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So imagine, you're in the supermarket,

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you're buying some groceries,

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and you get given the option

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for a plastic or a paper shopping bag.

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Which one do you choose if you want to do

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the right thing by the environment?

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Most people do pick the paper.

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Okay, let's think of why.

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It's brown to start with.

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Therefore, it must be good for the environment.

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It's biodegradable. It's reusable.

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In some cases, it's recyclable.

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So when people are looking at the plastic bag,

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it's likely they're thinking of something like this,

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which we all know is absolutely terrible

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and we should be avoiding at all expenses,

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these kinds of environmental damages.

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But people are often not thinking

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of something like this,

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which is the other end of the spectrum.

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When we produce materials,

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we need to extract them from the environment,

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and we need a whole bunch
of environmental impacts.

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You see, what happens is, when we need

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to make complex choices,

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us humans like really simple solutions,

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and so we often ask for simple solutions.

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And I work in design.

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I advise designers

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and innovators around sustainability,

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and everyone always says to me, "Oh Leyla,

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I just want the eco-materials."

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And I say, "Well, that's very complex,

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and we'll have to spend four hours talking about

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what exactly an eco-material means,

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because everything at some point

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comes from nature,

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and it's how you use the material

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that dictates the environmental impact.

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So what happens is, we have to rely

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on some sort of intuitive framework

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when we make decisions.

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So I like to call that intuitive framework

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our environmental folklore.

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Okay, it's either the little voice
at the back of your head,

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or it's that gut feeling you get

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when you've done the right thing,

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so when you've picked the paper bag

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or when you've bought a fuel-efficient car.

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And environmental folklore is a really important thing

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because we're trying to do the right thing.

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But how do we know if we're actually

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reducing the net environmental impacts

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that our actions as individuals and as professionals

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and as a society are actually having

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on the natural environment?

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So the thing about environmental folklore is

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it tends to be based on our experiences,

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the things we've heard from other people.

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It doesn't tend to be based
on any scientific framework.

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And this is really hard, because we live

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in incredibly complex systems.

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We have the human systems

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of how we communicate and interrelate

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and have our whole constructed society,

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of the industrial systems,

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which is essentially the entire economy,

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and then all of that has to operate

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within the biggest system,

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and, I would argue, the most important,

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the ecosystem.

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And you see, the choices that we make

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as an individual,

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but the choices that we make

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in every single job that we have,

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no matter how high or low
you are in the pecking order,

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has an impact on all of these systems.

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And the thing is that we have to find ways

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if we're actually going to address sustainability

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of interlocking those complex systems

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and making better choices that result

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in net environmental gains.

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What we need to do is we need to learn

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to do more with less.

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We have an increasing population,

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and everybody likes their mobile phones,

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especially in this situation here.

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So we need to find innovative ways of solving

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some of these problems that we face.

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And that's where this process called

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life cycle thinking comes in.

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So essentially, everything that is created

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goes through a series of life cycle stages,

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and we use this scientific process

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called life cycle assessment,

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or in America, you guys say life cycle analysis,

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in order to have a clearer picture of how

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everything that we do in the
technical part of those systems

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affects the natural environment.

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So we go all the way back

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to the extraction of raw materials,

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and then we look at manufacturing,

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we look at packaging and transportation,

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use, and end of life,

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and at every single one of these stages,

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the things that we do

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have an interaction with the natural environment,

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and we can monitor how that interaction

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is actually affecting the systems and services

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that make life on earth possible.

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And through doing this,

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we've learned some absolutely fascinating things.

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And we've busted a bunch of myths.

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So to start with,

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there's a word that's used a lot.

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It's used a lot in marketing,

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and it's used a lot, I think, in our conversation

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when we're talking about sustainability,

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and that's the word biodegradability.

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Now biodegradability is a material property.

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It is not a definition of environmental benefits.

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Allow me to explain.

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When something natural,

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something that's made from a cellulose fiber

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like a piece of bread, even, or any food waste,

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or even a piece of paper,

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when something natural ends up

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in the natural environment, it degrades normally.

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Its little carbon molecules that it stored up

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as it was growing are naturally released

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back into the atmosphere as carbon dioxide,

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but this is a net situation.

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Most natural things

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don't actually end up in nature.

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Most of the things, the waste that we produce,

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end up in landfill.

