What should be the role of design in working towards a more sustainable future? Ben Reason, founding member of Livework expert in bringing a customer view to solve business challenges along with senior service designer Anna van der Togt expert in design for sustainable futures, hosted the workshop titles 'Design for Anthropocene' for Future London Academy's UX & product design week sharing Livework’s journey of better understanding design’s role & evolution in transitioning to a more sustainable future. In this presentation discover: -How we overcome consumers’ unwillingness/inability to pay more for a better product. -Existential contemplations of “Can we ever truly move to a sustainable economy if companies are not willing to let go of profit?” -Objects of redesign for sustainability. -The product & UX design myths we need to bust. -The characteristics of great digital products. -Translating sustainability for our day-to-day work.

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Liveworkstudio.com London Rotterdam Sao Paulo Livework Studio © 2019
Design in the
Anthropocene
Ben Reason & Anna van der Togt
FLA 22’ — Ux & Product Design Week
Liveworkstudio.com London Rotterdam Sao Paulo Livework Studio © 2019
Photo by Tobias Tullius on Unsplash
What should be the role of design working
towards a more sustainable future?

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Activity Start End
Get to know eachother 12.00 12.20
Design in the Anthropocene — an introduction to our thoughts 12.20 12.40
Shared reflection & myth busting 12.40 13.10
Break 13.10 13.20
The what: objects of redesign for sustainability 13.20 13.35
The who: our role (only if we have time) 13.35 13.45
Check-out & reflection 13.45 14.00
Today’s Agenda
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Good services don’t
happen by accident.
They need to be
designed. That’s what
we do.

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21 Years of Creativity & Impact
400
clients
1500
projects
3
studios
● Business, government & NGOs
● From startups to multinationals
● From healthcare to hoofcare
● From B2C to B2B to G2C
● From sprints to 10 year engagements
● From strategy to delivery
● From innovation to incremental
● From training to transformation
● London, Rotterdam & São Paulo
● Working in 30+ countries
● Approx 100 people
● Diverse backgrounds & nationalities
Livework

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About us

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The world of tomorrow is ours to
create. We must be ecological
Photo by Marcel Strauß on Unsplash
Our focus on industrially designed & produced products and services serving users
resulted in an ecological crisis. We must change our ways of acting, thinking and
being to acknowledge and address the damage we are doing to our planet.
We see this as a fundamental human challenge. A design challenge. The future
emerges directly from the things we design. We have to design ecological.

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“These are the kinds of problems you
can’t manage your way out of.
You have to design your way
out of them.”
Photo by Priscilla-du-Preez on Unsplash
Marty Neumeier, The Designful Company

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Who’s who?
Please introduce yourself, the organisation you
work for and your sustainability character
Let’s start with
Photo by Irina Iacob on Unsplash

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The Curious
Newbee
Who are you?
The
Sustainability
Dummy
The
Sustainability
Veteran
The
Unacknowledged
Sustainability
Evangelist
The
Sustainability
Skeptic
The
I’m-just-going-
along-on-this-
ride
Please introduce yourself, the organisation you work for and
your sustainability character:
Photo by Irina Iacob on Unsplash

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Design
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Human
Centered
Reframing Contextual Experimental
Co-creative
Design
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Human centred

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Co-creative

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Reframing

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Contextual

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Experimental

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Anthropocene

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Anthropocene
Increased levels of climate-warming CO2 in the
atmosphere at the fastest rate for 66m years, with
fossil-fuel burning pushing levels from 280 parts per
million before the industrial revolution to 400 ppm
and rising today.
The Guardian August 2016
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Anthropocene
Doubled the nitrogen and phosphorus in our soils in
the past century with fertiliser use. This is likely to be
the largest impact on the nitrogen cycle in 2.5bn years.
The Guardian August 2016
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Anthropocene
Put so much plastic in our waterways and oceans that
microplastic particles are now virtually ubiquitous, and
plastics will likely leave identifiable fossil records for
future generations to discover.
The Guardian August 2016
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Design in the Anthropocene
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Human
Centered
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Reframing Contextual Experimental
Co-creative
Re-design Design

