Nathan Shedroff is a former industrial designer for Daimler-Chrysler that has embarked on a mission to bring sustainability to the forefront of all designers’, businessmen’s and engineers’ minds. His lecture series, “Sustainable Innovation”, is a new way of looking at the truth about sustainability and ways in which it can be realistically achieved and get away from the hype and trendiness of “going green”.
Nathan’s minimalist and sustainable ideals can be seen from the first slide. The slides are streamlined, clean, intuitive and to the point, very much like his presentation and lecture. His message resonates with crisp images that are simple and direct, like good design should be. The messages of the slides, as well as his words, are carefully chosen and crafted with inflection, annunciation and emphasis to engage the audience and be readily understood, a very important part of good design.
He takes a new approach to the integration of sustainability into the global business infrastructure in the form of the financial, social and ecological. His notion of sustainability being the future of design and sustainable design being the future of business seems almost too logical to be ignored. It is the unification of a sustainable financial world, sustainable social world and sustainable ecological world that creates a sustainable world in which the three can thrive as one. If one is out of balance, then so go the other two. It is the harmony of the three that makes for a sustainable future, a better designed future.
Nathan is quick to point out that “there’s no such thing as sustainable design, (only) more sustainable design.” This is particularly true of our consumer driven world.
He had many strong and interesting points that seemed too logical to be ignored. His concise presentation along with his articulate message made for an entertaining and informative hour that should be kept in the mind of all designers when facing challenges and/or constraints. The content of his lecture is something that will be reproduced in the coming years as sustainability becomes ever more crucial to society. The form of his lecture is a model of minimalism that can be seen as part of this vision of a better designed, more sustainable tomorrow.
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