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Landfill is a different environment.

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In landfill, those same carbon molecules

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degrade in a different way,

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because a landfill is anaerobic.

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It's got no oxygen. It's tightly compacted and hot.

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Those same molecules, they become methane,

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and methane is a 25 times more potent

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greenhouse gas than carbon dioxide.

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So our old lettuces and products

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that we have thrown out that are made

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out of biodegradable materials,

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if they end up in landfill,

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contribute to climate change.

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You see, there are facilities now

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that can actually capture that methane

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and generate power,

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displacing the need for fossil fuel power,

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but we need to be smart about this.

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We need to identify how we can start to leverage

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these types of things that are already happening

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and start to design systems and services

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that alleviate these problems.

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Because right now, what people do
is they turn around and they say,

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"Let's ban plastic bags. We'll give people paper

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because that is better for the environment."

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But if you're throwing it in the bin,

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and your local landfill facility

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is just a normal one,

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then we're having what's called a double negative.

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Okay, I'm also a product designer by trade.

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I then did social science.

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And so I'm absolutely fascinated

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by consumer goods and how the consumer goods

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that we have kind of become immune to

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that fill our lives

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have an impact on the natural environment.

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And these guys are, like, serial offenders,

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and I'm pretty sure everyone in this room

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has a refrigerator.

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Now America has this amazing ability

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to keep growing refrigerators.

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In the last few years, they've grown one cubic foot

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on average, the standard size

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of a refrigerator,

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and the problem is, they're so big now,

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it's easier for us to buy more food

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that we can't eat or find.

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I mean, I have things at the back of my refrigerator

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that have been there for years, all right?

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And so what happens is, we waste more food.

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And as I was just explaining,
food waste is a problem.

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In fact, here in the U.S., 40 percent

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of food purchased for the home is wasted.

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Half of the world's produced food is wasted.

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That's the latest U.N. stats. Up to half of the food.

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It's insane. It's 1.3 billion tons of food per annum.

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And I blame it on the refrigerator,

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well, especially in Western cultures,

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because it makes it easier.

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I mean, there's a lot of complex
systems going on here.

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I don't want to make it so simplistic.

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But the refrigerator is a serious contributor to this,

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and one of the features of it

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is the crisper drawer.

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You all got crisper drawers?

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You know, the draw that you put your lettuces in?

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Lettuces have a habit of going soggy

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in the crisper drawer, don't they.

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Yeah? Soggy lettuces?

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In the U.K., this is such a problem

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that there was a government report a few years ago

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that actually said the second-biggest offender

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of wasted food in the U.K. is the soggy lettuce.

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It was called "the soggy lettuce report."

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Okay? So this is a problem, people.

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These poor little lettuces are getting thrown out

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left, right, and center, because the crisper drawers

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are not designed to actually keep things crisp.

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Okay. You need a tight environment.

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You need, like, an airless environment

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to prevent the degrading that
would happen naturally.

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But the crisper drawers, they're just a drawer

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with, like, a slightly better seal.

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Anyway, I'm clearly obsessed. All right?

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Don't ever invite me over because I'll just

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start going through your refrigerator

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and looking at all sorts of things like that.

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But essentially, this is a big problem.

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Because when we lose something
like the lettuce from the system,

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not only do we have that impact I just explained

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at the end of life,

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but we actually have had to grow that lettuce.

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The life cycle impact of that lettuce is astronomical.

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We've had to clear land.

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We've had to plant seeds, phosphorus,

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fertilizers, nutrients, water, sunlight.

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All of the embodied impacts in that lettuce

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get lost from the system,

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which makes it a far bigger environmental impact

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than the loss of the energy from the fridge.

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So we need to design things like this far better

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if we're going to start addressing
serious environmental problems.

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We could start with the crisper drawer and the size.

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For those of you in the room who do design fridges,

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that would be great.

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Okay, so the problem is, so imagine if we

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actually started to reconsider how we design things.

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So I look at the refrigerator as a sign of modernity,

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but we actually haven't really changed the design

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of them that much since the 1950s.

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A little bit, but essentially they're still big boxes,

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cold boxes that we store stuff in.

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So imagine if we actually really started

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to identify these problems and use that

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as the foundation for finding innovative and elegant

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design solutions that will solve those problems.

