Greening Universities

Why do I feel the need to learn about environmental sustainability as a design student? I believe universities should integrate the learning of environmental sustainability into all faculties. I agree with the week 9 lecture, when Professor David Higgitt brought up the point that there are many evidences that a sustainability agenda is having a major impact on the labour market. In particular, the design field has shown a focus towards creating environmentally sustainable products. Sustainability is trickling into design thinking.

IDEO a leading design firm, in which most design student sought after is already integrating sustainability into their design process and thinking. Steve Bishop, the global lead of sustainability at IDEO, in a recent interview with the Atlantic, said that sustainability can be a tool for designers to innovate, is how we can define good design moving into the future, and is a new market demand. At IDEO they have a program called project vacation, where they set aside a day to take a vacation away from a client’s design brief to address sustainability in the project. However, he also mentioned that project teams are feeling ill-equipped to address sustainability topics confidently. Therefore, I feel like to gain a competitive edge as a design student, we must harness sustainability literacy in this new generation.

I feel that the idea of sustainability is also being emphasized in the current design modules at NUS and at my home university. Though, sustainability is only included in our design brief as a criteria for our projects. However, we lack the knowledge and information to understand what sustainability encompasses and jump to the conclusion of designing for environmental sustainability. However, this module has taught me that sustainability also includes tackling issues of society, governance, human behaviour, in addition to environmental impacts.

References
http://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2011/12/ideos-steve-bishop-on-the-future-of-sustainable-design-thinking/249225