#5: Impact of inquiry

My area of inquiry is around sustainability and the use of Artificial intelligence technologies to support Sustainability Goals of the world.

I used to believe that sustainability is a milestone of a huge International body that is working towards this goal in itself as I was following the United Nations a lot since my undergrad days. Then I realized that almost all of the world's societies acknowledge that they aim for a combination of economic development, environmental sustainability, and social inclusion, but the specific objectives differ globally, between and within societies. Thus, a need for designers and makers to beg, borrow or steal greater sensitivity in their work, keeping in mind-what is at stake.

In 2016, came the SDGS by the UN. What I realized was that it's more about the willingness to join a journey which is driving a tendency of mine to contribute as a designer. Design education had already empowered me to believe that as a designer we are already playing a crucial role that can change the dynamics of any game. Ban Ki Moon, the UN Secretary General announced 17 SDGs as global goals which were set to transform the world by 2030. Each of these goals are inter-related, which means that any impact towards just 1 goal affects multiple others and thereby pushes the status quo of the scenario in 2030.

As these goals were announced, I had shared a couple of interesting videos and a personal encounter with several friends that time because somewhere they had moved my mental model of sustainability and I wanted to talk to someone about it. This time I wish to document this experience of sharing it here.

Sustainability is not a milestone, but an attitude to be willing to contribute to a journey which is complex.

One of them was Tsering Togbay, the Bhutanese Prime minister, who challenged the world’s industrialists and “big whales” sitting during his TED talk to consider action and think about the scale of impact affecting their small landlocked country that is doing their best themselves, however, is affected by the decisions of other around them. How as being one of the smallest nations of the world, they are striving to be not just carbon neutral but “carbon-negative”.

The other one was a controversial documentary produced by the Leonardo Decaprio Foundation: “Before the Flood”- which is about climate change. Another appeal to all that the time to make a change by switching your light bulbs is gone and we have entered the era where we need massive steps towards thinking about the vulnerable inhabitants of the world.

My personal encounter last year with a co-founder of a For-profit creative manufacturing company in Bangalore, called Industree in India was another deep understanding of my abilities as a designer to contribute towards this needed change. I saw how this company was striving toward empowering a million producers to be able to sustain themselves by organizing their traditional skill base to cater to the evolving needs of the market. I realized how a small manufacturing led ecosystem of a village in Orissa is contributing towards the goals of 2030 by working with IKEA-the global giant manufacturing company. At this point, I wish to acknowledge the evolution of various societies of the world and see how designers can contribute using artificial intelligence as a growing technology of the future.