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This is design-led system change,

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design dictating the way in which the system

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can be far more sustainable.

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Forty percent food waste is a major problem.

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Imagine if we designed fridges that halved that.

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Another item that I find fascinating

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is the electric tea kettle,

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which I found out that you guys don't really,

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you don't do tea kettles in
this country, really, do you.

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But that's really big in the U.K.

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Ninety-seven percent of households

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in the United Kingdom own an electric tea kettle.

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So they're very popular.

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And, I mean, if I were to work with a design firm

267
00:09:59,070 --> 00:10:01,322
or a designer, and they were designing one of these,

268
00:10:01,322 --> 00:10:02,561
and they wanted to do it eco,

269
00:10:02,561 --> 00:10:04,479
they'd usually ask me two things.

270
00:10:04,479 --> 00:10:07,523
They'd say, "Leyla, how do I
make it technically efficient?"

271
00:10:07,523 --> 00:10:10,811
Because obviously energy's
a problem with this product.

272
00:10:10,811 --> 00:10:13,876
Or, "How do I make it green materials?

273
00:10:13,876 --> 00:10:16,786
How do I make the materials green

274
00:10:16,786 --> 00:10:18,608
in the manufacturing?"

275
00:10:18,608 --> 00:10:20,411
Would you ask me those questions?

276
00:10:20,411 --> 00:10:23,210
They seem logical, right? Yeah.

277
00:10:23,210 --> 00:10:25,769
Well I'd say, "You're looking at the wrong problems."

278
00:10:25,769 --> 00:10:27,927
Because the problem is with use.

279
00:10:27,927 --> 00:10:30,602
It's with how people use the product.

280
00:10:30,602 --> 00:10:32,253
Sixty-five percent of Brits

281
00:10:32,253 --> 00:10:34,781
admit to over-filling their kettle

282
00:10:34,781 --> 00:10:37,367
when they only need one cup of tea.

283
00:10:37,367 --> 00:10:40,110
All of this extra water that's being boiled

284
00:10:40,110 --> 00:10:44,078
requires energy, and it's been calculated

285
00:10:44,078 --> 00:10:47,116
that in one day of extra energy use

286
00:10:47,116 --> 00:10:48,659
from boiling kettles

287
00:10:48,659 --> 00:10:51,301
is enough to light all of the streetlights

288
00:10:51,301 --> 00:10:54,724
in England for a night.

289
00:10:54,724 --> 00:10:55,719
But this is the thing, right?

290
00:10:55,719 --> 00:10:57,956
This is what I call a product person failure.

291
00:10:57,956 --> 00:11:00,702
But we've got a product system failure
going on with these little guys,

292
00:11:00,702 --> 00:11:02,028
and they're so ubiquitous, you know,

293
00:11:02,028 --> 00:11:03,604
you don't even notice they're there.

294
00:11:03,604 --> 00:11:05,718
And this guy over here, though, he does.

295
00:11:05,718 --> 00:11:06,809
He's named Simon.

296
00:11:06,809 --> 00:11:10,132
Simon works for the national
electricity company in the U.K.

297
00:11:10,132 --> 00:11:12,274
He has a very important job of monitoring

298
00:11:12,274 --> 00:11:14,713
all of the electricity coming into the system

299
00:11:14,713 --> 00:11:16,126
to make sure there is enough

300
00:11:16,126 --> 00:11:18,054
so it powers everybody's homes.

301
00:11:18,054 --> 00:11:20,158
He's also watching television.

302
00:11:20,158 --> 00:11:22,131
The reason is is because there's a unique

303
00:11:22,131 --> 00:11:23,949
phenomenon that happens in the U.K.

304
00:11:23,949 --> 00:11:28,341
the moment that very popular TV shows end.

305
00:11:28,341 --> 00:11:30,225
The minute the ad break comes on,

306
00:11:30,225 --> 00:11:32,062
this man has to rush

307
00:11:32,062 --> 00:11:35,118
to buy nuclear power from France,

308
00:11:35,118 --> 00:11:38,007
because everybody turns their kettles on

309
00:11:38,007 --> 00:11:40,072
at the same time.

310
00:11:40,072 --> 00:11:42,318
(Laughter)

311
00:11:42,318 --> 00:11:48,303
1.5 million kettles, seriously problematic.