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“The end of the world is the
end of the idea that
humans are the only people
that have a world on this
planet.”
Humankind, Timothy Morton
More than human centred
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“Human beings can choose to
remain unaware of their
fundamentally co-creative
involvement in reality, or they
can become mindful and
responsible in full awareness of
the power of design.”
Daniel Christian Wahl
Hugely co-creative
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“The idea of a continually
growing economy is an
anathema to an ecologist”
Prosperity Without Growth, Tim Jackson
Reframing prosperity
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“Now that is agency… It is
what makes humans of
nature and also the freak
of nature.”
Defiant Earth, Clive Hamilton
Ecologically contextual
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“Some things benefit from
shocks; they thrive and grow
when exposed to volatility,
randomness, disorder, and
stressors and love adventure,
risk, and uncertainty.”
Anti-fragile, Nassim Nicholas Taleb
Always experimental
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More than
Human
Centered
Reframing
prosperity
Ecologically
Contextual
Always
Experimental
Hugely
Co-creative
Design will need to be

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Trying to be :
More than Human centric
An example to what designing like this could look like
Photo by Anastasia Palagutina on Unsplash

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More than
Human
Centered
Reframing
prosperity
Ecologically
Contextual
Always
Experimental
Hugely
Co-creative
Plenary reflection
How do you think design should change?
Photo by Anna, on her hiking trip to the French Pyrenees

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What else needs reframing?
Which product & UX-design myths do we need
to bust?
Photo by Anna, on her hiking trip to the French Pyrenees

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Great (digital) products should be…….
seamless
transparent
simple
effortless
frictionless
Are these still relevant?
intuitive
aesthetically pleasing
convenient
cheap

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Time for a break
;-)
Photo by Seb Mooze on Unsplash

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Objects of design
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What is the design work?
Our role in the ecosystem
● System e.g. What leverage points/incentives do we "own" What system change can be
unlocked by us?
● Our value chain e.g. How can we reduce the environmental/social impact of our value chain?
and how do we get our partners to collaborate?
Our organisation
● Our strategy e.g. How do we move forwards? What are our targets?
● Our set-up & processes e.g. How to orientate and organize ourselves towards more
sustainable goals?
● Our operation e.g. How can we reduce the footprint of our digital products, of our systems, or
of our offices/shops?
Our services
● Our services e.g. How can we change the services around our products so they are less
impactful or even contribute to longevity or circularity (e.g. return, repair, upgrade, recycle)?
Our products
● Our products e.g. How can we reduce the environmental/social impact of our products? (e.g.
recycled materials)
● Our value propositions/portfolio
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For example: Mobility
The product: Design a car
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For example: Mobility
Services: Design mobility app
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For example: Mobility
Organisation: Design for
organisational change towards
strategic goals
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For example: Mobility
Ecosystem: Facilitate city and
city stakeholders to facilitate
greener transport
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LW’s design work?
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Role in the ecosystem
The organisation
The services
The products
The Livework’s sphere of influence is mostly
in (re)designing:
● The services of our clients
● The organisation of our clients
Plus want to do more work (re)designing:
Multi-org ecosystems/client ecosystems
Livework has to understand what a
sustainable future looks like in the
spaces we operate in:

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What is the design work?
Our role in the ecosystem
Re-designing the role xxx plays in its sector
Our organisation
Re-designing how xxx operates to achieve
sustainability goals
Our services
Re-designing xxx’s relationship to clients and
how they are supported towards sustainability
Our products
Re-designing xxx’s products to address
sustainability
Where does your design work sit?
What does that mean for the
sustainability approach?
Step 1 — Take 5 minutes to reflect
& make notes on the handout.
Step 2 — Discuss in groups of 5 and
help each other to get to a deeper
understanding by asking reflecting
questions
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Actors of design/
The designer
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Translating
sustainability to our
day to day work
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It's not just business, it's personal
It's an unprecedented shift that needs time to
process and reflect
Fostering a new kind of reflective mindset/culture
to continuously redefine our way of
working/thinking and help to structurally look at
the bigger picture and beyond BAU.

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Tuning in - your role as a designer,
human being, team member,
employee or world citizen
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What does sustainability mean for:
● You personally? And how would you like to bring that to work?
● The world/ecosystem around your business? In what ways is it
a topic? Trends? Changes in regulations?
● Your business? In what way does it have an impact on the
world and how is that addressed? How is the organisation
engaged?
● How does that trickle through to your team/department? What
is their role? How do people reflect and evolve their work?
Reflect in groups — What might this mean for:
● The approach needed?
● The processes or governance needed?
● The mental models, tools or templates needed?

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Checkout
What will you take away from this session?
Photo by Annie Spratt on Unsplash