4.1 Towards Social Equity And Cohesion Vezzoli 07 08 (28.10.08)

carlo vezzoli politecnico di milano . INDACO dpt. . DIS . faculty of design . Italy Learning Network on Sustainability course System Design for Sustainability subject 4. D esign for social equity and cohesion learning resource 4.1 Towards social equity and cohesion

CONTENTS Design, consumption and ethic Design for social equity: general frame A concern of all economies Connection between environmental and socio-ethical sustainability Emerging model and tools Connection between environmental and socio-ethical sustainability Social equity and cohesion and promising emerging economic models Distributed economies and Solidarity cooperative networks Local-based and network-structured enterprises/initiatives System innovation opportunities in emerging contexts

low impact mat./energies product LCD design for social equity eco-efficient system design DESIGN FOR SUSTAINABILITY: STATE OF ART (education and practice) 0 % dissemination 100% 0% consolidation 100% (research achievements) widening of the “subject” to be designed new research frontier … … aim at

… avoiding the risk to be merely moralistic, is there an effective (operative) role? SOCIAL EQUITY … . is there a role for the design world?

… at the end of ’60 Radical Design : Gaetano Pesce; Dalisi; 9999: contestation/denouncements critics of consumer society … at the beginning of the ’70 Maldonado: new “design hope” for a social responsibility (1972) Papanek: “design can and must become a means for young people to take part in the transformation of society” (design for a real world, 1973) DESIGN, CONSUMPTION AND ETHIC …

[UN, Rio, 1992 + Johannesburg, 2002] EQUITY PRINCIPLE “every person, in a fair distribution of resources, has a right to the same environmental space, i.e. to the same availability of global natural resources” (or better, to the same level of “satisfaction” that can be achieved from these in different ways) SUSTAINABILITY: THE SOCIO-ETHICAL DIMENSION

if and how various forms of social inequality could be directly addressed in the design process [and not indirectly as a potential result of a radical resources reduction, in industrialized contexts, i.e. eco-efficient system design] DESIGN FOR SOCIAL EQUITY: GENERAL FRAME

ERADICATING POVERTY . 80% of world population uses 20% of consumed natural resources . 1,1 billion people live on less than 1 US dollar a day . 2,7 billion people (half the world) live on less than 2 US dollar a day . 1 billion children (1 in 2 children in the world) live in poverty . 11 million children die every year before fifth birthday . 18 million people a year (1/3 of deaths) are due to poverty . 400 million have no access to safe water . 800 million people go to bed hungry every day [the world bank, 2001-2005; UNFPA, 2001-2005] THE SOCIO-ETHICAL DIMENSION: ACTIONS

Jaques Diouf, general director FAO conference Food and Agriculture Organization (UN) Rome, 10.2006 “ Instead of decreasing, the number of starving people is increasing by 4 millions per year” Rome, 1996: 185 countries took the commitment to cut in half the number starving people World, 1996: 800 millions starving people World, 2006: 854 millions starving people

[. reduction of poverty] . promotion of principles and rules of democracy . promotion of human rights and freedom . achievement of peace and security . access to information, training, employment . respect for cultural diversity, regional identity THE SOCIO-ETHICAL DIM. : ( OTHER) ACTIONS

[EU, SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT STRATEGY, 2006] SOCIAL EQUITY AND COHESION: “promotion of a democratic, socially inclusive, cohesive, healthy, safe and just society with respect for fundamental rights and cultural diversity that creates equal opportunities and combats discrimination in all its forms” THE SOCIO-ETHICAL DIMENSION

IT IS NOT JUST A MATTER FOR ENTERPRISES IN DEVELOPING OR EMERGING ECONOMIES . in a global market companies in industrialised countries are interacting with stakeholders of their supply chain, being in developing and emerging countries . even industrialised countries are facing poverty . it is not just a matter of eradicating poverty, but more widely of social cohesion for quality of life improvement 1° REMARK: SOCIAL EQUITY AND COHESION

EMERGING MODEL AND TOOLS

Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR)

Social Accountability (SA8000)

Sustainability Reporting Guidelines (GRI)

2° REMARK: SOCIAL EQUITY AND COHESION

let as take into consideration: the (fundamental ) shift from non-renewable resources (e.g. fossil fuels) to renewable ones’ (e.g. sun and hydrogen) ENVIRONMENTAL AND SOCIO-ETHICAL SUTAINABILITY ARE CONNECTED

