Design Research Ethics

In our Environmental Behavior Research class we have been considering what a Code of Ethics for Research in Sustainable Interior Environments might include. Doing a little research about this, I found the following page about design research, ethics, and informed consent at Design for Social Innovation

It's interesting to see this blog—that appears to have one foot in Chile and one in the US—looking at similar concerns. I especially appreciate the point where the author quotes from Scott-Jones' and Watt's
Ethnography in Social Science Practice: 

‘To an extent, most field research requires a more flexible or situational approach to ethics, and it is naive of any researcher to assume that an overt role, combined with a signed informed consent forms, means that research is fully ethical‘ [Watt & Jones 2010:123]

To me this means that the researcher must remain engaged, sensitive to the participants, and asking questions of the process throughout the process. There must be a willingness to "disobey" the approach if people are being harmed.

This is the lesson from Milgram and Tuskegee.

I would add that our ethical obligation to do no harm underlies all of the choices we make as designers, so I would think the research would be part of a continuum of activities in an ethical, integrated design process that would include every stage and every decision.

Market Transformation

On April 3, I attended an event at the AIA Center for Architecture:

Healing the Materials Supply Chain: The Google Story, featured three speakers, including Susan Kaplan who teaches Materials and Products for Sustainable Interior Environments in our masters program at FIT and is the Director of Specifications and Sustainability at HLW International.

Joining Susan were Bill Walsh, founder of the Healthy Building Network and Anthony Ravitz, leader of Google’s Green Team. Google is using the Living Building Challenge Redlist and the EPA’s list of chemicals of concern as strict guides in specifications of materials for office renovations and building systems.

Many of the concepts that we’ve been covering in our classes reverberated in this presentation. Most impressive for me was the concept of market transformation.

Companies like Google, Kaiser Permanente, Nike, Whole Foods, and Walmart are able to establish their sustainability goals and put pressure on manufacturers to change the ways that materials are produced or to develop healthier, more environmentally sound options.

It was pointed out that large companies are not the only source of power in this process and that the aggregate demand of the broader design community could influence change going forward.

Hmm, could it be that we are part of that right now?