DESIGN MANAGEMENT PROJECTS
A SYSTEMIC APPROACH FOR IMPROVING CLIMATE ACTION
Design Management Semester project, 5th semester, October-December 2021
THE GOAL (the problem and what is the intention)
Climate change is just the tip of a very complex iceberg, an iceberg of an entire system in a crisis- an ecological, economic, societal, political, and even spiritual crisis. The environmental activism movements are playing a crucial catalyst of positive change, however, to achieve their global goals they must innovate and collaborate on an interdisciplinary level. This project aimed at finding the right stakeholders to collaborate with climate activists and suggest possible design interventions to work on together.
THE RESEARCH (method + finding)
We created a system map that illustrates the system of interconnectedness between the several actors of climate action and highlights 5 particular findings:
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Scientists work in silos. They are highly trained to engage with topics from a scientific point of view but lack other perspectives. As a result, their work is communicated to the public and the government mainly through academic papers, which are difficult to translate into action.
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Climate activists mainly activate parts of society that are already in alertness state due to climate change. As a result, the collective state of responsibility is restricted and not well expanding to all parts of society.
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Greenwashing is normality. Businesses are perceived as sustainable if they offer "green products". Customers are following the green consumerism trends, similarly considering it as the best way to achieve sustainability. They are being educated by the media to sustain green consumption. unfortunately, that creates a bias in society that this is the way to engage with climate action.
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Many climate activists experience climate change through pain and fear on a personal level. As a result, A pattern of many of their words and actions is aggression, as they struggle to tone down their emotional state when communicating with the public about climate change. The public then obtained a bias about activists as being irrational and intimidating individuals. Unfortunately, most of their motivations and values are becoming unclear and abstract. Associating climate action with aggression results in many people staying away from the topic and not engaging with climate action, as well as not engaging with climate activists.
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There is a general lack of awareness about the power of community and what individuals can achieve when having it, also particularly in the topic of sustainability.
DEVELOPING THE SOLUTIONS
Based on the research findings, an ideation exercise was carried out. Each finding was translated into an opportunity for a design project:
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Bridging Science, Citizens, and Climate Action into a collaborative effort through a thought-through program.
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A design concept for recycling stations in the city that educates about sustainability goals.
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An app that empowers conscious consumption of media and helps to detect greenwashing.
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A game that teaches and creates empathy towards climate activits.
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a design concept for a bouldering gym that builds community around sustainability.
MOTIVATING SUSTAINABLE MEAT CONSUMPTION
Design Management Bachelor's Thesis, DMI, 6th semester, February-June 2022semester
THE GOAL (the problem and what is the intention)
The environmental crisis includes climate change, deforestation, and biodiversity loss.
The food system is a leading driver of various environmental and health damages. In particular, the meat industry is one of the most harmful parts of this system.
The goal of the thesis is to define the needed behavioral change and support individuals to adopt a sustaiable eating behavior.
THE RESEARCH (method + finding)
When initiating change, it is strategically advised to start with a group of people who are the most advanced and resourceful to engage. Therefore, I chose to focus on supporting the behavioral change of young adults without kids, who already intends to take action.
I found out that this consumer group endures several barriers and lacks the motivation to change:
1. Lack of emotional connection to climate change
there is a contradiction between feeling innocent when eating meat on one hand and knowing the connection between the meat overconsumption and the environmental damage.
2. Impulsive consumption of processed meat endangers a balanced diet.
There is impulsivity around the decidion of eating meat.it is difficult to know how much you eat when eating out of an impulse, which makes it difficult to have a balanced diet.
3. people's motivation to cook vegetarian food is connected to the desire to show affection to their loved one's.
4. It is difficult for the consumer to make sense of the complexity of meat production, leading to misconception of sustainable consumption and lack of action.
5. when ones diet effect a personal matter like health, the individual take the matter into his hands. When ones diet effect a broader sustainability issue, the individual doesn't take it into his hands.
6. meat was an upgrade for former generations. although its now days affordable daily, it is still consider as an upgrade.
7. Meat is a social connector. when forgoing meat, people fear to loose connection to their social circles and their culture.
DEVELOPING THE SOLUTIONS
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Based on the research insights I designed a sustainability loyalty program, which is a customer reward scheme that promotes sustainable food choices in a supermarket. Unlike conventional retailer loyalty programs, this program rewards only customers who follow a predefined standard of an environmentally sustainable diet.
To support a change in meat consumption, customers are provided with a gamified mobile app that introduces them to a reward scheme that promotes sustainable food choices in a supermarket. Consumers feel more motivated when their meat consumption is more visible/traceable. Therefore, the app calculates and reports to the program members their daily carbon footprint and provides a historical overview of the carbon footprint by purchase and also by product category. Thus, program members can track and evaluate their progress.
Find out more about the intervention by scanning the QR code below.
SCHINDLER AS AN EDUCATOR OF GENDER DIVERSITY
Design Project DMI, 3 semester, IP3 module SEP-DEC 2020
THE GOAL (the problem and what is the intention)
Schindler is one of the largest elevator technology companies in the world. An important part of Schindler‘s corporate culture is to promote diversity. Despite these values, only twelve percent of Schindler‘s employees are female. This project was about supporting Schindler in bringing more female applicants to their technical vocational education and training.
THE RESEARCH (method + finding)
We have done fundamental research, including literature research, ethnographic research via ethnographic probes method, field observation, and collecting interviews. Thus, we came up with several hidden aspects and the biggest barriers of the elevator technician profession, and the barriers women are facing when entering male-dominated fields and how to overcome them.
DEVELOPING THE SOLUTIONS
The solution was a communication campaign that is based on the reseach findings and bring the proffesion in a new light to the potential female candidates.
