about making small-scale changes, for a bigger impact, as well as making more with less. That means consuming less, using things longer and recycling materials. There are many ways to sustainable design, and by no means is it all figured out. Essential debate continues to question and explore the most effective ways and means of working with it. It is an iterative and ongoing process.

“Man is like every other species in being able

to reproduce beyond the carrying capacity of

any finite habitat. Man is like no other species in

that he is capable of thinking about this fact and

discovering its consequences.”

William R. Catton, 1980

Bibliography: BooksGant, N., Designers, Visionaries and Other Stories: A Collection of Sustainable Design Essays, London, Earthscan, 2007

Hinte, Ed Van., Eternally Yours, Rotterdam, 010 Publishers, 2009

Papanek, V., Design for the Real World: Human Ecology and Social Change, London, Thames and Hudson, 1984

Toffler, A., The Adaptive Corporation, Pan Books Ltd, 1985

Meadows, D., Beyond the Limits, London, Earthscan, 1992

Max-Neef, M., Real-life Economics, Routledge, 1992

Catton, W.R., Overshoot: The Ecological Basis of Revolutionary Change, University of Illinois, 1980

De Botton, A., Status Anxiety, Penguin, 2005

Kotsko, A,. Awkwardness, Zero Books, Hants, 2010

Wann, D., Deep Design: Pathways to a Liveable Future, Island Press, Washington, 1996

WeblinksMetabolicity. [online] Available at http://www.metabolicity.com/ [Accessed 23 March 2010]

ImagesNike Recycled Bottle Shirt, 2010 [photograph] Available at: http://www.soccerbible.com/news/football-shirts/archive/2010/02/26/nike-world-cup-2010-football-shirts-write-history.aspx [Accessed 23 March 2010]