Things to consider
As the old saying goes, ask a silly question and you will get a silly answer! Successful social design, social innovation and social enterprise are as much about identifying appropriate questions and issues to be addressed by intervention as it is about creating the responses to those questions. Before you can design (or co-design) a solution you need to fully understand the problems that are faced.
You are asked to work with local stakeholders to identify what issues need to be addressed to improve their quality of life and well being. The aim is to identify which of the national themes discussed on this site are of greatest relevance to your local community and the people you chose to work with in it. In short, you need to co-design your local brief before you design your response.
The Audi Design Foundation ran a workshop with designers, researchers and advocates for design for energy and climate to identify some national and international hot topics and key questions that design might address. How do the questions below relate to your local scenario? Do you and your stakeholders have the skills to address these questions? Are they important to you? If not what questions are more relevant to your local community and their situation and how will you use them to create your own design brief?
Hot Topic I: Reduction of Carbon Emissions by 80 per cent
Brief/question
- Pick a specific neighbourhood and devise a social enterprise scheme that enables the residential community to reduce their household carbon emissions by 80 per cent, while maintaining or enhancing their quality of life
- Use empathic research methods to co-create a solution with the community
Situational context
- The British Government targets 34 to 42 per cent reduction of carbon emissions by 2020; this is in accordance with the global target of an 80 per cent reduction by 2050
- Personal carbon emissions are predominantly from home life, eg heating, cooking and electricity use
- There are many existing technologies that can be used to combat carbon emissions but they are not used widely. How might design change this situation?
Signposts
Hot Topic II: Water Systems
Brief/question
- Can you create a community/local water system that maximises the use of natural rainfall and minimises the use of potable water.
Situational context
- Water scarcity is fast becoming a major environmental and societal issue. Rainwater is an obvious resource and is used extensively in many societies around the world.
- In the UK, tap water is used indiscriminately; this is wasteful, particularly when taking into account the energy cost of treating it
- There are many positive implications to using rainwater for a variety of purposes at domestic and community levels. However, it must be subject to quality control and health and safety procedures
Sign posts
Hot Topic III: Food Systems
Brief/question
Create a local/community food system which:
- is less reliant on meat and uses more vegetables
- uses no packaging and is more energy and travel efficient
- turns food waste into a resource
Situational context
- The production of meat is extremely carbon intensive so following a ‘meat-free’ or ‘meat once-a-week-only’ diet can drastically reduce carbon emissions
- Statistics on food waste, in particular which foods create what waste, need to be taken into account, as do health and safety procedures
Sign posts