Material Matters
Some of our extended community had a hand in the CDCMo Circular Design for Climate Mobilization exhibit in New York this past month, and with it materials have been on our minds.
Materials are the starting point of everything we produce. Whether you’re an industrial designer creating consumer products, an architect designing our urban environment, or even a digital designer creating software reliant on backend infrastructure, everything we create uses materials and minerals from the earth that are in ever more short supply. We overuse the resources our earth can regenerate earlier each year, and our complex global supply chains are highly efficient yet brittle, prone to disruption in our rapidly changing world.
A rapidly changing materials ecosystem
There is much optimism to be had in the world of materials in this present moment. There are countless interesting bio-materials coming to market to replace our reliance on plastics. From mycelium bricks for building houses to plant-based leather and foam for footwear to seaweed based packaging, there is a ton of innovation happening in this space.
Decarbonizing the materials used in heavy industry is a challenge, with concrete and steel being the most commonly used and carbon-intensive materials we use globally. But like everything else, the potential solutions are complicated. AI is both helping solve the concrete problem and contributing to it with all the concrete needed to build data centers. Mass timber has become popular as an alternative to structural steel to reduce carbon impact, but when considering land use pressures of growing all those trees, it’s not so simple.
Then of course there are our critical minerals, without which we would have no electronics or energy infrastructure. The demand for these minerals has skyrocketed due to AI and the rest of our increasing global energy needs. But this too is a rapidly changing ecosystem, with new battery technologies and battery recycling infrastructure ramping up.
Questions to ask as creatives
What does this mean for the climate-concerned designer? You might ask yourself:
What materials are core to what my industry produces?
What materials are within the control of what I produce as a designer?
What materials cause the most harm to people and their environment? Are there more sustainable alternatives, considering carbon, health, and ethics in the supply chain? What are the tradeoffs for these alternatives?
What materials are the most vulnerable to disruption? Are there more local or resilient alternatives to diversify supply chains?
Asking these questions is easy, making changes is hard. As a designer, you might not have direct control over any of these decisions. And even if you do, many climate-forward materials aren’t as cost effective or easy to swap out 1:1. You may run into push-back or simply lack of interest. But internal influence goes a long way.
Where do we go from here?
As the common saying goes, “there’s no business on a dead planet”. In the long term, we know that shifting business as usual is essential to our collective survival on this planet. Yet even in the short term, there’s a strong business case to be made for why we need to develop material alternatives and circular systems in order to navigate risk and build the resilience needed to future-proof our industries.
As designers, we have a unique ability to affect change at the beginning of the production pipeline. Understanding the complexity behind the materials we use and asking for better inputs as designers can help drive the systemic changes needed to create a more sustainable future. With demand comes scale, and with it the tipping points for widespread adoption.
Looking to learn more? Check out our resources section and materials related inspirations from the team in this issue, and join us online for our next Successes and Struggles event on November 5th.
– Natalie Walsh
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