Water purification, nutritious food, mosquito netting, affordable housing, and a pair of shoes. PlanetShifter.com Magazine is down with Chicago Sustainability Designer Karen Kranz

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Water purification, nutritious food, mosquito netting, affordable housing, and a pair of shoes. PlanetShifter.com Magazine is down with Chicago Sustainability Designer Karen Kranz.

Generation Green is not an age group. It’s not about politics or personality, demographics or geography. It’s all of us. You are Generation Green, and we want to know:

What are you doing to redefine our future?
- USGBC

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But first, Ms. Kranz’s PlanetShifter.com Sustainability Questionnaire :

My Suggestions

Engaging stakeholders that can help consumers understand the benefits and necessity of making smarter decisions about their purchases and uses of natural resources. Currently, the "fringe" consumer, early adopters are well informed. But, we are not yet able to easily, fully articulate the benefits to those who are less engaged.

Our language still sounds punitive and didactic -- a sure fired turn off to the average consumer. We have not yet mastered a way to engage the general consumer/user. It's not yet a part of our vernacular.

A large part of the issues we face stem from the ignorance of our congressional and corporate leaders. When you have the extreme right advocating for big business instead of the future of our environment, it's difficult to motivate individuals to change. The masses get mixed messages because they don't see their "leaders" leading.

Pictures speak louder than words. We are a power point culture. Visualizing the crisis, visualizing the ease of day to day solutions and visualizing the benefits of being a change maker can be very motivating.

Additionally, reach out to youth. Kids love to belong. They're highly social. Creating organizations and events that are kid friendly can help engage and educate them to pressure adult behavioral changes. (It's why Happy Meals are so successful in selling more burgers -- the kid nag factor).

A little farther up the chain of consumers, there are young women who are thinking about planning families. This is a window of opportunity when women in particular begin to pay special attention to all things that will affect the children they have or are planning to have. They change everything from their diets to the products they use in their homes.

Educating multiple targets can help increase traction of the message.

My Creativity

Understanding sustainable strategies and lifestyles has expanded my creativity, encouraging me and my colleagues to build smarter, systems-based solutions that hit on all cylinders rather than solve a problem or need inaccurately. Working towards sustainable strategies is more intellectually challenging and gratifying personally because the contribution to society and the environment adds meaning to your work.

My Statement

I am an user-centered design strategist with a focus on sustainable strategies. My methodology consists of understanding consumer and user unmet needs, to observe how they work around their current needs, and to help create sustainable solutions through educating clients as well as users.

My Organizations

USGBC Chicago Chapter

My Products

Seventh Generation products for my home, Clorox Green products for my home, Organic food, low VOC paint, bamboo flooring, high efficiency furnace, insulated floors, windows and doors, dual flush toilet, Additionally, it's not only about what I purchase, but how I've changed my habits as a consumer, making a point to purchase as many products as possible with as little packaging as possible. I also purchase as many previously owned products as possible, and read as much as possible on my Kindle.

Interview with Karen Kranz by Willi Paul

You are a user-centered design strategist with a focus on sustainable strategies. Who are your users?

"My" users are my clients' users -- of products or services. You could be one of "my" users, for example. My goal is to help my clients develop products and services that are the best fit and the most responsible choices, reducing waste which leads to more purchases and less landfill.

Isn’t an “un-met need” just the same old path to consumer exploitation?

Not if it's a product or service that was designed responsibly and serves an actual need instead of merely driving consumerism for the sake of consumerism.

What are “good” un-met needs?

"Good" unmet user needs are those that solve problems in your life that you may not be able to articulate -- to yourself or others -- so you keep buying stuff that doesn't really meet your needs in pursuit/hope that the next (stupid, lame, ill-conceived) product or service will meet you unmet need.

If a product or service is designed well, it not only serves the purpose it was designed for, it mitigates as much waste as possible -- before, during and after the purchase.

Tell us more about the team innovation strategies that work (and do not work) for your firm?

I don't have a firm.

Team innovation strategies involve framing a problem or opportunity, researching users/consumers, could involve workshops as a form of data gathering, synthesizing that information and designing a solution.

Start with the right questions, have reasons for everything you do, think of things in terms of systems and a bigger picture = smarter products and services and less waste.
What does the post-consumer society look like in your view? What values operate there?

Personally, I think we're (unfortunately) far from a post-consumer society. As long as we have Wal-Mart, K-Mart and Target mass merchandising inexpensive, disposable junk that people buy because they can, we will continue to be far from a post-consumer society.

However, the good news is I do think consumers are (slowly) becoming enlightened...in part because of the current economic crisis, in part because of the aging boomer segment (when downsizing becomes a major activity) and in part (thank God) because there is a segment of the population that is just getting smarter and better informed.