FOSSIL FUELS (OIL, COKE, …)

environmental un-sustainability: most of CO2 emissions > global warming + extraction pollution socio-ethic un-sustainability: extraction , production, distribution infrastructure, complex and centralised > reduction of direct access potentiality to resources > low power to individual over their own destiny > widening of rich AND poor gap (inequality)

RENEWABLE RESOURCES (SUN , HYDROGEN … )

environmental sustainability: non-ex h a u stable + greenhouse effect reduction + lower environmental cost for extraction, transformation, distribution socio-ethic sustainability : “distributed generation ” s un and hydrogen acquisition: local + with simple processes > micro-plants installable/manageable by small economic entity > user-producer > energetic micro network building > global network > access, self-sufficiency , power (and interdependency) local communities/households > resources democratisation > inequality reduction

SUSTAINABILITY:

ENVIRONMENTAL + SOCIO-ETHICAL

potential convergences

(non only sun/hydrogen)

use primary local, conservative, regenerative resources (i.e. locally sustainable) + introduce decentralised system networks for the extraction/production/use of such resources

EMERGING HYPOTHESIS: 1. LOCALLY -BASED AND NETWORK -STRUCTURED ENTERPRISE AS A PROMISING MODEL (DE) 2. SYSTEM INNOVATION APPROACH FIT TO COUPLE ECO-EFFICENCY WITH SOCIAL EQUITY (socio-ethic + environmental sustainability) WHICH APPROACH (FOR DESIGN)?

SOCIAL EQUITY AND COHESION AND PROMISING EMERGING ECONOMIC MODELS

1. promising emerging economic models

DISTRIBUTED ECONOMIES: “ selective share of production distributed to regions where activities are organized in the form of small scale, flexible units that are synergistically connected with each other ” [IIIEE, SWEEDEN, 2006] SOLIDARITY COOPERATIVE NETWORKS: “networks in which units of production and consumption are articulated in nodes able to self-propagate and self-feed in a solidarity collaboration” [MANCE, BRASIL, 2003]

EXAMPLES OF DISTRIBUTED ECONOMIES SOLIDARITY COOPERATIVE NETWORKS

1. RESOURCE DYNAMICS CORPORATION distributed energy generation management and technology consulting for the use of small-scale power generation technologies located close to the load being served 2. LINUX SOFTWARE open sources and peer-to-peer cooperative network for software development 3. SOLIDARITY PURCHASING GROUPS group of persons making collective purchase directly contacting local producer of season / biological produces

… promising emerging economic model

ENTERPRISES/INITIATIVES:

LOCALLY-BASED: start from sustainable local resources and needs, but could become open non-local or global systems + NETWORK-STRUCTURED: gain critical mass and potential by their connections in network

2 . in terms of (social-ethical) sustainability a question has been (UNEP, 2000-2002): IS A SYSTEM INNOVATION APPROACH APPLICABLE TO EMERGING/DEVELOPING CONTEXTS TOO ? IF SO, COULD IT ALSO FACILITATE (TOGHETHER WITH ECO-EFFICENCY) SOCIO-ETHICAL ENHANCEMENT IN THESE CONTEXTS? IF SO, WITH WHAT CHARACTERISTICS?

“ PSSs may act as business opportunities to facilitate the process of social-economical development - by jumping over or by passing the stage characterised by individual consumption/ownership of mass produced goods - towards more advanced service-economy “satisfaction-based” and low resources intensive .” [ UNEP, Product-Service System and Sust ., 2002] SYSTEM INNOVATION AN OPPORTUNITY EVEN FOR EMERGING/DEVELOPING COUNTRIES (FOR ALL)

AN EXAMPLE OF SYSTEM INNOVATION

(for socio-ethical + environmental sustainability)

GREENSTAR SOLAR E-COMMERCE AND COMMUNITY CENTRE India (Parvatapur), Jamaica and Ghana A modular, scalable, highly portable “station” is delivered for villages in the developing world, as an enabling platform system for e-commerce. It is solar powered and connected to the web through a satellite or digital modem. Residents of remote rural communities can sell their wares world-wide and become shareholders in the Greenstar network.

SYSTEM INN. OPPORTUNIT IES IN EMERGING CONTEXTS being more eco-efficient on a system level > system inn. is “cheaper” to implement on meso/macro scale, can respond to unsatisfied demands more easily focusing on a specific context of use > it leads to local (competent) rather than global stakeholder involvement being more labour/relation intensive > it l eads to a rise in (local) employment and the diffusion of skills being based on system partnership development > it coherent with the development of network-structured enterprises/initiatives enabling market potentialities