312
00:11:48,303 --> 00:11:51,872
So imagine if you designed kettles,

313
00:11:51,872 --> 00:11:54,612
you actually found a way to
solve these system failures,

314
00:11:54,612 --> 00:11:57,277
because this is a huge amount of pressure

315
00:11:57,277 --> 00:11:58,668
on the system,

316
00:11:58,668 --> 00:12:02,104
just because the product hasn't
thought about the problem

317
00:12:02,104 --> 00:12:03,967
that it's going to have when it exists in the world.

318
00:12:03,967 --> 00:12:06,635
Now, I looked at a number of
kettles available on the market,

319
00:12:06,635 --> 00:12:08,657
and found the minimum fill lines,

320
00:12:08,657 --> 00:12:10,423
so the little piece of information that tells you

321
00:12:10,423 --> 00:12:11,980
how much you need to put in there,

322
00:12:11,980 --> 00:12:14,899
was between two and a five-and-a-half cups of water

323
00:12:14,899 --> 00:12:18,332
just to make one cup of tea.

324
00:12:18,332 --> 00:12:20,617
So this kettle here is an example of one where

325
00:12:20,617 --> 00:12:22,169
it actually has two boiling chambers,

326
00:12:22,169 --> 00:12:23,155
or, sorry, two reservoirs.

327
00:12:23,155 --> 00:12:25,340
One's a boiling chamber, and one's the water holder.

328
00:12:25,340 --> 00:12:27,665
The user actually has to push that button

329
00:12:27,665 --> 00:12:29,233
to get their hot water boiled,

330
00:12:29,233 --> 00:12:30,999
which means, because we're all lazy,

331
00:12:30,999 --> 00:12:32,841
you only fill exactly what you need.

332
00:12:32,841 --> 00:12:35,165
And this is what I call behavior-changing products:

333
00:12:35,165 --> 00:12:37,277
products, systems, or services

334
00:12:37,277 --> 00:12:41,136
that intervene and solve these problems up front.

335
00:12:41,136 --> 00:12:43,786
Now, this is a technology arena,

336
00:12:43,786 --> 00:12:45,847
so obviously these things are quite popular,

337
00:12:45,847 --> 00:12:47,815
but I think if we're going to keep

338
00:12:47,815 --> 00:12:50,232
designing, buying, and using and throwing out

339
00:12:50,232 --> 00:12:52,098
these kinds of products at the rate we currently do,

340
00:12:52,098 --> 00:12:54,562
which is astronomically high,

341
00:12:54,562 --> 00:12:56,396
there are seven billion people, right,

342
00:12:56,396 --> 00:12:57,806
who live in the world right now.

343
00:12:57,806 --> 00:12:59,993
There are six billion mobile phone subscriptions

344
00:12:59,993 --> 00:13:03,659
as of last year.

345
00:13:03,659 --> 00:13:07,181
Every single year, 1.5 billion mobile phones

346
00:13:07,181 --> 00:13:08,434
roll off production lines,

347
00:13:08,434 --> 00:13:10,505
and some companies report their production rate

348
00:13:10,505 --> 00:13:13,302
as being greater than the human birthrate.

349
00:13:13,302 --> 00:13:15,785
152 million phones were thrown
out in the U.S. last year.

350
00:13:15,785 --> 00:13:17,869
Only 11 percent were recycled.

351
00:13:17,869 --> 00:13:21,227
I'm from Australia. We have a
population of 22 million. Don't laugh.

352
00:13:21,227 --> 00:13:24,300
And it's been reported that 22 million phones

353
00:13:24,300 --> 00:13:26,907
are in people's drawers.

354
00:13:26,907 --> 00:13:30,628
We need to find ways of solving
the problems around this,

355
00:13:30,628 --> 00:13:33,525
because these things are so complicated.

356
00:13:33,525 --> 00:13:36,831
They have so much locked up inside them.

357
00:13:36,831 --> 00:13:40,594
Gold: did you know that it's actually cheaper now

358
00:13:40,594 --> 00:13:44,211
to get gold out of a ton of old mobile phones

359
00:13:44,211 --> 00:13:47,439
than it is out of a ton of gold ore?

