As we near the end of the semester, I’m reflecting on the number of theories, practices, and ideologies we learned to help aid us in designing for a more sustainable future. Sustainability is defined as something which won’t cause harm to the environment by prolonging to exist. It is something which will benefit human’s needs in the long run, as well as create economic and ecological balance through its design. A sustainable design has long lasting positive effects on the environment and economy, by using practices such as biomimicry or active design to achieve this. At the beginning of this course, I considered that sustainability only focused on the importance of “saving the planet.” Now I’ve learned that sustainability is broader than only that. Business’s sustainability effects not only the environment but also the economy in the long run.

This course challenged our creativity, intuitions, and current notions on sustainability. An epiphany I had was actually on the first day of class when I was shocked to hear how many people didn’t know what sustainability or climate change even were. It made me wonder about the millions of people in our country (that aren’t in college or part of our industry) that are also unaware. I also learned how treacherous the fashion industry actually is on our environment; so much so that I actually had moments of regret choosing to be a part of it all. However, because of all of our fun design slams, and LOLA show presentations, and other sustainable design projects, I do have hope and more motivation to make our industry more sustainable.

Knowing what I know now, I’d love to learn more about which companies are lying about being sustainable. I would also like to learn to become and advocate and convince people to make more sustainable choices, as some people don’t even believe in global warming. A lot of the time Dr. Adityas would ask how we could motivate people to use our sustainable solution, and that was the hardest to answer because convincing people to change their way of life is almost impossible. I wish I knew more about how to fix this overlying issue which seems to be the majority of our nation’s problem. Overall, I highly enjoyed this class and felt that it was extremely necessary to be informed of these issues, while it was also fun to use our creativity, and design ideas for the future generations to come.