Sustainability and The User Experience

As far as vehicles and user perception go, the Hummer generates strong feelings, both from owners and non-owners. I recall reading an interesting article in the NYTimes about the gap in perception that arises between the Hummers owners and everyone else when forced to share the road.

“Hummer loyalists come across as a beleaguered lot…Hummer drivers position their ownership at the center of a ‘brand-mediated moral conflict’ in which Hummer enthusiasts are not only innocent but also heroic. Conflict with vehement critics turns out to play a key role, with the Hummer owner casting himself or herself as a ‘moral protagonist’who must, according to this theory, ‘defend sacrosanct virtues and ideals from the transgressive actions of an immoral adversary.’ And what sacrosanct virtues would those be? To oversimplify a bit: American exceptionalism, rugged individualism, love of the frontier, community and freedom.”

Indeed!

Below is a chart from Forrester illustrating segments and percentages of the population willing to adopt green solutions. I think we would be safe to say that owners of the Hummers would be in 44% segment of non-green users.

Changing attitudes towards sustainability when it conflicts with consumers values and perceptions, such as the Hummer owners, would be considered a downright Sisyphean task.

So how can this reluctant segment of the population change?  The motivation would have to be externally driven, versus internally generated. As the hypothetical owner of a Hummer, I might not care about the carbon footprint of my vehicle but I might drive less if gas prices go sky high again, which would make an impact considering the Hummer’s poor gas mileage (estimated to be 9 mpg).

Another external driver that might drive change in behaviour would be government intervention. Due to a loophole, Hummer owners in the US can get a tax-write off of up to $100,000 as a business expense. Removing the unfair loop hole can change behaviour towards selecting a more sustainable choice. In addition, due to weight classifications, the Hummer and other large SUVs are exempt from meeting any emission standards. A simple reversal of this absurdly unfair rule can do a lot to motivate owners, and potential owners, to switch to a more sustainable vehicle.

Note that these sort of external drivers would also work with the other segments of the population that is more amenable to green solutions as well. With the exception of the early adopters, the push to use sustainable solutions and products usually are harnessed with another factor such as economics (cheaper to use this green detergent) or efficiency/usability.

I’ll start off my first entry by briefly discussing the Hummer and how it’s one of the most illustrative examples of unsustainable design.

The gas guzzling vehicle is an extreme manifestation of the US auto manufacturer’s broken business model of focusing on energy inefficient vehicles. The Hummer, which was originally an army tank, is a fuel-inefficient model, subject to shifts in energy prices and too dependent on non renewable resources. GM, the manufacturer of the Hummer (and SUVs), with their short-term focus on profit, assumed a continuing supply of cheap oil, and by not taking into account the long term sustainable view, missed the boat on shifting trends.

In contrast, Toyota took the long-term view and designed a sustainable solution in the Prius, taking into consideration multiple sustainability drivers such as changing consumer demands and the volatility of energy prices and the approaching government regulations on carbon emissions. In this way, the US auto makers lost market share to companies like Toyota which incorporated sustainable design into their business strategy to build for themselves a competitive advantage.

Currently, GM as part of its restructuring plans is in the process of selling its Hummer line to a Chinese manufacturing firm. Aware of the new reality of global emissions restrictions and volatile fuel economies, the new Chinese owners are thinking of manufacturing new fuel-efficient models as part of their long strategy for the Hummer. A senior executive was quoted as saying “SUVs would go extinct if you didn’t address efficiency whether in the Chinese or U.S. market”. This is the new reality. Sustainability is now a factor for even a behemoth like the Hummer.

picture by Robbert

Like my friend Kem, I’ll be using this blog to explore my interest in the area of sustainability generally and how it intersects with the human experience specifically.

My interest in sustainability started when I was doing my MBA where case study after case study illustrated the short-term, share- centric, quarterly driven nature of most corporations at the expense of the long-term approach which incorporates economic, social and environmental elements (triple bottom line). Taking a few strategy classes with some enlightened professors, and joining NetImpact, a group dealing with corporate social responsibility and sustainable issues, piqued my interest in the emerging field of sustainability.  To be more specific, sustainability in different fields aligned with my interest in long term responsible and profitable behaviour that takes into account multiple stakeholders (not just shareholders).  Essentially, Google’s mission statement of “Don’t be evil” struck a cord with me and that, combined with notion of human experience, is what I will be delving to in this blog.