Micklethwaite, P., 2019.

Design against consumerism

Sustainability represents the greatest challenge for contemporary design. Designers and manufacturers can no longer satisfy themselves by simply giving people what they want. Consumer-driven design is implicated in the crisis of unsustainability that we now face. Designing for sustainable consumption requires us to view products as a means for more sustainable patterns of living, rather than as ends in themselves. Models such as the Cradle to Cradle design protocol offer promising routes to a more sustainable materials economy. Eco-modernist approaches which seek to modify our present model of production can yield relatively minor eco-efficiencies, however. There can be no sustainable consumption in a consumer society. Design for sustainability is therefore design against consumerism, and requires us to become active citizens rather than passive consumers. The implications of sustainability for design history are equally significant. The relationship between design history and sustainability is considered in this chapter in several ways.