Sustainable design is a term that dates back to the 1980s. It first appeared in the Brundtland Report, published in 1987 by the United Nations World Commission on Environment and Development. There, sustainable design was defined as “development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs.” The report also emphasised on the importance of the interconnection between economic, social, and environmental development, highlighting the need for a multidisciplinary approach.
Check the oficial Brundtland Report here: https://www.are.admin.ch/are/en/home/media/publications/sustainable-development/brundtland-report.html
Sustainable design is a topic I have frequently discussed with colleagues, teachers, artisans, designers and indigenous people, and these conversations seem to always hit the same wall:
“How do our sustainable proposals and projects survive and compete in a capitalist system?”
We often have the impression that capitalism and sustainability are antonyms. However, according to Ben Shepard, an expert in sustainable design who has worked with over 30 leading companies worldwide on innovation programs, the definition of capitalism is changing. It is now understood that natural recourses are no longer unlimited and free. These resources and the pollution caused is being priced to send the correct message to the market and support sustainable proposals and projects.
What is the perspective on implementing sustainable practices and being a conscious consumer in Latin America?
Economist Esteban Reina, a student at Universidad de los Andes, tells us he has heard little about this topic. It is not addressed because Colombia is one of the countries with the lowest CO2 emissions. Therefore, the perception is that environmental responsibility should fall on the countries that pollute the most, since local efforts would be very costly and their effect insignificant. The problem is that this same line of thinking has led fast-fashion consumers to continue giving their money to large companies, shifting responsibility and blame to major foreign manufacturers while ignoring small manufacturers and consumers.
As a Colombian textile designer, I disagree with this perspective and believe that environmental care is a collective project. It is also our responsibility, as consumers, designers, and small business owners, to align with sustainable design proposals.
What are the challenges we face as that keep sustainable design a niche?
- Unconscious importation of products: Importing without considering what we can self-supply, leaving the national industry unsupported.
- Lack of promotion and support for national artisanal processes: This limits their ability to form an industry and compete with imported fast-fashion products.
- Unfair competition: The cost of imported products is extremely low due to their production through highly polluting processes and unfairly paid labor. This makes it impossible to compete with a conscious and artisanal production.
Together with the economist, we asked ourselves:
What do we need to encourage the growth of this sustainable future?
- Creation of campaigns to inform local consumers about the “true cost” of fast-fashion and about the ecological and social responsibility we have within local production.
- Incentives for collaborative and multidisciplinary work with biologists, scientists, anthropologists, etc. It is no longer viable for designers and artisans to work in isolation; we need to move towards horizontal work methods that promote knowledge exchange and drive innovation in sustainable materials and processes.
- Commitment to regenerative design: This type of design is rooted in ecology and seeks not only to minimise the negative impact on the environment but also to restore, renew, and revitalise natural and social systems.
- Generation of local policies to raise import tariffs on products that may have a low economic cost but have a high social cost.
- Increasing our production: This may seem counterproductive, but it is necessary to meet the demand currently supplied by the foreign market. To achieve this, the key is first to create through multidisciplinary innovation work, processes and materials that allow us to produce a greater quantity of sustainable products at the lowest possible price. That is the challenge. Without these changes, sustainable design will remain a niche and will not be able to compete for the fast-fashion consumers who would like to find responsible options more easily.
Conclusion
Sustainable design will cease to be a niche when an integral and multidisciplinary vision involving all economic system actors is adopted. For this, it is crucial that consumers, designers, and local entrepreneurs in Latin America actively commit to responsible and sustainable practices. Implementing educational campaigns about the true cost of fast fashion, promoting interdisciplinary collaboration, and creating policies that favor national production are essential steps. Only through these coordinated efforts and a paradigm shift in the perception and valuation of environmental resources can sustainable design fully integrate into the capitalist market and compete effectively with fast-fashion proposals.
For those interested in further researching ways we can rethink and imagine a sustainable future. I invite you to read the blog post: Can we redefine ‘luxury textiles’ through comparing what these mean in Latin America versus in Europe? https://nudoypuntada.com/en/redefine-luxury-textiles-latin-america-vs-europe/
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