360
00:13:47,439 --> 00:13:49,829
There's a number of highly complex and valuable

361
00:13:49,829 --> 00:13:51,430
materials embodied inside these things,

362
00:13:51,430 --> 00:13:53,888
so we need to find ways of encouraging disassembly,

363
00:13:53,888 --> 00:13:56,052
because this is otherwise what happens.

364
00:13:56,052 --> 00:13:57,726
This is a community in Ghana,

365
00:13:57,726 --> 00:13:59,984
and e-waste is reported, or electronic waste

366
00:13:59,984 --> 00:14:01,960
is reported by the U.N.

367
00:14:01,960 --> 00:14:04,992
as being up to 50 million tons trafficked.

368
00:14:04,992 --> 00:14:06,306
This is how they get the gold

369
00:14:06,306 --> 00:14:07,840
and the other valuable materials out.

370
00:14:07,840 --> 00:14:09,778
They burn the electronic waste

371
00:14:09,778 --> 00:14:11,809
in open spaces.

372
00:14:11,809 --> 00:14:14,944
These are communities, and this
is happening all over the world.

373
00:14:14,944 --> 00:14:17,491
And because we don't see the ramifications

374
00:14:17,491 --> 00:14:19,320
of the choices that we make as designers,

375
00:14:19,320 --> 00:14:21,790
as businesspeople, as consumers,

376
00:14:21,790 --> 00:14:23,403
then these kinds of externalities happen,

377
00:14:23,403 --> 00:14:25,705
and these are people's lives.

378
00:14:25,705 --> 00:14:30,153
So we need to find smarter, more systems-based,

379
00:14:30,153 --> 00:14:33,069
innovative solutions to these problems,

380
00:14:33,069 --> 00:14:36,845
if we're going to start to live
sustainably within this world.

381
00:14:36,845 --> 00:14:40,818
So imagine if, when you bought your mobile phone,

382
00:14:40,818 --> 00:14:42,170
your new one because you replaced your old one

383
00:14:42,170 --> 00:14:44,883
— after 15 to 18 months is the average time

384
00:14:44,883 --> 00:14:46,987
that people replace their phones, by the way —

385
00:14:46,987 --> 00:14:49,972
so if we're going to keep this kind of expedient

386
00:14:49,972 --> 00:14:52,210
mobile phone replacing, then we should

387
00:14:52,210 --> 00:14:54,259
be looking at closing the loop on the systems.

388
00:14:54,259 --> 00:14:56,170
The people who produce these phones,

389
00:14:56,170 --> 00:14:57,999
and some of which I'm sure
are in the room right now,

390
00:14:57,999 --> 00:15:00,677
could potentially look at what
we call closed-loop systems,

391
00:15:00,677 --> 00:15:02,245
or product system services,

392
00:15:02,245 --> 00:15:04,308
so identifying that there is a market demand

393
00:15:04,308 --> 00:15:06,324
and that market demand's not going to go anywhere,

394
00:15:06,324 --> 00:15:09,377
so you design the product to solve the problem.

395
00:15:09,377 --> 00:15:11,716
Design for disassembly, design for light-weighting.

396
00:15:11,716 --> 00:15:13,652
We heard some of those kinds of strategies

397
00:15:13,652 --> 00:15:16,941
being used in the Tesla Motors car today.

398
00:15:16,941 --> 00:15:19,053
These kinds of approaches are not hard,

399
00:15:19,053 --> 00:15:20,911
but understanding the system

400
00:15:20,911 --> 00:15:24,442
and then looking for viable, market-driven

401
00:15:24,442 --> 00:15:26,425
consumer demand alternatives

402
00:15:26,425 --> 00:15:28,976
is how we can start radically altering

403
00:15:28,976 --> 00:15:30,783
the sustainability agenda,

404
00:15:30,783 --> 00:15:32,654
because I hate to break it to you all:

405
00:15:32,654 --> 00:15:35,457
consumption is the biggest problem.

406
00:15:35,457 --> 00:15:40,719
But design is one of the best solutions.

407
00:15:40,719 --> 00:15:42,903
These kinds of products are everywhere.

408
00:15:42,903 --> 00:15:45,571
By identifying alternative ways of doing things,

409
00:15:45,571 --> 00:15:47,166
we can actually start to innovate,

410
00:15:47,166 --> 00:15:48,559
and I say actually start to innovate.

411
00:15:48,559 --> 00:15:51,044
I'm sure everyone in this room is very innovative.

