Quilt: An Ideal Innovation

Innovations affect everyone. Hence, it concerns everyone. Naturally, governments all over the world prioritize it. Companies that innovate often stand to gain profits from their innovations. Countries that support innovation attract companies, create more jobs, get higher growth. Citizens of these countries enjoy a better life.?

However, not all innovations are alike. Some bring more harm than good. They may generate jobs, but their products cause more damage than benefits. Products like cigarettes that cause life-threatening diseases or chemical products that cause irreparable damage to our environment do more harm. Such innovations may generate jobs, generate profits, give taxes, but countries, eventually, spend more on healthcare, managing effects of environmental damages, pollution. When we lose our loved ones, the loss is irreparable, though unquantifiable. Such innovations are not ideal.

What are ideal innovations then? When I look at different products we use in our everyday life, a quilt appeared as the perfect innovation. The earliest?evidence?of a quilt dates back to 3400 B.C. World over, several?museums?exist for exhibiting the history and art of quilts. In India, people mostly buy a quilt from a small shop owner who also makes these quilts. They rarely appear remarkable. One rarely associates a quilt with innovation. But, for the following reasons, it is:

1. Ingredients: All the materials that go into making a quilt are natural. Cotton is all it needs. Cotton fillings stuffed inside a cotton cover, sew using cotton threads produces a readily usable quilt.?
2. Degradable: A quilt is perfectly bio-degradable. When made only using natural ingredients, it leaves no damages to the environment.
3. Maintenance: A quilt is inexpensive in storage and repair requirements. One can store a quilt without any further investment. Many reuse it as a mattress in other seasons. Repairing or refurbishing a quilt is inexpensive. All the raw materials get reused. Minor cuts or holes in the outer cover are covered using a patch of cloth.
4. Affordable: A quilt is the cheapest cover to protect from cold. A basic quilt, which provides reasonable protection, is readily available even in the remotest of towns at a low price. Expensive quilts are available, though the increased cost is more due to decoration than efficiency.
5. Learn: One can learn to make a quilt without any elaborate degree program. Many who make and sell quilts are uneducated. They are skillful. But, these skills do not require any expensive education.

Additionally, it offers the following advantages:

1. No ill effects: Using a quilt adds no health hazard to the user or the society, whether in the short run or the long run. It causes no physical, mental, or environmental damages.

There are alternative solutions to using a quilt, for example, raising the room temperature using wood-burning or electrical appliances. However, they are either expensive or cause pollution, in some cases, both. A quilt lives in a harmonious relationship with the environment. It allows nature to be wayward but never gets into a fight. It rests assured that when left on its own, nature will get back to its harmonious way.

#innovation #sustainability #nature #environment