4.1 towards social equity and cohesion vezzoli 09-10

course System Design for Sustainability

TODAY:
4. (SYSTEM) DESIGN FOR SOCIAL EQUITY AND COHESION
4.1 Towards social equity and cohesion
4.2 System design for social equity and cohesion
4.3 System design for social equity/cohesion guidelines examples

carlo vezzoli
politecnico di milano . INDACO dpt. . DIS . faculty of design . Italy

Learning Network on Sustainability

Carlo Vezzoli
Politecnico di Milano / INDACO dept. / DIS / Faculty of Design / Italy

course System Design for Sustainability
subject 4. Design for social equity and cohesion

learning resource 4.1
Towards social equity and cohesion

carlo vezzoli
politecnico di milano . INDACO dpt. . DIS . faculty of design . Italy

Learning Network on Sustainability

Carlo Vezzoli

CONTENTS

. Sustainability: the socio-ethical dimension
. Socio-ethical Sustainability: a concern for all economies
. Connection between environmental and socio-ethical sustainability
. PSS: Opportunities in emerging and low-income contexts
. Distributed economies: promising model coupling environmental
and sicioethical sustainability
. Working hypotheis: locally-based and network-structured system
innovation
. Sustainabile transition path in low-income and emerging contexts

Carlo Vezzoli

SUSTAINABILITY: SOCIO-ETHICAL DIMENSION

EQUITY PRINCIPLE [UN, Johannesburg, 2002]
“every person, in a fair distribution of resources, has
a right to the same environmental space, i.e. to the
same availability of global natural resources”

(or better, to the same level of “satisfaction” that
can be achieved from these resources in different
ways)

Carlo Vezzoli

THE SOCIO-ETHICAL DIMENSION: ACTIONS
ERADICATING POVERTY: INTERNAT. COMMITEMENTS

1996: Rome, FAO summit: 185 countries agreed and committed
to cut by half the number of undernourished people

2000: UN Millenium summit: signed by 191 member states the
Millenium decleration:
1. Eradicate poverty and by for 2015:
. reduce by half, form 1990 to 2015, the percentage of persons
living in extrerm poverty
. grant a full and productive employment and a dignitous job for
all, including women and yungseter
. reduce by half, form 1990 to 2015, the percentage of
undernourished persons
…

Carlo Vezzoli

THE SOCIO-ETHICAL DIMENSION: ACTIONS

ERADICATING POVERTY

2001: the world bank; UNFPA

. 80% of world population uses 20% of consumed natural resources
. 1,1 billion people live on less than 1 US dollar a day
. 2,7 billion people (half the world) live on less than 2 US dollar a day
. 1 billion children (1 in 2 children in the world) live in poverty
. 11 million children die every year before fifth birthday
. 18 million people a year (1/3 of deaths) are due to poverty
. 400 million have no access to safe water
. 800 million people are undernourished

Carlo Vezzoli

10.2006: Rome, conference Food and Agriculture
Organization (UN)

Jaques Diouf, general director FAO
“Instead of decreasing, the number of starving
people is increasing by 4 millions per year”

1996, World: 800 millions undernourished

2006, World: 854 millions undernourished

Carlo Vezzoli

11.2009: Rome, World Summit on Food Security, FAO
reasons of undernurishement growth
. food prices crisis 2006-2008
. global economical crisis
. low investiment in the agriculture
> the crises is not the result of annual harvest

Carlo Vezzoli

THE SOCIO-ETHICAL DIM.: (OTHER) ACTIONS

. [eradicating of poverty]
. promotion of principles and rules of democracy
. promotion of human rights and freedom
. achievement of peace and security
. access to information, training, employment
. respect for cultural diversity, regional identity

Carlo Vezzoli

THE SOCIO-ETHICAL DIMENSION

[EU, SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT STRATEGY, 2006]

SOCIAL EQUITY AND COHESION:
“promotion of a democratic, socially inclusive,
cohesive, healthy, safe and just society with respect
for fundamental rights and cultural diversity that
creates equal opportunities and combats
discrimination in all its forms”