412
00:15:51,044 --> 00:15:53,398
But in the regards to using sustainability

413
00:15:53,398 --> 00:15:56,085
as a parameter, as a criteria

414
00:15:56,085 --> 00:16:00,302
for fueling systems-based solutions,

415
00:16:00,302 --> 00:16:03,207
because as I've just demonstrated
with these simple products,

416
00:16:03,207 --> 00:16:06,598
they're participating in these major problems.

417
00:16:06,598 --> 00:16:08,753
So we need to look across the entire life

418
00:16:08,753 --> 00:16:10,375
of the things that we do.

419
00:16:10,375 --> 00:16:12,090
If you just had paper or plastic,

420
00:16:12,090 --> 00:16:14,854
obviously reusable is far more beneficial,

421
00:16:14,854 --> 00:16:18,325
then the paper is worse,

422
00:16:18,325 --> 00:16:20,371
and the paper is worse because it weighs

423
00:16:20,371 --> 00:16:22,475
four to 10 times more than the plastic,

424
00:16:22,475 --> 00:16:24,842
and when we actually compare,
from a life cycle perspective,

425
00:16:24,842 --> 00:16:27,532
a kilo of plastic and a kilo of paper,

426
00:16:27,532 --> 00:16:29,178
the paper is far better,

427
00:16:29,178 --> 00:16:31,718
but the functionality of a plastic or a paper bag

428
00:16:31,718 --> 00:16:32,687
to carry your groceries home

429
00:16:32,687 --> 00:16:35,308
is not done with a kilo of each material.

430
00:16:35,308 --> 00:16:37,302
It's done with a very small amount of plastic

431
00:16:37,302 --> 00:16:38,995
and quite a lot more paper.

432
00:16:38,995 --> 00:16:41,953
Because functionality defines environmental impact,

433
00:16:41,953 --> 00:16:44,786
and I said earlier that the designers
always ask me for the eco-materials.

434
00:16:44,786 --> 00:16:46,887
I say, you know, there's only a few materials

435
00:16:46,887 --> 00:16:47,831
that you should completely avoid.

436
00:16:47,831 --> 00:16:49,730
The rest of them, it's all about application,

437
00:16:49,730 --> 00:16:52,411
and at the end of the day, everything
we design and produce in the economy

438
00:16:52,411 --> 00:16:55,089
or buy as consumers is done so for function.

439
00:16:55,089 --> 00:16:57,206
We want something, therefore we buy it.

440
00:16:57,206 --> 00:17:00,362
So breaking things back down and delivering

441
00:17:00,362 --> 00:17:04,361
smartly, elegantly, sophisticated solutions

442
00:17:04,361 --> 00:17:07,158
that take into consideration the entire system

443
00:17:07,158 --> 00:17:10,253
and the entire life of the thing, everything,

444
00:17:10,253 --> 00:17:13,089
all the way back to the extraction
through to the end of life,

445
00:17:13,089 --> 00:17:15,891
we can start to actually find
really innovative solutions.

446
00:17:15,891 --> 00:17:17,961
And I'll just leave you with one very quick thing

447
00:17:17,961 --> 00:17:20,927
that a designer said to me recently who I work with,

448
00:17:20,942 --> 00:17:21,788
a senior designer, I said,

449
00:17:21,788 --> 00:17:24,009
"How come you're not doing sustainability?

450
00:17:24,009 --> 00:17:24,886
You know, I know you know this."

451
00:17:24,886 --> 00:17:28,928
And he said, "Well, recently I pitched
a sustainability project to a client,

452
00:17:28,928 --> 00:17:30,869
and turned and he said to me,

453
00:17:30,869 --> 00:17:32,634
'I know it's going to cost less,

454
00:17:32,634 --> 00:17:34,252
I know it's going to sell more,

455
00:17:34,252 --> 00:17:39,449
but we're not pioneers, because
pioneers have arrows in their backs.'"

456
00:17:39,449 --> 00:17:40,942
I think we've got a roomful of pioneers,

457
00:17:40,942 --> 00:17:42,627
and I hope there are far more pioneers out there,

458
00:17:42,627 --> 00:17:44,027
because we need to solve these problems.

459
00:17:44,027 --> 00:17:46,727
Thank you.

460
00:17:46,727 --> 00:17:50,210
(Applause)