How can design help decolonize the future?

During my research for The New Designer: Rejecting Myths, Embracing Change , I learned about the work of Australian philosopher Roman Krznaric, who compared our irresponsible ecological behavior to the idea of colonizing the future. As he explains, “we treat the future as a distant colonial outpost where we dump ecological degradation, nuclear waste, public debt and technological risk.” Krznaric establishes a parallel with terra nullius (no one’s land or unclaimed territory), a concept employed by many past colonizers to disregard the ownership rights of Indigenous populations. We are treating the future as “empty time,” a nobody’s land that simply ignores all future generations. Contrast this attitude with the selfless philosophy of the seventh-generation principle, which was upheld by the ancient Indigenous confederacy of the Haudenosaunee, or Iroquois, in northeast North America. According to this principle, we need to think of present decisions in a way that benefits seven generations into the future. This is the type of altruistic, long-term thinking we must adopt.

So how can we go about decolonizing the future? As it turns out, the recipe for decolonizing the future is the same as the one for decolonizing design and decolonizing the present. It’s about symbiosis and coexistence instead of prejudice and domination. As the authors of an insightful Wellbeing Economy Alliance report note, “We need to move away from an economic system which says that Amazon Inc. is worth 1 trillion USD, while the Amazon Rainforest is worth nothing, until its trees are cut down and sold as timber, despite being the ‘lungs of the earth.’” Instead of a cost-benefit approach, the authors propose a cobeneficial model, which “recognizes the intrinsic interconnections between our social and ecological systems as the basis for a just and sustainable economy, with health as the great connector.”

Perhaps one of the biggest myths worth debunking is the notion that digital technology is a benign force.

Changing the basis of our entire economic system is not easy but is not impossible. One way to start decolonizing the future is to reject several design myths. Perhaps one of the biggest myths worth debunking is the notion that digital technology is a benign force. To view a website as environmentally costless is at best naive. It fails to consider the widespread effects of the entire industry—the tremendous energy expenditure of data centers and cryptocurrency, the mining of rare minerals to power an increasingly number of short-term digital devices and smart objects, the cost of storing and transferring large volumes of data, and the proliferation of poorly managed software applications. As designer and futurist Cennydd Bowles says, “Sustainable software results from high-quality engineering, thorough testing, and commitment to proper post-release maintenance. Handled properly, software can be a material that gets better with age; wood that bears the contours of use, not brittle plastic.” Performance is therefore conservation, according to Bowles. Digital designers are not excluded from this responsibility. In fact, they should be leading the way to a true ecological digital renovation.

This means designers need to step up to the challenge. We cannot continue to be passive bystanders. After all, waste is a design flaw.

Sustainability can feel like an uphill battle at times. And to make matters worse, designers who are seeking accountability often have to argue against . We all share numerous biases attaching us to the present, distancing ourselves from pain, and ignoring what lies ahead. But change is possible. And designers are particularly well suited to make changes happen. “The sustainability challenge is a design issue,” says British writer John Thackara. “Eighty percent of a product, service, or system’s environmental impact is determined at the design stage.” This means designers need to step up to the challenge. We cannot continue to be passive bystanders. After all, waste is a design flaw. One way to address this issue is by extending a product’s journey to its full life cycle—to care as much about postuse as you do about the human handling of your design and to consider the environment as your ultimate user, your primary stakeholder. To put it above all else. Create a persona for it, if you need to. Uncover its needs and requirements as if it were a human. Respect doesn’t stop with the end user. Be a voice for the natural world as much as you are for the user. This is a long game. You must think of products in a prolonged time span. You must consider multiple generations and adopt a “long-now” mindset.

Sustainability needs to become an integral and systemic part of the business model, not just a product label or single initiative.

If we truly want to decolonize the future, we need to put our environment above any exploitative, unsanctionable corporate practice. Sustainability needs to become an integral and systemic part of the business model, not just a product label or single initiative. And if that doesn’t happen right away, let’s aim at designing a new normal: “Design can help reverse this trend by changing the processes behind products, as well as the resources used to make them and use them. This is how a commitment to sustainability drives innovation.” In order to do this, we have to embrace a process that is more symbiotic with nature. One that upholds replenishment, reciprocity, and regeneration instead of extraction. We need to adopt a circular economy. “We must learn a lesson from the natural world,” explains Bruce Mau, where “every output is an input,” where “waste equals food.” You’ll always find customers who will support you in that mission. People are geared for good. They want to do the right thing. So don’t conform to the existing business model, particularly when you can see clearly through the cracks. Invent a new one.

Part of your job as a designer is to inspire people—to tell them the truth, stir them into action, and motivate change.

Also, don’t think you are out of the woods because you are creating digital experiences. As we saw before, digital is not particularly kind to the environment. There are many things you can do to mitigate your ecological footprint, from employing color palettes that require less energy to display to using a hosting provider that has a strong environmental policy. Don’t fall back on the pretext that digital is an unlimited resource because it isn’t. It is one of many myths you can help debunk. Part of your job as a designer is to inspire people—to tell them the truth, stir them into action, and motivate change. We must fight against “short-termism” and “numbness” in any way we can. We are futurists. As such, we have responsibility for that future. We have to plan it better and show others what it could be, based on what they do, buy, and support. This means not just painting a picture but creating it. “The thing is to be vocal about the type of future that you want to exist within, and the future you want your children to exist within, and your children’s children to exist within,” says Julia Watson. “You have to demand the type of future that you want to recognize.”

---

The post above is an excerpt from The New Designer: Rejecting Myths, Embracing Change . I would love to hear your thoughts on this topic. Please add your comment below.