Greetings, my fellow colleagues.

 I am Baik Soubinne , your columnist who will be writing about sustainable design for the next six editions in 2019. Initially, I had planned to apply for the Company Column with themes like scuba diving or living with pet dogs if I were to try out for the column again. But it was around the year-end and New Year's when I filled out the application and I was motivated to choose a subject that required me to study. So, I am offering my greetings to you with yet again a somewhat hard subject because I wanted to find out about the things that I was curious about in my work last year, and share what I have learned with you. If there are other members out there who are interested (hopefully), well, here we go.

 While preparing for this column, I watched a few old TED talks which I haven't seen in some time. And there is one talk I want to share with you. Please check out the below link.

 There is something we always wonder as we wash the dishes. "So, is it better to use disposable products or mugs?" This TED talk gives us the answer in a simple way. It is to simply compare two criteria – the embodied energy and water that goes into using any product. The speaker, Catherine Mohr, gives an example of comparing the embodied energy and water used to wipe yogurt off the kitchen counter top if we were to use a paper towel vs. cotton towel vs. a sponge.

 We all know that the cotton towel can become dirty but can also be used almost forever, which means that the embodied energy that goes into using the cotton towel each time is 0. However, it uses a lot more energy and water than a paper towel once you put it in the washing machine. A sponge also requires little embodied energy because you can use it several times. It also uses less water than a washing machine because all you need to do is rinse it with water when it gets dirty. But let's say you wait for the water to turn a bit warm before rinsing it out, which means that you have just used that much more water while waiting for the right temperature. The above graph shows the comparison.

 What we can learn from the TED talk video is the criteria to use when choosing a method that would have less environmental impact in solving a problem, whatever the object for comparison is. There is another important point in the latter part of the video. The speaker explains that we need to keep a long-term perspective when it comes to discarding the non-eco-friendly of the past and choosing the eco-friendly. For example, demolishing a typical house and making eco-friendly choices in terms of construction method or materials in building a new house does not always mean that it is good for the environment. If you keep the previous house, you only need to use the already embodied energy. But if you rebuild, it requires additional embodied energy and it would take at least 6 years or more than 20 years to break even and have a positive impact on the environment.

 Therefore, we must choose materials and the production process that has the less environmental impact when we design products. Furthermore, we must consider the lifecycle of a design if we were to truly create long-lasting, sustainable products

 Sustainable design has become a term we hear often these days. There is also a tendency of thinking that sustainable design refers to design that emphasizes only the environmental aspect. However, we can create a more sophisticated sustainable design if we consider two more aspects – economic sustainability and social sustainability.

 To explain why we need to consider the two aspects, I will briefly touch on John Elkington's triple bottom line.

 If you know a few economic or accounting terms, you will be familiar with the term 'bottom line'. The bottom line refers to net earnings, literally the bottom line of an income statement. Elkington emphasized that sustainable management can only be achieved when a company not only evaluates its net profits (in other words, financial performance), but also the non-financial social and environmental performance in a comprehensive manner. It may sound a bit abstract to say we need to evaluate a company's performance based on its economic prosperity, environmental value, and social justice. But put simply, it means that we must include the moral requirements of individual companies like 'we shall not exploit child labor' or 'we shall not recklessly use harmful materials or substances in the sole pursuit of profits as it is wrong to do so' in the quantitative assessment.

 We have heard so many times that a company's reason for existence is to pursue profits. But now, it is a fact that we cannot sustain if we neglect the environmental or social requirements in pursuit of profits. Considering the three values is essential to sustainable development and growth as we witness the stock prices of a company that has generated economic profits without harming the environment or creating social controversy surge, while a company that does the opposite suffer from significant drops in stock prices.

 Elkington also explains the correlation among the three bottom lines using a diagram. They form a hierarchy like the earth's mantle, rather than a cycle structure. He illustrates that the top layer is formed on the foundation of the bottom layer. The social bottom line depends on the economic bottom line and the economic bottom line depends on the environmental bottom line as it is influenced by the earth's ecosystem. The three layers ceaselessly move by continuously impacting one another. And shear zones occur at points where the layers collide much like the earth's crustal movement.

 First, ecological efficiency issues occur where the economic and environmental layers collide. It is to encourage an appropriate level of consumption and production that the earth can bear by providing products and services with price competitiveness while minimizing impact on nature's ecosystem.

 Second, issues of environmental justice occur where the environmental and social layers are pushed out. This is where we consider the current gap that comes from humanity's environment as well as from the environment of each generation.

 Lastly, issues of corporate ethics occur where the social and economic layers collide. Initially, ethical issues between the employer and the employed like employment or downsizing occurred, while recently a wide range of issues related to corporate social responsibility are included.

 Where issues occur, there is also a need for solutions to such issues. Therefore, it means that when we seek solutions to the issues where these points collide through design, we can achieve the results of sustainable design.

 Put simply, sustainable design refers to choosing the right material and its use considering the environmental impact, developing efficient design with the littlest loss in the production process considering the economic value, and developing designs that reflect social issues and offer relatable values. And to solve issues that lie in the areas where two areas overlap, there will be cases where we have to choose the best value or the lesser evil. The ideal would be a design that satisfies all values, but there are values that we choose over other values in our actual work. Still, doesn't change begin from being aware that there are various measures of value like I have mentioned above, and not just one single value criteria to consider? Like Catherine Mohr said in her TED talk, it's sometimes the things that you are not expecting to be the biggest changes that are.

 Father of sustainable design, Victor Papanek once said, "There are professions more harmful than industrial design, but only a few." It is probably because designers are the ones who create new things and their new creations are made by using resources. His quote is frequently used to emphasize the importance of being responsible for the design output. However, don't we all know? Like in Spider-Man, with great power comes great responsibility. In my next columns, I will introduce to you the positive impact sustainable design choices have brought. And it is not only the designers who get to influence the end product of a design. The power becomes more powerful when all of us, experts in each of our various fields, who engage in the entire process from service or product planning to the end design reaching users, focus on the value of sustainability. My columns are not for designers only, so I hope to see you again at my next edition.