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Since 2016, the United Nations has published the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and outlined several ways to address the 17 main goals by 2030. The 12th of the 17 goals is Responsible Consumption and Production. This goal is one of the most relevant to our lives, as it aims to improve the global environment alongside a range of other issues for humanity such as poverty, hunger, gender equality, and sanitation. Then what is sustainable consumption and production, and what can we do towards the goal as designers?

First, let's talk about sustainability. It's a ubiquitous term now, but it all started with a 1987 report from the World Commission on Environment and Development (WCED). It defined sustainable development as "development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs." In other words, we should consume our resources in a way that leaves enough for the next generation. And it starts with trees. Industrialized wood resources grow in managed forests, and after a certain period, they are cut down and turned into material. In their place, younger trees are planted to complete the cycle, which is the beginning of sustainability. The reason why we see the term sustainability so much now is because the same logic should be applied to resource utilization in all industries. So, how does design relate to this trend?

Designers are practitioners on the front lines of production and consumption. Before a product is introduced to the market, we think about how it should look and function, and once it's on the market, we design all the mediums through which it communicates with consumers. We may call it product design, communication design, brand design or something else, but regardless, designers play the key role in the production and consumption of goods.

The biggest issue here is actually materials. When it comes to production, materials are the foundation and the beginning of an industry. However, it is safe to say that materials are rarely discussed at the center of the actual product development process. Materials are mostly determined by price, and even then, they are an afterthought in the development process. However, this has been changing in recent years. As an extension of the Material-driven Design Methodology, we are seeing a lot of attempts to put materials at the forefront of every step of the process and let them drive the entire process. The reason for this is simple. The shift from looking at products through the lens of economic logic to considering environmental logic naturally puts materials at the center. To do so, designers will need to understand the entire system of production, use, and disposal, not just the processing and utilization of materials, and design in the best way possible within it.

A designer's role is not just to think about materials when creating a product. Even after the product is created, the designer must constantly communicate the need and justification for the material to the consumer. It's a process of persuasion. Conventional economic logic dictates that products made from sustainable materials should be more expensive. However, if we consider the environmental value of the entire cycle of production, use, and disposal, the cost is not high. The challenge is to convince consumers to share in the costs that will be incurred in the future, not now. This logic is only possible if we think about society and the environment, not the individual, and it is the role of the designer to express and make this logic understandable. That way, consumers can make the right choices. If we think of the act of consuming as a vote that can change the world, then design can help consumers cast their vote for the values they support with refined and accurate information, rather than confusing information.

In every era, design has always reflected the zeitgeist of the time, changing and influencing the world. In this sense, the UN's announcement of sustainable consumption and production, along with the dizzying news in the world, is something that we as designers need to reflect on.