Carlo Vezzoli

[1° REMARK: SOCIAL EQUITY AND COHESION]

A CONCERN FOR ALL ECONOMIES
IT IS NOT JUST A MATTER FOR ENTERPRISES IN LOW-
INCOME OR EMERGING ECONOMIES

. in a global market companies in industrialised contexts
are interacting with stakeholders of their supply chain,
being in low-income and emerging countries

. even industrialised contexts are facing poverty and
problem with social cohesion

Carlo Vezzoli

AN EMERGING MODEL AND ITS TOOLS

CORPORATE SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY (CSR):
a management model in which the company
responsibility is extended to all the stakeholders,
aiming to optimise the economic value together
with social and environmental ones

tools:
. Social Accountability (SA8000)
. Sustainability Reporting Guidelines (GRI)

Carlo Vezzoli

[1° REMARK: SOCIAL EQUITY AND COHESION]

ENVIRONMENTAL AND SOCIO-ETHICAL
SUTAINABILITY ARE CONNECTED
let as take into consideration:
the (fundamental) shift from non-renewable
resources (e.g. fossil fuels) to renewable ones’
(e.g. sun and hydrogen)

Carlo Vezzoli

FOSSIL FUELS (OIL, COKE, …)

environmental un-sustainability: most of CO2
emissions > global warming + extraction pollution

socio-ethic un-sustainability: extraction, production,
distribution infrastructure, complex and CENTRALISED >
reduction of direct access potentiality to resources >
low power to individual over their own destiny >
widening of rich AND poor gap (inequality)

Carlo Vezzoli

RENEWABLE RESOURCES (SUN, HYDROGEN…)

environmental sustainability: non-exhaustable +
greenhouse effect reduction + lower environmental cost
for extraction, transformation, distribution

socio-ethic sustainability : “distributed generation”
sun and hydrogen acquisition: local + with simple
processes > micro-plants installable/manageable by small
economic entity > user-producer > energetic micro
network building > global network of micro network>
access, self-sufficiency, power (and interdependency) to
individuals and local communities > resources
democratisation > inequality reduction

Carlo Vezzoli

SUSTAINABILITY:
ENVIRONMENTAL + SOCIO-ETHICAL
potential convergences
(non only sun/hydrogen)
use primary local, conservative, regenerative
resources (i.e. locally sustainable)
+
introduce decentralised networks for the
extraction/production/use of such resources

Carlo Vezzoli

SYSTEM INNOVATION: OPPORTUNITY EVEN FOR
LOW-INCOME AND EMERGING CONTEXTS

Carlo Vezzoli

… in terms of (social-ethical) sustainability a
question has been (UNEP, 2000-2002):

IS A SYSTEM INNOVATION APPROACH APPLICABLE
TO EMERGING/LOW-INCOME CONTEXTS TOO?

IF SO, COULD IT ALSO FACILITATE (TOGHETHER
WITH ECO-EFFICENCY) SOCIO-ETHICAL
ENHANCEMENT IN THESE CONTEXTS?

IF SO, WITH WHAT CHARACTERISTICS?

Carlo Vezzoli

SYSTEM INNOVATION
AN OPPORTUNITY EVEN FOR EMERGING/LOW-
INCOME CONTEXTS (FOR ALL)

“PSSs may act as business opportunities to facilitate
the process of social-economical development - by
jumping over or by passing the stage characterised
by individual consumption/ownership of mass
produced goods - towards more advanced service-
economy “satisfaction-based” and low resources
intensive.”

[UNEP, Product-Service System and Sust., 2002]

Carlo Vezzoli

AN EXAMPLE OF SYSTEM INNOVATION
(for socioethical + environmental +
economical sustainability)

Carlo Vezzoli

SOLAR HOME KITS, BRASIL

TSSFA offers to Brasilian rural people a
solar home kits that include the hardware
needed to generate solar energy, plus the
installation service and products that use
the electricity, such as lighting and
electrical outlets. All of the tangible
inputs are owned by the provider and
only the service supplied by these
materials are leased to customers. TSSFA
customers sign a three-year service
contract.

