Stuart Karten, Founder of Stuart Karten Designs, Discusses Designing For Sustainability

Posted on 30. Oct, 2009 by Susanna Schick in Design & Culture, Interviews

StuartKarten copy

Stuart Karten Designs has been helping clients innovate and use design thinking since 1984. Their client list includes some of the top medical device and consumer electronics brands in the world.

OG: What are you looking forward to about the conference?

Stuart: Well, this is my first time going to Opportunity Green. I’m excited in general, and am looking forward to expressing SKD’s interest in sustainability and meeting like-minded potential clients.

OG: Were you at the Designer’s Accord Global Summit last weekend?

Stuart: No, I wasn’t there, but SKD has not only signed onto the Accord, we’ve also created an internal sub-committee to learn how we can improve our own business, not just our clients’, under the guidelines of the Designer’s Accord.

OG: Who does the bulk of your research on new eco materials? Do you use a service like Material Connexion?

Stuart: We are members of Material Connexion, but also have our own library of interesting and inspirational materials. The way we use it, it’s sort of a group grope, but some people in the studio are more tapped into materials research than others. Sustainability is one of many dimensions we use when categorizing the products in our library.

OG: What about research regarding long-term feasibility, particularly as it pertains to how the client intends to use a new material?

Stuart: Actually, the material is often not the biggest issue, often we find it’s more the manufacturing process that needs a sustainable design lens. For example, we design a lot of consumer electronics, and always try to make them easy to disassemble. That way, the people disassembling the products are less likely to be exposed to hazardous materials, and the recyclables are easier to extract.

OG: Is it difficult to get your clients to embrace sustainability?

Stuart: just like any client relationship, some are advocates, some need a little more convincing and teaching. So mainly, we’re trying to connect with clients that are already interested in sustainability. Still, it takes a lot of education and sales pitches. Many clients are so deeply committed to “business as usual” it’s hard to get them to change anything. But others are eager to innovate using sustainable principles.

For example, with this hard drive we did for Fabrik, we used a two pronged approach. They’re an example of a client who wanted to try something new. We developed one hard drive, the SimpleDrive, as sustainably as possible using their existing resources & methods. The other hard drive we did, the [re]drive Turbo, was designed to be as environmentally responsible as possible, even though it meant that Fabrik had to hunt down new suppliers and contractors.

OG: Tell me more about Bruce Sterling’s Internet of Things that you mention on your conversations page. He’s one of my favorite writers. How does his work influence your work?

Stuart: Our conversations series is designed to expose the studio and friends of the firm to new and interesting thought leaders, like an internal version of TED. It’s set up like a salon, with a speaker for about 40 minutes. Bruce talked about RFID a lot, and the potential it has. Later, we did some concept work for Johnson Controls. They wanted us to conceive futurist ways to deal with time empowerment in the car, among other things. So we came up with a way for your car to know your schedule, and give you reminders relevant to the car. For example, your car knows it’s Tuesday, so it must be soccer practice. The car knows whether or not the soccer gear is in the car (potentially through RFID) and reminds you to put it in if you forget.

OG: that’s also great for the environment, as it prevents people having to drive back home to get what they forgot.

Stuart: We also do a lot of design research, particularly regarding peoples needs and attitudes around sustainability. We’ve found that consumers are indeed willing to pay more for a sustainable product. We strove to discover at what point in the interaction with the product do people want to decide how much to pay, learning from what users do and don’t want.

OG: Thanks so much Stuart, I’m looking forward to seeing you at the conference.