Avoiding the Risk of Ritualization

In some parts of the world, Sunday, the 21st of September, was "exhaustless"—namely 'World Car Free Day'. For instance, Brusselleers enjoyed a day of bicycle-riding as an area of 160 km2 in the Belgian capital was closed to motor transport from 9AM to 7PM. In Hungary, people could ride on trains for free just by showing their automobile licenses.

As the current debate around sustainability gets hotter, we witness more and more initiatives being taken to raise awareness. Besides the 'Car Free Day' mentioned above, we have a 'Buy Nothing' day, an 'Earth Hour', and who knows what else? (You're welcome to add what you know under Comments)

However, it is always a valid question whether all these 'holy' days of sustainability do any concrete good. Do they really help change our traits? Or are they just about doing the 'in' thing nowadays, when none of us wants to be left behind in the trendy game of being green? These were some issues touched upon also by a research project named "Energy Futures", carried out by a trio of interns at Interactive Institute.

The outcomes of this research were several scenarios with which the interns foresaw a future where sustainability and being green had totally translated itself into a religion. One could see the obvious link between those scenarios and today's designated-days of being green.

To provide an example, one of those scenarios included a day of covering your electronic devices with tape; in another one people would send a red smoke out to the sky as an almost-tribal ritual. They might look too-fictitious to you, but looking at the facts above, this kind of a future could be much closer than we think. It is up to us who claim to be working towards a positive future, to avoid the risk of ritualization—by aiming for deeper change in traits, instead of trying to affect moods/even behaviours for the short term.

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Keep Britain Tidy

I truly adore reading leftover material, and my latest experience was even more pleasurable for being about green issues. Taking a look at an abandoned April 12th issue of The Times, I learned about Bill Bryson’s launch of a three year campaign against street littering. Take a look at this article to see how serious his commitment to “Keep Britain Tidy” is.

“London is now the dirtiest city in Europe as well as the costliest.” Now, that is some paradox.

Turning over the pages, I noticed that at least three of them were dedicated to green issues. One was about the paper giving away free Vivienne Westwood green bags, but the coupon was already torn, and I realized that I had missed out. After all, this is exactly what I love about reading leftovers, seeing how other people have interacted with such material gives you a peak through this little window into their lives.

This issue also had some impressive pictures from around the UK, showing chunks of litter left outdoors, and these were enough to make the point. I could not go without publishing a photo of my neighbour’s front yard here along with this post. So if you’re also concerned about this particular issue, join in on the squeal.

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An extra digit to years, a spark of hope for us

A recent article in The New York Times compares today’s environmental challenge with times of war and scarcity. Having addressed the issue with an identical comparison in a previous post, it’s amazing to see how two points made in conclusion to the same analogy can be so different. For those people who don’t have time to read the whole Times article, below is an excerpt to sum up the point it’s trying to make:

“Survivalism, it seems, is not just for survivalists anymore.
Faced with a confluence of diverse threats — a tanking economy, a housing crisis, looming environmental disasters, and a sharp spike in oil prices — people who do not consider themselves extremists are starting to discuss doomsday measures once associated with the social fringes.

They stockpile or grow food in case of a supply breakdown, or buy precious metals in case of economic collapse. Some try to take their houses off the electricity grid, or plan safe houses far away. The point is not to drop out of society, but to be prepared in case the future turns out like something out of “An Inconvenient Truth,” if not “Mad Max.”
…
“If all these planets line up and things do get really bad,” Mr. Marcom said, “those who have not prepared will be trapped in the city with thousands of other people needing food and propane and everything else.”
…
Esteemed economists debate whether the credit crisis could result in a complete meltdown of the financial system. A former vice president of the United States informs us that global warming could result in mass flooding, disease and starvation, perhaps even a new Ice Age.”

In response to this pessimistic survivalist perspective, I would like to point to a symbolic and simple, but nevertheless very inspirational idea. It comes from The Long Now Foundation, about which I’ve first learned in John Grant’s book The Green Marketing Manifesto. Let’s take a look at this excerpt from the book to get a grasp of this nice little idea:

“One of their many great ideas was to give a fifth digit to the years: 02008. For a generation overshadowed by the millenium, this gives us room to breathe again. It shows us a much longer horizon, because the next significant landmark in this dating scheme is not the decade (or whatever we will call 2010-2019) or even century, it is the year 10000. A pessimistic view would be that we’d be lucky to make it to that date without a crisis or change of such biblical proportions that we start the calendar over again. If the sort of civilization that dates itself makes it, at all. But for now (a long now), just adding that zero makes you see the world differently”

I hope this sparks a little optimism and encourages us to continue giving our best efforts while addressing the issue.

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Get your copy of Plan A, because there's no Plan B

I think most of my colleagues would agree that encounters with marketers may not always turn out to be the most pleasurable. You might get the feeling that you are being taken for granted. A stereotype is that you are the designer with no clue whatsoever about how to earn money, and if you are a designer with a soft spot for green issues, green designer, that makes you twice naive. Well, there’s now a ‘dictionary’ for you to avoid getting lost in translation: The Green Marketing Manifesto

John Grant’s latest book was what I found in my hand as I first set foot in Pli. Having done a great deal of reading about green design, this was my first green read on a field other than my own. To be sincere, seeing the words green and marketing together was about to get me started with my prejudices, of which there was no sign once I started turning the first pages.

However, the strength of this book does not just come from its ability to make peace between the two concepts that have previously been seen as polar opposites, or the fact that it is really up-to-date with the latest examples from the Web 2.0. It is derived from the inspirational way that it has a balanced tone, avoiding both dreamy optimism and dark pessimism. It does not leave it at only a clear diagnosis, but comes up with an endless number of solutions. It is full of marketing and business ideas and, attention colleagues, you can even find tips for possible new design ideas, which is something you might not always expect from an author who’s not a designer.

Grant is in my native Istanbul as I’m typing these words, where he will present his ideas before the most cruel marketers of the city. Good luck John, I hope you can initiate a sparkle of change!

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