It is environmentally sustainable because
it uses the solar energy, as well it is
socioethically sustainable because give to
poor people access to useful services.
Carlo Vezzoli

SYSTEM INN. OPPORTUNITIES IN EMERGING /LOW-
INCOME CONTEXTS
being more eco-efficient on a system level
> system inn. is “cheaper” to implement on meso/macro
scale, can respond to unsatisfied demands more easily
focusing on a specific context of use
> it leads to local (competent) rather than global
stakeholder involvement
being more labour/relation intensive
> it leads to a rise in (local) employment and the diffusion
of skills
being based on system partnership development
> it is coherent with the development of network-
structured enterprises/initiatives enabling local
potentialities
Carlo Vezzoli

[assuming they PSS are applicable in all contexts]

WITH WHAT CHARACTERISTICS A SYSTEM
INNOVATION APPROACH COULD FACILITATE -
TOGHETHER WITH ECO-EFFICENCY - SOCIO-
ETHICAL ENHANCEMENT IN EMERGING/LOW-
INCOME CONTEXTS?

Carlo Vezzoli

WHICH ARE THE PROMISING INNOVATION MODELS?
(socioethic + environmental + economic sustainability)
“STRONG” EMERGING HYPOTHESIS

DISTRIBUTED ECONOMIES:
“selective share of production distributed to regions where
activities are organized in the form of small scale, flexible units
that are synergistically connected with each other” [IIIEE,
SWEEDEN, 2006]

SOLIDARITY COOPERATIVE NETWORKS:
“networks in which units of production and consumption are
articulated in nodes able to self-propagate and self-feed in a
solidarity collaboration” [MANCE, BRASIL, 2003]

Carlo Vezzoli

EXAMPLE OF
DISTRIBUTED ECONOMIES

LEN
Local Energy Network
distributed energy generation
with propper amnagement
anf technology for the use of
small-scale power generation
technologies located close to
the load being served

Carlo Vezzoli

OTHER EXAMPLES OF DISTRIBUTED ECONOMIES

LINUX SOFTWARE
open sources and peer-to-peer cooperative network
for software development

SOLIDARITY PURCHASING GROUPS
group of persons making collective purchase
directly contacting local producer of
season/biological produces

Carlo Vezzoli

DISTRIBUTED ECONOMIES: CHARACTERISTICS

ENTERPRISES/INITIATIVES:

LOCALLY-BASED: start from sustainable local
resources and needs, but could become open non-
local or global systems
+
NETWORK-STRUCTURED: gain critical mass and
potential by their connections in network

Carlo Vezzoli

EMERGING HYPOTHESIS (1 + 2=):
“a system innovation (PSS approach) may act as a
business opportunity to facilitate the process of a social
equity and economic development (in an emerging
context) - by jumping over the stage characterised by
individual consumption/ownership of mass produced
goods - towards a more advanced service-economy with
a low resource-intensity being “satisfaction-based”,
characterized by the development of local-based and
network-structured enterprises and initiatives, for a
sustainable re-globalisation process characterised by a
democratisation of access to resources, goods and
services”.

> LENS DESIGN (RESEARCH) WORKING HYPOTHESIS

Carlo Vezzoli

ADDIYIONAL EMERGING WORKING HYPOTHESIS

SUSTAINABILE TRANSITION PATH IN LOW-INCOME
AND EMERGING CONTEXTS
(INSPIRED BY TRANSITION MANAGEMENT)

THE APPROACH FOCUSES NOT ONLY IN IMPLEMENTING A PSS
SOLUTION, BUT ALSO THE PROPER STAKEHOLDERS EVOLUTION IN
TIME TO FOSTER THE DISSEMINATION OF THE SOLUTION ITSELF, BY
PRODUCING A LOCALLY-BASED SYSTEM OF SATISFACTION, I.E.
SELF-STANDING AND LONG LASTING
> THE TRANSITION PATH TO SUPPORT THE INCUBATION AND THEN
THE SELF-STANDING INTRODUCTION AND DIFFUSION OF THE
SOLUTION

Carlo Vezzoli

4.1 towards social equity and cohesion vezzoli 09-10

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