[IxDA Discuss] sustainable design

[Nathan]

Patrick,

Thanks for sharing Sterling's vision. It feels remarkably close (and  
compatible) to what I've been working on in the past year. The  
interface for this information, though complex if it's to be usable,  
need not be complicated. This is the solution I've been working  
toward: http://www.revealinfo.com

Of course, the system that drives it is what's most important,  
including benefits for manufacturers, retailers, NGOs, and government  
agencies as well as consumers. The most difficult thing is not the  
technology (it's remarkably straight forward, almost easy). Instead,  
it's convincing manufacturers to cooperate and share their products'  
and services' life cycle data (energy and materials use over their  
offerings' life) that will be the biggest challenge.

As for your comments about people's interest:

 >all that is needed. At the risk of oversimplification, this position
 >seems to assume that we are all conscientious consumers, we just need
 >more information about products in order to avoid the "bad" ones.
 >Certainly there are people who do fall into this category. But, as  
Fred
 >and Nathan mentioned in their posts, we must not only convince
 >ourselves to be more conscientious, we must convince others as well.
 >IMO, sustainability is an inherently political project, so the  
issue of
 >influencing behavior is paramount, regardless of how much technical
 >mastery we obtain over the physical world.

You're absolutely right. I have found, however, in my modest market  
research, that most people (over 90%) DO care about social or  
environmental issues when they buy products and services but that  
their particular mix/goals/agenda is pretty personal (it would be  
necessary to allow them to customize scores (buy to THEIR agenda),  
rather than accept a baseline score. Also, they have little  
confidence in making these judgments without reliable, transparent  
information available at the point of purchase. A very high-level  
pass of what I've found includes:

	64% would pay 5% more
	23% would pay 45% more
	In some cases, 44% of consumers would pay 75% more if they trusted  
that the ratings met their agenda!

This is encouraging and gives us something to grow the market with.

Nathan
________________________________________________________

Nathan Shedroff                  WEB   www.nathan.com
Experience Strategist

22 Cleveland Street                  NET    nathan at nathan.com
San Francisco, CA 94103