Can we design sustainable services? / Anna van der Togt / Episode #173
Have you ever thought about... what a sustainable service looks like? Nowadays, we have a pretty good idea of what sustainability means for products, but I would argue not so much for services. The language around sustainability resides very much in our material world. We talk about carbon emissions, reducing waste, and moving towards circularity. But services aren't made up of atoms. Our design "materials" are things like time, experiences, relationships, processes, etc. So this brings us back to the question of how do you design services that serve our planet just as much as they serve our organizations and customers? In this episode, Anna van der Togt, Lead Sustainability at Livework, shares how they approach this topic. Join us to explore what sustainable insurance might look like and how it would change the relationship between service providers and their customers. We also discuss how to get your clients to open up about investing in sustainable services. Because most of them won't be able to articulate right now that they need or want this. As you'll hear, there are still many unanswered questions, which makes exploring this topic so interesting. :) Here's a question to get your mind going: As a service design professional, you also deliver a service to your clients. How can you rethink your own practice to make it more sustainable? Enjoy the conversation, and keep making a positive impact :) - Marc --- [ 1. GUIDE ] --- 00:00 Welcome to episode 173 05:30 Who is Anna 07:15 Lightning round 11:15 Where are we today 16:15 Is there waste in services 20:15 Which levers do we have 23:45 Suppliers and customers 27:00 What's missing 29:15 How did we get here 32:15 Design materials of services 34:30 Reactions of clients 39:30 Sustainable service examples 43:15 How could the conversation change 44:45 The role of service design 46:45 What is holding us back 49:15 Looking down, up and wide 52:30 Impact on our practice 54:45 Questions to think about 56:15 Closing thoughts --- [ 2. LINKS ] --- https://www.linkedin.com/in/avdtogt/ The Value of a Whale (book) - https://amzn.to/3UEuc4Q --- [ 3. CIRCLE ] --- Join our private community for in-house service design professionals. https://www.servicedesignshow.com/circle