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Sustainability by Design

Yale University Press

Contents

List of Illustrations........................................................xiList of Tables...............................................................xiiForeword.....................................................................xiiiPreface......................................................................xviiAcknowledgments..............................................................xxi1. Is the Sky Falling, and, If So, Does Anyone Care?.........................12. Solving the Wrong Problem: How Good Habits Turn Bad.......................103. Uncovering the Roots of Unsustainability..................................224. Consumption: A Symptom of Addiction.......................................355. A Radical Notion of Sustainability........................................486. The Tao of Sustainability.................................................587. Change, Transformation, and Design........................................648. Culture Change: Locating the Levers of Transformation.....................789. A New Story for Nature....................................................9910. The Importance of Being .................................................10811. Consumption and Need.....................................................12312. To Care Is Human.........................................................13313. Creating Possibility with Products.......................................14614. Presencing by Design.....................................................15715. Creating Possibility Through Institutional Design........................17016. Implementing Adaptive Governance.........................................18217. The Special Role of Business.............................................19718. Epilogue.................................................................210Notes........................................................................217Bibliography.................................................................225Index........................................................................233

Chapter One

The year's at the spring And day's at the morn; Morning's at seven; The hillside's dew-pearled; The lark's on the wing; The snail's on the thorn; God's in his heaven- All's right with the world. -Shelley, Pippa Passes

Is Shelley's wonderful sentiment still valid in today's much-changed world? I think not. The world is different in a profoundly threatening way, and it would be difficult, if not impossible, to offer proof of his statement according to the rigorous standards of modern science. And proof-or at least considerable recognition of unease about the future-is important as a mover of change; human history suggests that social change comes slowly, and usually only after a crisis. I have chosen not to spend many pages pointing to the coming crisis simply because so many others have already done this.

Instead, I begin by stating my strong belief that it is important to take action now, long before the unsustainable state of the world does indeed induce such a crisis. We cannot continue to ignore history and the obvious signs of trouble. There is still time, I hope, although the stresses on both the human and the natural worlds may be reaching a point whereby the system cannot retain its current structure, and it may jump into a new regime even less sustainable than the present. To build my case I will largely stand on the shoulders of many who have looked at our modern, industrial, technological world through a critical lens and found it sorely lacking in qualities essential to the survival of all living species-not to mention to the continuing unfolding and development of the human species.

At the same time, I am convinced that each human being, deep down, lives every day striving to produce a flourishing, sustaining world, such as is found in Shelley's lines. It is this fundamental, perhaps even biologically based, sense that part of what it is to be human means re-creating our selves at every moment-on and on until we die. But because we can be blind in certain areas, this fundamental, positive engine for unfolding human potential has become buried so deeply that it comes to the surface only when our lives are imminently threatened. We strive ever harder to realize the world of our deepest longings, only to find it receding further from our grasp, perhaps unconsciously counting on a crisis to wake us up.

Our cultural history is a series of relatively calm periods punctuated with often-violent social change. We adjust to these altered conditions relatively quickly, as new generations replace those who were vanquished in the violent transitions from one order to another. Meanwhile, the natural world continues inexorably along its slow and steady evolutionary path, with little or no notice of the upheavals occurring in the human sphere.

The world is different today. We have developed weapons of such power that humans no longer can recover their numbers so simply after these periodic hiccups of history. In addition, the rapid spread of modern technological, consumerist economies-a weapon of cultural, if not biological, mass destruction-is wiping out what little remains of cultures that once lived in harmony with the world and with themselves. Nor is evolution left alone to follow its marvelous journey of bringing forth creatures that fit the world they are born into. In Enough environmental writer Bill McKibben raises the specter of losing the most central traits of our humanness, among which are choice and uniqueness, by inducing "designer" genetic modifications to create tailored individuals or to prolong life indefinitely. Relentless demands for energy and materials are upsetting and destroying the habitats and communities of human and nonhuman species, creating a pace of destruction that appears to rival that of the dinosaurs' demise. Evolution no longer can proceed without the indelible markings of human activity.

Let me return to Shelley's poem and ask again whether all is right with the world. What are the signs from which we can draw our answer? Since cutting open the belly of a lamb and seeking answers in the entrails is no longer fashionable, perhaps, then, our news media can serve the same purpose. If so, the outlook is not wonderful. The media are filled with stories of bad things happening everywhere: natural disasters of all sorts; breakdowns of historic proportions in the business community; a war carried on at the cost of destroying the most precious records of our modern civilization's ancient origins; and entertainment media selling violence as diversion and humor, recognizable as humor only through the fake laughter that accompanies it.

But even more telling are breakdowns that are appearing in the social fabric of life: record numbers of people are seeking treatment for depression and other signs of mental distress. Obesity is endemic in America, with recent evidence that oversize portions-a consequence of competition-are a major contributor. Peter Whybrow, Director of the Semel Institute of Neuroscience and Human Behavior at the University of California, Los Angeles, writes that our compulsive need for ever more stuff is producing individual and societal sickness. One consequence is the fading of relationships with other people, which he...