Dear members of the list,
I kindly request a few minutes of your time, I thank you in advance:
When talking about sustainability, for designers, engineers, creators and entrepreneurs in general the true challenge lies in accepting that “business as usual” is no longer feasible, their creativity and innovation needs to go beyond that.
Being truly sustainable requires the inclusion of the characteristics of cyclic flows and diversity among ecosystems. Translating this into human economic systems refers to the creation of business models which achieve: Size and distribution accordingly to the resources locally available. This also empowers diversity by adapting these business models to local characteristics and needs without neglecting possible global strategies. Resources are considered capital rather than income, thus continuous flow and use of materials are strictly managed. Therefore, businesses search economic growth in non-material values and equity in their distribution.
The challenge is to shift the mindsets of those currently using products as income (meant to be spent), to encourage treating them as capital (meant to be kept and grown).
As part of my doctoral project, I am exploring how the design process is affected when integrating all these concepts in the very early stages of design practice. With this in mind, I have developed a free online tool to enable people with any professional background to play with basic lifecycle variables and engage in producing these types of strategic alternatives. By doing this it broadens the perspectives of stakeholders and inspires their curiosity to search for new and more coherent possibilities.
While Life Cycle Analysis (hard modelling) tools serve to provide detailed understanding of impacts of existing product ideas, Trophec (soft modelling) serves to improve the envisioning of new products, new business strategies and their entire systems.
The software is free to use and I’m inviting people, including students, independent professionals or companies, to engage in this research in three different ways:
1.- By simply using the tool as much as you want, it is free for anyone, regardless of age, profession or experience.
2.- By allowing me to engage with your team in one of your projects to develop a case study, if you want to participate please reply to this email.
3.- By helping me to improve the tool. (So far I have worked alone, UX designers, graphic designers and engineers surely have ideas that can make of Trophec a much more useful tool.)
All information and data generated will be made anonymous and will not be shared with anyone without prior consent.
Trophec is in its early stages of development and testing. I encourage you to try it.
It will be available throughout 2013.
All feedback will be greatly appreciated: [log in to unmask]
You can find the tool here: www.trophec.com<http://www.trophec.com>
You can also find us in: www.facebook.com/trophic.economics<http://www.facebook.com/trophic.economics>
Best Regards,
Victor G. Martinez<http://www.northumbria.ac.uk/sd/academic/scd/aboutus/alltalkprofiles/phdstudents.jpg/martinez/>
Post Graduate Researcher
Centre for Design Research
Department of Design
Faculty of Arts, Design and Social Sciences
Northumbria University
www.trophec.com<http://www.trophec.com>
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