Thursday 19 February 2009

My 8 Sustainability Issues

Following Josh's attendance at the recent Sustainability forum, and his last post on the forum, Unbox had an extremely interesting meeting with Professor Seaton Baxtor, Hamid Von Koten and graphic design pupil Struan. Here we discussed what the next step would be to implementing some of the ideas, and tackling some of the problems that had been raised during the forum. To get a better understanding of the all of the issues felt to be important to those involved, Professor Baxtor suggested sending him a list of no more than 10 key issues which you felt needed to be addressed. The issues I feel need mentioning are below.

1. The language of sustainability needs to change to be more inclusive for all people, regardless of their depth of understanding of the subject. The language should be appropriate for the context.

2. we must learn FROM, not just ABOUT nature. (Bio Mimicry)

3. The education system should change so that sustainability is as integral as learning to read, write and add at primary school.

4. To live sustainably needs to be as easy as the non-sustainable way we are currently living (if not easier!)

5. The topic should be addressed on micro (bio mimicry) and macro (large global systems and cultures eg. production techniques) level systems.

6. A bottom up approach needs to be met with a top down approach. Leaders need to be working in conjunction and towards the same goals as the common people.

7. A larger emphasis should be put on Service Design to promote a "use not consume" culture. Where is the ISD (Innovative Service Design) course? Or else, could it be better incorporated into all disciplines?

8. Sustainability should be included in all projects, not just in the design school, to show its practical use and real world implications, rather than having "sustainable projects" just done by "arty people" as some people see it.

These of course are just my personal views. If you have an opinion on them, please comment, or if you have aset of your own, email: s.z.baxtor@dundee.ac.uk

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3 comments:

  1. hey.

    great blog guys! You have loads of people contributing to it. that's great! think you might evenhave more than me! :0

    yeah i was at the meeting too. You might have seen me crouching in the corner. I came late from class and had to sit on the floor.

    It was a very enlightening meeting.

    hamid spoke to me in one of my lectures saying that hopefully we will have a workshop soon, which should help us start generating some ideas! This means that we can show to people that action is actually being done and that we have been discussing these issues and realise the our reasponsibilities as the students!

    Great

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  2. Point 7 is being addressed - not quite as extensively as you've asked, but watch this space...

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  3. HOW SUSTASTAINABLE IS OUR CAMPUS? WED, 25TH FEB, 7PM

    Find out at a talk by Trudy Cunningham, Environment and Sustainability Officer at the University, hosted by People & Planet and Friends of the Earth Tayside. The talk will be followed by a discussion so everyone can share their thoughts about where our university should be heading in the future. Wednesday, 25th of February, 7pm, Lecture Theatre 1, Dalhousie

    Spread the word!

    ReplyDelete