Money Isn't Everything

What does success mean to you? What does it take to be successful? If your initial thought consists of wealth and money, do not feel bad because you are not alone.  In today’s society money is the key to a successful life.  In the current market system a monetary value is placed on everything contributing to success, except for our ecosystem and natural life cycles.  What is wrong with this picture? All forms of wealth relate back to the foundation of our ecosphere, so shouldn’t it have a higher monetary value? This is a major reason why we as designers are unable to mimic nature’s designs in order to remain sustainable. 

In today’s economy, businesses are primarily focused on profit. They want to create as much profit as possible even if it requires them to cut costs by laying off employees or reducing quality by cutting out materials.  As stated in The Designer’s Atlas of Sustainability, “we need a balanced economy that allows us not only to capture a wide range of human values such as clean air or healthy families, which cannot be easily expressed in monetary terms, but also to trade the goods and services that can be more easily measured by the money (Thorpe 61).” If more value was placed on our ecosphere and how we preserve it, our economy could remain prosperous and sustainable at the same time. Sounds like a win win situation, but it’s a lot more complicated than it seems.   

  There are many different solutions to fix the lack of value on our ecosphere.  The government has tried to put a limit on the amount of air pollution you can produce, and the polluters who reduce their pollution are granted credits that they can sell to businesses that need to pollute more.  Sounds kind of crazy, but you have to start somewhere.  There has also been the idea of placing a monetary value on nature, but prices tend to be inadequate and unreasonable.  Our economy is a key component in achieving sustainability. We just have to find an effective way to contribute to our economic conditions while achieving full sustainability. 

In today’s economy coroporations hold a tremendous amount of power and freedom because of their wealth. So why can’t sustainable practices start here? Many big corporations are already beginning to participate in sustainability. In the article Wal-Mart Highlights Sustainability Efforts, John Kalkowski talks about the annoying wire ties on toy packaging, and how Wal-Mart has made an effort to eliminate these ties in a sustainable way.  Wal-Mart now uses ties that are made of natural fibers and much easier to remove.  In the article Kalkowski states, “By using a more sustainable material and reducing the number of ties used to keep toys in their packaging, the initiative eliminated 1.6 billion feet of wire from Wal-Mart products alone (Kalkowski 2012).”  Wal-Mart was also able to change their shoe boxes, so that they would use 43 percent less paper. By doing this Wal-Mart was able to save 28 percent in costs and saved 692 tons of paper.  This is about 2,500 trees.  This shows that minor changes from big corporations can make a big step in the efforts toward sustainability. 

Another way to pursue sustainability is through the nonprofit organizations.  In today’s economy a lot of people are more apt to make a change for a good cause, rather than for profit.  By using a nonprofit organization to promote sustainability, people will have the opportunity to learn more about sustainability and even get training for their own sustainable designs. As stated in the article Sustainability of nonprofit organizations, “Nonprofit organizations pursue missions to serve needs that the business sector does not serve, presumably because it cannot do so profitably (Weerawardena 2010).”  Since the business sector is only concerned with making money, nonprofit organizations are a good alternative.  What people do not realize is that nonprofit organizations can make money, as odd as it seems.  These profits are gained from fundraisers and grants, and then used to fund the organizations cause instead of distributing them back to the shareholders.  This is just another simple way our economy can pursue sustainability. 

In our culture people look to find satisfaction in emotional and practical needs.  As stated in The Designer’s Atlas of Sustainability, “human beings have a common set of needs that we must meet to achieve well-being (Thorpe 114).” Above all humans want a good well being that meets their needs.  When I say needs, I do not mean a new outfit for Thursday night; I’m talking about protection, affection, subsistence and freedom.  In today’s culture our needs are more external and materialistic instead of being within oneself to develop relationships and personal growth. Maybe we as designers can cause a shift in today’s culture to meet more internal needs rather than external.  In the book The Designer’s Atlas of Sustainability, it talks about four main themes that contribute to our cultures needs.  These themes consist of.. 

1.      Communication

·         Affection, understanding, and participation

2.      Artifacts

·         We are very materialistic and focused on individual wants instead of needs.

3.      Time

·         We are very impatient.

·         We want quicker and easier ways out, and for our individual needs to be met instantly.

4.      Nature

·         We have disconnected ourselves from nature and become obsessed with the city life.

·         We only consider nature when we are building bridges for transportation.

Here are some sustainable efforts related to our culture

http://www.smuckers.com/family_company/join_our_company/sustainability.aspx

http://www.walmartstores.com/sustainability/

http://www.cccllc.com/sustainability.php

http://www.purina.com/Sustainability/sustainability.aspx

The true key to beginning a sustainable economy starts with the design process.  We have to learn to design with the environment in mind.  We have to find the patience to break through the sustainable design barriers and not give up.  Most of all we have to realize the value of nature and the importance to sustain it for our future success.  Money is of no importance without our ecological foundation.