🌱 What is planet-centered design?
Planet-centric design is essentially about taking responsibility for the environment and climate in the design process. Designing in a planet-centric way is about “making sure sustainability and inclusiveness sit at the table at the strategic points of the design process”.[i] At its core, planet-centric design aims to “re-balanc[e] humans’ and our planet’s needs while placing the planet at the center and prioritizing its ecosystem”.[ii] Planet-centered design can also be referred to as sustainable design, environmentally-conscious design, eco-design, or humanity-centered design.[iii]
🌱 How is design conventionally approached?
Typically, the attention in developing a product or a service often goes to the considerations of how to make the design as economically as possible, how to make the design technically possible, how to maximize the profit margin, and similar aspects. While these considerations need to be taken into account, people and the planet also need to be factored in.
🌱 What is human-centered design?
For the past several decades, we have focused on so-called “human-centered design”.[iv] Overall, the human-centered approach can be seen as an improvement to the process-centered design approach, by emphasizing the user's needs and desires over what makes the biggest profit or is cheapest to produce. Yet to date, human-centered design has been “focused on people, their desires and needs without looking at the well-being of the planet”.[v] In other words, in regard to environmental issues, the human-centered design approach falls short because it (at least partially) perpetuates an image that humans are separate from nature and its resources.
🌱 How has human-centered design shaped our world view?
Overall, the human-centered design approach has strengthened a world view, where humans are separate – or superior – to nature and where natural resources are there to serve the humans' needs. This has contributed to our present-day situation, where human-centered needs and desires have overexploited the natural landscapes of our environment.
🌱 How is planet-centered design reshaping our world view?
Quite logically, “design that is not good for our planet is ultimately not good for people”.[vi] In line with this, planet-centered design “distances itself from a user-centered perspective and moves towards an egalitarian, planetary view – without losing sight of the user, the human being”.[vii] In planet-centered design, the focus is therefore on both “team human” and “team non-human”. The overarching aim of planet-centered design is to place “individual human needs on the same level as planetary needs”. This means that living beings or Earth, who do not speak, are also given a voice.[viii]
🌱 What is the goal of planet-centered design?
The ultimate goal of the planet-centered approach would be to transition to a system-level thinking in the design processes, where humans are seen as part of nature (which they are), and the products, processes, and services that we design actually work within the natural systems and generate value back to nature. This design approach is called regenerative design.[ix]
This post has been adapted from a newsletter written by Saskia Tykkyläinen and Christine Nikander for a collaboration between Palsa & Pulk and The E-Waste Column. The newsletter titled “How can designers step in to create a more sustainable future?” was originally published in both “The Just Transition Newsletter” and “The E-Waste Newsletter”.
[i] https://hybridheroes.de/blog/2022-10-27-how-to-design-in-a-planet-centric-way/
[ii] https://aware-theplatform.com/planet-centric-design-from-egoism-to-ecosystems/
[iii] https://www.thefountaininstitute.com/blog/design-of-really-big-things
[iv] https://aware-theplatform.com/planet-centric-design-from-egoism-to-ecosystems/
[v] https://aware-theplatform.com/planet-centric-design-from-egoism-to-ecosystems/
[vi] https://aware-theplatform.com/planet-centric-design-from-egoism-to-ecosystems/
[vii] https://aware-theplatform.com/planet-centric-design-from-egoism-to-ecosystems/
[viii] https://samuelhuber.medium.com/what-is-planet-centric-design-8d1754b52fba
[ix] https://www.ornamo.fi/artikkeli/nain-paaset-eroon-ihmiskeskeisyydesta-paivita-osaamisesi-tulevaisuuteen/