The infancy of social indicators...

Still very limited, but the social dimension of sustainability is gradually being included in product ratings, such as these by GoodGuide:

http://www.goodguide.com/about/ratings

Our Social score characterizes the social impact associated with the manufacture and sale of a product. GoodGuide uses a common assessment framework, pictured here, to organize the various indicators that are available to score products or companies on social performance.  There are four broad classes of indicators: Corporate Governanceindicators evaluate corporate ethics and reporting on environmental and social issues. Consumer indicators include company-level product quality and safety criteria, as well as information about customer satisfaction policies and programs.  Society indicators encompass company philanthropic programs, community engagement activities, community-related controversies, and involvement in countries with oppressive regimes. Worker indicators track company performance on diversity, working conditions and labor rights.  

Because the availability of product-level social data is limited and varies by product category, GoodGuide's Social scores are primarily based on company-level data.  The relative contribution of product- vs company-level data to Social scores varies by product category:

• Social scores are based solely on company-level data for personal care, household chemicals, food, drinks, toys and paper.  
• Product-level data contributes 50% of Social scores for bulk coffees and teas. 

Interesting concepts or superflous excuses to sell more?

http://www.curbmedia.com/what-we-do-design-grass.asp

Social Innovation Lessons

Having worked for a while in partnership with several handcraft communities in Guerrero, Oaxaca and Michoacan in Mexico, I think that this type of advice is accurate and very useful for designers wanting to work in innovative projects of social character: http://designmind.frogdesign.com/blog/social-innovation-step-by-step.html

Collection of Design Strategies

Four years ago I made a note somewhere about this site: espdesign.org. I found the note today and paid a visit. I found a large and interesting collection of design strategies. Perhaps adding a blog post here will be more useful to more people? Worth trying:

http://www.espdesign.org/sustainable-design-guide/design-strategies/

Some are rather obvious, while others are interesting and need further reckoning. I'd go for:

#28: Design feedback mechanisms (information)
#30: Simplification
#41: Design Products to be Loveable
#44: Change Consumer Behaviour (and producer, supplier, the entire chain)

It'd be interesting to extend this work going from the level of strategies to the more useful level of actions.

NPD failure (?)

I've read this before, and now that I find a reference I thought I'd make a note:

"30,000 new products hitting the shelves each year but only 10-30% of them lasting into the second (Gavetti and Rivkin, 2005). The vast majority of new products, in other words, fail." -- Jonathan Hey.

Two things are interesting here: first, the vast number of products developed every year! The first question that comes to my mind is "really? do we need all that crap? And the second issue is: yes, one would imagine (intuitively) that a 90-70% rate of short-lived products is a failure... but is it? In view of the first point raised here, it would seem that perhaps the failure is not in having such a high rate of short-lived products, perhaps the actual failure is in wanting to design so much crap.

What I'm trying to say here is: why do we immediately jump to the conclusion that we need to design 'better products' that have a higher rate of commercial success (lifespan)? Isn't this rather telling us that we should design less?

Indirect consequences of intervening a system

This is a NYT article reporting on how H. Mubarak's decision of killing all the pigs of Egypt back in May, has caused a huge problem with the organic garbage in Cairo.

Not strictly an innovation issue, but this case highlights two fundamental aspects that are useful to understand innovation:

1. Don't mess with complex systems unless you are aware of all the interactions. Here the garbage was used by the zabaleen community to feed their pigs, which were in turn a food source for them. With the pigs slaughtered, the Muslim majority probably thought they scored over the Christian minority, but in doing so they ended the equilibrium in the system.
2. Decisions have indirect and unintended consequences. Although one can tell from this case that the zabaleen community did warn the government, so this wouldn't count as "unintended", but certainly using the swine flu as an excuse to kill all the pigs, caused the indirect result of the garbage problem. My guess is that it also upset the zabaleen's economy, and perhaps the political cost of the entire episode will be huge.
   

Designing entire systems

Examples of designs that adopt a systemic viewpoint:

• http://www.studiogorm.com/flow_kitchen.html

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Short summary of bicycle innovations

Probably not radical ideas, but a nice article summarising the constellation of ideas that are required / necessary to develop a bike culture, courtesy of WorldChanging: http://www.worldchanging.com/archives/010406.html

The real value is not on the (new) ideas, but how they are implemented. And this articles does a nice job in pointing out the challenges...


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Two recent examples of positive impact design-innovation

1. HIB-System: this German lego-style system to build actual 1:1 houses seem just like the kind of simple ideas that turn to be very hard to implement but may have the potential to bring positive consequences to the masses. Simple technology, easy assembly and low cost. House design and construction does need innovative and sustainable solutions. Entire presentation here.

2. Joint venture Mercy Corps and Saatchi and Saatchi: develop this mobile food stalls in Jakarta to bring healthy food to kids that are malnourished and used to eating junk food. Quite an interesting case where a little design may trigger a cultural change. Apparently the project is still under development.

We'll keep posting interesting sample cases of innovative design projects that aim to bring positive impacts to large groups of people.

Apple: "the conveyor belt of rubbish"

Often times, we have some ideas and opinions, but aren't capable (or just have no time) of articulating them in a brief format. Neal Lawson does just that when he writes about Apple's product line (iPod, iPhone, Mac):

I’m often intrigued by the difference between classic and timeless design, which must be a good thing, and the conveyor belt of techno rubbish.

Priceless.

Real Innovations, Real Impacts

Forget about the iPhone, Kindle and other gadgets. They may be interesting, but DO NOT SOLVE anything!

Powermondo does:
"Over 3,000,000,000 people do not have access to affordable, safe, and healthy products to meet their daily needs for survival." http://www.powermundo.com/products-and-services.html


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Compromises

Often times innovation-seekers aim to implement radical ideas that make a lot of sense in ideal conditions, but unfortunately are rejected due to the inertia and influence of the dominant paradigms. So then, we end up having rather mediocre ideas, more likely to be accepted. Here is an example: Boxed water (instead of the ubiquituous PET bottle).

Granted, it may sound rather silly at first, I mean the main symptom may be PET waste, but the issue at heart is how we consume water in the first place in relation to our culture of disposable consumption.

In the end, small packages need to be distributed whether they are made of carton or PET and the main environmental impact may be transportation.

Change is necessary, but often needs to be gradually implemented. The point to discuss here is: are these type of decisions an advance towards change? Or rather, are these 'sustainable' solutions a way to perpetuate sick behaviours?

Sustainable transportation

Interesting initiatives towards developing new sustainable vehicles:

1. Compressed air cars website
2. Zero Pollution (US)

Reusing + recycling ideas

Sustainability can be addressed at the user's end, and sometimes this is done creatively. Here are some interesting examples:

1. Casa de Botellas from Argentina. (
details)

2.