I ended up rushing through my presentation in class because the problem that I had in my head was still sketchy. I had images, videos that revolved around the theme but the idea wasn't crystallized enough as a problem statement. I would like to share here the cues that I had observed and collected over the week.
Starting with the initial problems that I considered.
Good bye Wires: Wireless power transmission
The presence of wires is intensely conspicuous in all three images. I wonder how much of wiring we have installed in the entire physical world. Our work places, housing facilities modern cities are all a mesh of wires. Nature on the contrary seems to be a master of everything wireless. Right from solar energy to rain, everything around is wireless.
I discussed the idea of wireless transmission with my office colleague who saw me complain about the clutter of wires on my work desk. He introduced me to Tesla.
However it was not until that I accidentally opened the following Oatmeal comic strip forwarded by a friend that I came to realize the genius of Tesla.
I am concerned about environmental issues perhaps because I grew up in close proximity to nature-lived in a small hill station and spent my winter break in my farmhouse. As a society we are growing into being more lavish and wasteful of the natural resources and this concerns me. The following Tedx talk highlights the growing risk and problems arising from existing consumption habits. I didn't play this video as part of my presentation, however I have embedded it here for viewing at one's leisure.
The issue of sustainable consumption has become a subject of growing public and government interest; there have been dispersed efforts to promote sustainable consumption but the overall consumption patterns still leave much to be desired. I could start with identifying my own consumption patterns in the past two days that are unsustainable. I am well aware that single-use bags, both paper and plastic, represent a huge threat to the environment. This threat is not only related to the sheer volume of them ending up in landfill, but also to the resources needed to produce, transport and (occasionally) recycle them, and the emissions resulting from these processes. However while buying monthly groceries from Wal-Mart I used over 20 plastic bags when I could reduce the usage by carrying a personal reusable bag.
Another Cue: The fresh stimulus that made me reflect on this question was a video that we watched during a class presentation for new product development. The presentation was on customer creativity and consumption patterns and we saw the following video.
Thought Process:
The belief behind this campaign is that the easiest way to change people's behavior for the better is by making it fun to do- The fun theory. Fun games look like an interesting way to initiate a change I was impressed with the concept however in the next instance I was wondering whether such changes are truly sustainable. What frameworks, incentives, campaigns would prove to be effective over a long term . I have myself never taken any psychology classes so my understanding of this problem is not very clear but I am willing to learn.I do not have the answer to this question but I would like to investigate and analyze this concept further.
To sum up: Looking at the problem I realize that conscious effort is required to reduce our plastic consumption. I cannot aim to discover a breakthrough ecofriendly replacement for plastic but I would like to identify ways in which usage patterns can be altered through creative conditioning exercises (campaigns) and identify models and frameworks that can sustain these changes.
Starting with the initial problems that I considered.
Good bye Wires: Wireless power transmission
The presence of wires is intensely conspicuous in all three images. I wonder how much of wiring we have installed in the entire physical world. Our work places, housing facilities modern cities are all a mesh of wires. Nature on the contrary seems to be a master of everything wireless. Right from solar energy to rain, everything around is wireless.
I discussed the idea of wireless transmission with my office colleague who saw me complain about the clutter of wires on my work desk. He introduced me to Tesla.
However it was not until that I accidentally opened the following Oatmeal comic strip forwarded by a friend that I came to realize the genius of Tesla.
The next idea that I toyed around can be guessed from the following images:
I thought about jet lag and time difference. I realized that I couldn't possibly do anything for the jet lag as the body clock is the premise of nature's design. However the watch that I wear could definitely be designed with GPS facility and perhaps with some more features to make it smart.
The whole idea seemed to have a 'James Bond' kind of a feel so I abandoned it for a more 'Planet Earth' scope.
Problem Background:
The issue of sustainable consumption has become a subject of growing public and government interest; there have been dispersed efforts to promote sustainable consumption but the overall consumption patterns still leave much to be desired. I could start with identifying my own consumption patterns in the past two days that are unsustainable. I am well aware that single-use bags, both paper and plastic, represent a huge threat to the environment. This threat is not only related to the sheer volume of them ending up in landfill, but also to the resources needed to produce, transport and (occasionally) recycle them, and the emissions resulting from these processes. However while buying monthly groceries from Wal-Mart I used over 20 plastic bags when I could reduce the usage by carrying a personal reusable bag.
Another Cue: The fresh stimulus that made me reflect on this question was a video that we watched during a class presentation for new product development. The presentation was on customer creativity and consumption patterns and we saw the following video.
Thought Process:
The belief behind this campaign is that the easiest way to change people's behavior for the better is by making it fun to do- The fun theory. Fun games look like an interesting way to initiate a change I was impressed with the concept however in the next instance I was wondering whether such changes are truly sustainable. What frameworks, incentives, campaigns would prove to be effective over a long term . I have myself never taken any psychology classes so my understanding of this problem is not very clear but I am willing to learn.I do not have the answer to this question but I would like to investigate and analyze this concept further.
To sum up: Looking at the problem I realize that conscious effort is required to reduce our plastic consumption. I cannot aim to discover a breakthrough ecofriendly replacement for plastic but I would like to identify ways in which usage patterns can be altered through creative conditioning exercises (campaigns) and identify models and frameworks that can sustain these changes.
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