How is regenerative design different to sustainable design? Have you been introduced to these ideas before in your studies?
Impact Lab 3. Week 11 Reflection.
I’ll explore the differences between these models of design through the example of carbon emissions.
Sustainable design is designing with the idea of maintaining our current lifestyles and the current level of impact on the environment, perhaps extending to net zero emissions / carbon neutrality. It’s designing with the idea of extracting at a level at which raw materials can be replenished and designing within the planetary boundaries (Raworth, 2017).
Sustainable design can be viewed as creating equilibrium, a balancing point at which both the environment and human life can exist. Sustainable design usually considers both social and environmental aspects, with the addition of financial aspects in the Triple Bottom Line model, which is usually applied in the context of sustainable businesses or corporate social responsibility.
Fry (2010) extends this with the idea of sustainment, designing in such a way that we can continue to exist in a greatly depleted world by moving away from our current design practices which are leading us towards defuturing. I was introduced to Fry’s work in my first semester in Design Consequences. This idea takes a degrowth model, in which we drastically reduce our consumption, which could potentially take us into the realm of being carbon-negative (sequestering CO2 or halting consumption).
My hand sketched notes to illustrate the difference between sustainable, degrowth and regenerative scenarios.
Regenerative design moves beyond the degrowth model. Instead of looking at how we can reach a balancing point (net-zero emissions) or degrowth (carbon-negative) it looks at how we can regenerate or restore systems and perhaps even enhance them, for example could we sequester carbon but also produce by products of clean air and water at the same time? The biomimicry design work of Janine Benyus fits into this category.
Much of what I have learned in this area has come through my own studies, through books (below), documentaries and podcasts.
Sustainability (and sustainable fashion) bookclub?
