Been reading this interview with Nathan Shedroff at core 77 on his new book Design is the Problem. Very interesting thoughts at the end of the interview:

“Shedroff: At the risk of starting an entirely new conversation, I’ll say that Meaning is the most significant and powerful element of whatever people create for others. Just like how our faces show emotion universally, core meanings are universal throughout all of humanity. This means that every person, in every culture, knows what these core meanings are and why they are significant. Of course, we all prioritize and express meanings differently, which is how they form our values and how they tie into our emotions. Meanings, values, and emotions sit at a deeper level in our lives than price and performance. So, they’re more powerful (which is why they can be so motivating and effective when triggered correctly) but they’re much more difficult to detect, understand, and design for. However, as humans, we do this everyday, just more intuitively or accidentally than deliberately.

For most people, the word “sustainability” doesn’t connect with much in their lives””it doesn’t trigger many emotions, values, or meanings. Of course, there are minorities for whom it does””strongly, both positively and negatively. This being the case, we must understand our customers at these deeper levels (and smart ethnographic and other qualitative methods are the approach to doing this successfully), in order to connect with their values and meanings through more sustainable solutions. For some, the best connections are health and safety (rather than tout how sustainable something is, talking about how it’s better for people or promotes a safer home or nation, is often more successful). This is particularly true for parents of babies and young children, who often spend a lot of time and money on products, services, and food that they wouldn’t use otherwise because of they’re perceived health benefits. For example, parents routinely, now, purchase organic baby food when they don’t regularly eat organic foods themselves. For others, the triggers might be around efficiency and money-saving. For still others, it might be around the enjoyment of certain activities, like hunting and fishing (which aren’t, typically, connected to environmentalism yet are already endangered activities by overfishing and overhunting as well as overtaxing ecosystems).

Connecting to people’s values and meanings is going to be critical in order to change behaviors and choices and reach more sustainable goals. There’s nothing inherently off-putting about sustainability at all. I challenge you to find someone who is in favor of purposely ruining the future. The problem is in helping people become aware of their impacts and connecting their perfectly adequate values to the effects their activities have. Most of the issues and imperatives around sustainability are simply invisible to people and if we can make them visible, in their languages, we can get more people on board. It’s more than merely design but design thinking and processes can contribute tremendously to making this happen quickly.”