John's talk centered around living off-grid. This was done through asking the audience a series of questions. The aim of this was to try to get us to start thinking about things that will inform the decisions we make about our "off-grid" product. In this post, I will give my opinions on some of these questions.

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Can we Afford to Live Off-Grid?

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After discussing many sustainable off-grid products John started talking about the Water Lilly Turbine. This a specific type of portable turbine that generates electricity by rotating when you place it in a stream. After talking about how it works he made a very interesting comment about the product

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John said that he was actually in the market to buy the Water Lilly but said, "I would never pay the £130 price tag for it". I thought this was interesting for a Sustainability Coordinator to say and I completely agreed with him. I don't care if you're Greta Thumberg in the flesh, paying £130 for, in effect, a portable phone charger is ludicrous. This is my main problem with the current trend of "sustainable" and "environmentally friendly" products, the price difference is completely unjustifiable. If we as designers can take more care around this it will make for a much more sustainable society.

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What Luxuries Could You Live Without?

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The next thing I want to talk about from John's talk relates to the following video about a "tiny house" built in Australia. Please watch it and try to guess why I think it is a very bad example of off-grid living.

 

 

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Ok. I will be the first to admit that looks like a cool place to spend an overnight. However, it is a great example of what people think they need to survive. John loved the house but, in my opinion, to live purely off-grid means being self-sufficient and not relying on external products and services. Now there are some examples of this, the solar panels and manual mechanism for getting the bed outside to stargaze being but a few of them. But let's have a look at some unnecessary items that the architects must have flet this "off-grid" home needed: 

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Do you think these are conducive to living "off-grid"? I think not. However, it is really interesting to see what luxuries people need to live in today's society. I am hoping to use this knowledge to develop a product that fills one of these luxuries while being self-sufficient.

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Can Off-Grid Design Inform a Better Overall Lifestyle?

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I thought this was a great question that John posed. I think it can! There is no doubt that as a society we need to reduce our energy consumption and any product that allows us to do this, while not being prohibitively more expensive than the alternative, should be embraced by society. As product designers, we are at the forefront of this change and we must be responsible for the products we put on this planet. I do believe that a lot of the off-grid products that John talked about were a bit gimmicky and very impractical. When designing off-grid products the focus should be on practicality as much as sustainability and cost. Striking this balance is key! This will allow people who don't live off-grid to be more attracted to the proposition of owning one. This will inform their lifestyle to become more self-sufficient, sustainable, and environmentally aware.