The New Student Union Building is very near and dear to my heart as it’s been a project I have worked hard to embrace the spirit of responsibility as the student union, environmental and social sustainability. One such project has come about in the form of the AMS Sustainability Centre, geared towards creating a central community run by students for students. It’s meant to be both a hub of innovation as well as a comfortable, informal learning space for all levels of environmental stewardship.
A huge interest of mine has been to use it as a building ground to create a place of connection. I feel this has been a theme to this half of my studies this year – connection and community. Empowerment through storytelling.
My directed studies is a part of this idea. The New SUB will have a building dashboard – a life monitor as some would call it. It’s a dashboard meant to monitor the levels of water, electricity, gas, solar, et cetera that the building uses and assist in optimization. There are plenty of programs that already exist that are being used. Where I have been looking is at the connection between utilizing this information, and the social motivation they should bind to.
In envisioning the space in which the screen will be situated (the Sustainability Centre), it’s meant to be a piece that grabs the attention of those who pass by.
Two interesting findings thus far have been:
1) The more the messaging is worded like you/your personality, the more you will like it
For example, when targeting college students, it is likely better to provide messaging that is attune to the popular culture of the community at the time. Right now, that might be making fun of the UBC University of Beautiful Cars tumblr account. Cough.
Instead, we could turn this around and bring up some interesting facts regarding to transport.
Or, we could you gifs and memes
2) Ensuring voice and simple action can lead to investment and larger, more committed action
Such as appealing to moral imperatives. Or using live-polling (x), displaying tweets and using social media.
I think technology will only become ever apparent in our future. One of my good friends once told me something that sort of stuck. They are in LFS too, but they ssid:
You know, the majority of people in our faculty think we need to ‘go back’ to how we were doing agriculture in the past; to remove all the industrialization and commercialization of it all. I think we’ll move in the entirely opposite direction. Everything will be created from technology; even plants.
Isn’t that a crazy thought? But I think it stuck with me. I’m not sure about the sentiment, since I hold huge nostalgia for many traditional things when it comes to agriculture and food issues. Recently, after watching the movie Elysium, I think this is what came to mind:
Created environment. Not so different from much of the agriculture and landscaping we have today.
But I digress. Point of the matter is, technology is likely to play a huge role in our futures; in particularly in our generation. Sustainability is usually by design; the effects are greatest when development occurs with sustainability in mind (for example, a steel bottle is best because it’s recyclable and made of one material. The whole thing can merely be thrown in the recycling here in Vancouver. Sure, other bottles are completely recyclable; but how are you going to separate on the materials?) When it comes to technology, I think the greatest power it has is over communication, social media, connection and discussion.
Technology is changing how we learn, how we communicate, what we read/see and learn. How do we embrace this and harness it? Social behaviour change is likely one of the biggest barriers to a more sustainable future, if not the biggest.
How can we design a world using technology, to develop our values of community and connection? Aren’t the possibilities endless? I hope to answer some of these experimentally with the AMS.