Customer Reviews

Sustainability by Design: A Subversive Strategy for Transforming Our Consumer Culture

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

Mr. Ehrenfeld offers a broadly appealing and immediately accessible definition of sustainability: "sustainability is the possibility that humans and other life will flourish on the Earth forever."

Now isn't that what we really want? And to address this higher view of things, don't you necessarily need to think more deeply about the issue than simply neutralizing a negative situation--which is what virtually every other book in this genre attempts to do?

That's what I like about this book, that Ehrenfeld takes a systems look at a systemic issue. He looks at mindset -- the subtitle is "A Subversive Strategy for transforming Our Consumer Culture" -- and that's what is so attractive.

Ehrenfeld, formerly of MIT (a noted breeding ground for systems thinkers), is executive director of the International Society for Industrial Ecology and senior research scholar at Yale's School of Forestry and Environmental Studies, and you can tell he's been thinking about this for a long tim. It shows in how he approaches the challenge of sustainability. For example, he uses words and phrases that resonate will resonate with anyone who is interested in a more mindful approach to a complex issue. "Reflection" is the first threshold to cross, he says. And he talks about "structures," which appeals to my sense of the importance in properly framing problems. And he talks about "nurturing possibility."

You see, we too often incorrectly ask the question "What are the alternatives" before we ask "What is possible?"

If you're a fan of Peter Senge (who writes the Foreword) and The Fifth Discipline like I am, you'll enjoy the author's foray into single and double loop thinking. From there, he looks at root cause, that being an addiction to resources (a phrase I often use!) linked to the cultures of consumption in the modern, industrialized world. And then he offers his definition of sustainability, and the whole construct hangs together quite nicely.

Woven throughout the book is a subtext of respect, of simply caring about others and the world we live in enough to wrap our designs around that thought in a very purposeful way. If only we could hold that core value tightly enough, hold on to the tension created between where we are and where we need to be, our designs -- our innovation processes and innovative outcomes -- would go far in moving the planet toward a sustainable vision of the future.

And that future, the author says, does not have "a revolution waiting in the wings," because he does not believe "that such a revolution would necessarily be the best change mechanism."

Bought this book for my Energy and Society class. It is the last of four books we read this semester, and was an excellent conclusion to the course. The author addresses the root causes of energy scarcity and provides a basic framework for sustainability in which the human race can ultimately thrive.

5/5 Stars

I have found that this book is more than helpful in defining the sources of scarcity of natural resources and it defines how with sustainabilty we can thrive. Also the author looks at the possibilities and what can "become". The book also seems that it is more or less a culture change of the world and how they want everyone to just be less noisy and gaudy. Many things will need to change but the culture of the world is a big task.

John R. Ehrenfeld takes an ambitious, difficult path to move the reader's mindset from the current, consumer-crazed culture to the necessary mental model - the post-consumer-crazed, sustainability mindset.

This is a necessary book for those truly interested in "true sustainability." The major use of the term sustainability in today's culture refers to incremental changes made by corporations to make their products, processes and services less wasteful (doing good) while also saving money and earning additional revenue (doing well). But incremental changes by companies, while necessary (to buy time) is insufficient if the consumer mindset is not also changed. Our current mindset or mental model drives growth, the true underlying problem behind sustainability. Technology changes make short-run positive benefits, but as every system dynamics modeler knows, without tackling the underlying problem of growth such technology changes merely enable growth to proceed further. To the extent that people believe "the hype behind going green" then the current sustainability initiatives by companies can actually make the problem worse, ... by diverting attention away from the necessary changes required in our own consuming and cultural behavior.

Ehrenfeld lays out the deep intellectual basis for our future sustainability mindset. So, if you are not "up to" deep reflecting on our current culture, if you want a quick fix or the 5-steps your company can take now to be more profitable then don't buy this book. On the other hand, if you are searching for answers and want to have a better understanding of the true problem then this book should be a part of your collection. In fact, Ehrenfeld also goes a step further and supplies a path to change through the enhanced design of products (and institutional design issues). Both the underpinning of the current consumer mindset and the new path are well researched with a rich set of references.

In summary, this is not your typical sustainability book. But, it will be found on the bookshelves of all of the critical thinkers who will help move sustainability forward.

This should be a "must read" for Americans. We talk "Green", we use the word "sustainable" but do we indeed know what it really means? If you read the ads for Black Friday, as it is the day after Thanksgiving as I write this review, even the oblivious can see that consumerism drives our world, both culturally and financially. The author does a respectable job of conveying this message. I have not finished the book as of yet, but am impressed by the thought that went into this and the research that was done. Fine job!

"Sustainability by Design" is on the ROROTOKO list of cutting-edge intellectual nonfiction. Professor Ehrenfeld's book interview ran here as cover feature on February 3, 2009.

This is a good book. It can be a little pessimistic, especially in the first chapters, but I assume the current conditions are anything but optimistic, so the tone of the book is understandable...

This obscurantist tome isn't about sustainability at all, but rather the author's desire for a more holistic, more caring and more authentic world. People will think about each other and not their damn noisy cellphones, listen to Nature and those damn kids will get off his lawn. This will be accomplished with a mixture of focus groups, company nature retreats and stylish Swedish furniture.

The writing is impenetrable and the diagrams he uses to illustrate his points somehow make them harder to understand and his use of quotation marks calls for strict punishment.