Greener Gadgets Conference: “Design for the Age of Consequence”

There was a portentous tone at this year’s Greener Gadgets Conference.  Right out of the gates, scientist/DIY guru/inventor and keynote speaker Saul Griffith minced few words about global warming.  He presented a dizzying array of graphs, charts and figures about our current energy consumption habits and the dire consequences that will almost certainly ensue if we continue at the rate we’re going.  One such figure showed how the average American would have to carry 23lbs. of oil to fuel his or her daily energy habit.  He stressed, in earnest, that we couldn’t persist in this way without inducing a global environmental catastrophe.

But the conference was not about global warming; it was about consumer electronics.  Griffith explained that in light of the information on global warming, we must reduce our energy consumption by 10 times.  In terms of personal electronics, that means one of two options:  giving up 90% of our consumer goods or making electronics 10 times more efficient.

Griffith seemed to propose a hybrid solution:  1. Reduce our needs, and 2. Make products more efficient, more serviceable and higher quality.  He introduced the concept of “heirloom quality” electronics.   He called it the “Mont Blanc/Rolex solution.”  Griffith, whose wife is expecting a baby boy in 7 weeks, said he wants to give the boy a Mont Blanc pen and a Rolex, and say, “there you go…that’s the last pen and watch you’ll need.”   This seems easy enough for low-tech devices like pens, but how do you achieve this with consumer electronics, products defined by their constant level of replacement in the name of innovation?

Aside from making products with superior design and build quality, we asked Griffith about upgradeability after his presentation.  “I’ve got one word:  cloud,” he said.  He explained that we are finally reaching a point in hardware’s computational power capabilities, where most upgrades no longer concern hardware.  Therefore, application upgrades–most of which can be achieved online–can be separated from the costly and environmentally harmful hardware upgrades.

Asked what’ll happen to companies that don’t make their products easily upgradeable or durable, he stated bluntly that even the biggest, most darling electronics leaders “will out of business in 15 years.”  He wants cell phones that last 15 years and he implied the designers of those phones might not be the tech giants we know.  “I hope Android [Google's free, open-source software platform] rapes and pillages,” he said.

A panel called “Green Design for Good,” discussed product design largely in the context of creating efficient and purposeful products for impoverished populations. Mark Bent of SunNight Solar and Rahul Sharma of radio manufacturer Freeplay Energy demonstrated that better design is green design.  For example, Bent’s company designed a hybrid solar/battery powered flashlight that lasts 5K hours before battery replacement.  His product, he said, is what happens when a flashlight company is motivated by designing the best flashlight versus designing the best means of draining (and selling) batteries.

“I don’t even like the word ‘gadget’—it suggests disposable”, Gadi Amit, founder of NewDealDesign said during the panel.  He wants to get away from gadgets and into something enduring.  Because many associate short lifecycle gadgets with continuous revenue, the moderator asked about profits.  Amit said, “Companies are looking more long-term…they are aware of how extra attention to design will pay off 10 years down the road.”  Similar to Griffith’s Mont Blanc/Rolex theory, Amit cited BMW and Mercedes as examples of where people are willing to pay more for better design and greater longevity.

Throughout the event, there was a general agreement that we can no longer afford—ecologically or financially or even aesthetically—to live in a disposable, poorly-designed consumer society.  Bent said consumers are “going to start asking, ‘why am I buying things that don’t make sense?’”

The final event of the day was a Greener Gadgets Design Competition moderated by Core77’s editor-in-chief Allan Chochinov.  While there were some interesting gadgets like the printer that uses spent coffee grounds instead of ink, the most curious (and controversial) entrant was an indoor laundry drying rack (seen above).  It was distinctly low-tech, but beautifully designed.  The fact that it could even be considered a gadget indicated a greater premium placed on elegant design and utility over gadgetry.  It won 3rd prize.  The 1st prize went to a device called Tweet-a-Watt (pictured below), which allows you to hack into your home’s power supply and broadcast your power usage as a continuous Twitter feed.  We think the reason it won was how effortlessly it spoke to our need to be reminded – actively – of our consumption habits and how our lifestyle choices— as minute, and day-to-day as they may be, impact the planet.