Emotionally sustainable design

Too often, design for sustainability is understood and engaged with in terms of broad overarching concerns, such as climate change, degradation of the natural environment, threats to biodiversity and social disintegration. These macro concerns are so vast – and at times intangible – that they serve to cripple the creative mindset, rather than inspire and motivate it. Indeed, in today's unsustainable world of goods, where products are desired, acquired, briefly used and then promptly discarded, consumption and waste are rapidly spiraling out of control with truly devastating ecological consequences. In zooming in, and examining our close personal relationships with the ‘stuff’ we own, this chapter aims to bring us closer to one of the roots of our ecological crisis whilst signposting new and critical directions for design to pursue