Not all consumerism is awful. Some of it actually serves a purpose. Life would be far less delightful if there were no toothbrushes, toilet paper, shampoo, etc. What most people don't need are three luxury automobiles, or two five bedroom/7.5 bath homes.

Some people need water purification, nutritious food, mosquito netting, affordable housing, and a pair of shoes. Generally, those people lives tens of thousands of miles away from us. They are the extreme in need.

So, I do think a level of consumerism serves a purpose. I just don't think extreme, irresponsible consumerism is a lifestyle I'm comfortable with.

I like to think the future holds smarter products that are designed to serve multiple purposes across the board, and this in turn should produce less waste.

Most of us live very differently than we did 50 years ago. Our lives tend to be far more casual. "Fine, formal dining" -- is a thing of the past for example. In fact, many things that defined conspicuous consumerism of the 80's are now considered embarrassingly cheesy, and most people would not be caught dead shopping for or using many things we aspired to 20-ish years ago.

Additionally, easy credit (which is not so easy anymore) made things that were once considered status symbols far too accessible to the masses. Not to mention the entire industry based on producing cheap knock-offs of high priced originals. Those consumers who once relished owning extremely expensive items can no longer distinguish themselves with designer anythings because they're available to the low-income riff-raff through the magic credit cards. Do the affluent really want to be decked out like the lower class of wannabes? Hardly.

So how will the affluent distinguish themselves going forward? Not with stuff. They have begun to spend their cash on experiences and services -- things that are less conspicuous and nearly impossible to knock off in cheaper versions. They've begun to put greater emphasis on experiences and less emphasis on stuff. Hopefully, the trend will catch on and we'll have less junk on the shelves and some of the mass merchandisers will be forced to close in good time.

One of my heroes is Muhammad Yunus, mostly known as the father of microfinancing. More recently, he has become known for his work developing a new business model called social business, which could in many cases replace the need for philanthropy, elevate the standard of living of people at "the bottom of the pyramid", and help rev the global economy.

Is it time to tear down the current government system and start anew? Ideas?

Hmmm. Tear down the current government system. Sounds like anarchy to me. Personally, I think our system went into the dumper in the 80's with Mr. Trickle Down Economics.

Having worked in any number of large organizations, I know first hand, almost nothing trickles down.

I do think we need to take our government back from Wall Street, I think we need to modify the concept of shareholder value which was a good idea run amok, and I think we need to beef up our education system across the board so people understand how our government was designed to work and, they can vote more intelligently and responsibly.

I also think we need to teach young people the difference between hype and fact, the difference between 15 minutes of fame and an actual contribution to society, and I think everyone should be required to pass a civics test that includes information on ethics -- because this appears to be something that children no longer learn from their families.

We've lost our moral compass. We're out of whack. We've swung way too far to the right, and now, we have to swing a little too far to the left just to find the middle again.

I don't think anything taken to an extreme is sustainable nor is it healthy.

I do think we should collectively start moving away from being the "me" country to the "greater good" country we once were -- that would make us leaders in this horribly messed up world.

How does the USGBC Chicago Chapter operate internally? Is this an organizational model for the sustainability age?

I'm not sure what this question means or what it has to do with anything. The US Green Building Council's Chicago Chapter exists to help educate people about sustainable construction and design. Like any other non-profit, it does its best with whatever resources it has. The conduct workshops, educational seminars, offer classes, etc.

I've heard a lot of criticism about the LEED system -- that it's just a big money making scheme, etc. I personally don't agree with that point of view. I think the LEED system is a great awareness building model, it's aspirational among certain professionals and businesses and it helps educate people about certain practices and principles that contribute to responsible behavior in construction, design and consumer decision making.

Eventually, many of the issues we struggle with today will be very mainstream, and some of the frameworks (like LEED) that we advocate today won't be as necessary, if necessary at all in the future. Each generation does it better because each generation learns from the past. It's just a horribly, slow, painful process.

What are three common values that kids should have globally now?

Kids should learn:

* SOCIAL PERSPECTIVE: they should learn to be aware that they are part of a much larger social system and what they want is not always the most important thing

* SHARING: they should be required to do something socially constructive as part of their educational curriculum -- solve a social problem, help other children who are less fortunate, do something tangible that shifts their focus from themselves and what they want 24/7. They should learn that even small acts have a chain reaction that can produce great results. They should learn to share for the sake of sharing, and not for personal gain, reward or attention.

* RESPECT: they should learn the concept of respect in general -- of the environment, structure, social order, the rights of others, social boundaries, those with more life experience than they have. They should learn to respect the past so they don't repeat the same mistakes. And, they should learn to respect those less fortunate than they are because the tables can turn and they can very easily find themselves in unfortunate circumstances.

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Connections –
Karen Kranz
karenkranz19 at gmail.com