Greengaged

photo by: Kate Andrews

So, how can design save the world? Maybe it's about more than switching to groovy eco materials (bamboo laptop, anyone?).

Maybe we need to redesign the systems of society that produce unsustainability. A prime example is banking. It's a system based upon credit - spending today what we may earn tomorrow, creating problems of accelerated use of resources, waste, a lack of resilience (did you know that over two thirds of households in the UK are less than one month from bankruptcy?). And despite carbon neutral policies and Equator principles you could argue banking barely has a sustainable or responsible bone in its body. But as we explore banking we can start to find alternatives.

In the 19th century co-operative and mutual societies came up with the simple idea of working for community (not shareholder) wellbeing. Complementary currencies are being used in contexts like microcredit in Africa, or Transition Towns, to support communities not saddle them with debt. How could these sorts of ideas be reapplied in the mainstream? Following the lead of innovations like Zopa, Virgin Money USA or Kiva (a version of banking where people lend direct to people). The current financial crisis has led many in Financial Services to wonder how they could ever restore trust in banking? Perhaps sustainable service systems design can offer some new answers? And in the process fix the business model of banking too; loyalty to any one bank is both rare (literally one in one million people buy all of their products from a single bank) and also the critical determinant of profit levels (90% of your profit as a bank comes from the 6% of customers buying a second or more additional products from you).

If you want to learn more about fixing the system than how to make a bamboo laptop, then join John Grant at greengaged: Co-opportunity: A Day for World Builders.