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Part 6: Social + Cultural Trends—12 Factors That Can Make or Break Your Design Business

24 April 2012

Social and cultural trends present an amazing opportunity for you to excel in your competitive landscape. In this sixth installment of 12 Factors That Can Make or Break Your Design Business, I’ll show you how one guy turned a trend into an empire.

Thirty years ago, the environmental initiative was little more than a social/cultural trend. In 1970, when Earth Day was founded, environmental design typically evoked thoughts of granola-eating, desert-dwelling Paolo Soleri followers. Yet by the late 1990s, “being green” was no longer a fringe movement; sustainability was becoming mainstream. Today sustainable design has become a norm in our industry. We see LEED rapidly develop new certification programs and major cities like Toronto mandate green roofs. By necessity, “green” is here to stay.

Bill McDonough + Cameron Diaz

William McDonough runs a small, extremely successful architectural firm based in Charlottesville, VA. Over the past twenty years, William McDonough + Partners has excelled in what was initially a kind of niche market—“green” design. And McDonough has wisely used his architecture to launch his environmental interests into other design realms. For example:

• In the early 1990s McDonough partnered with German chemist Michael Braungart. Together they founded MBDC (McDonough Braungart Design Chemistry), a sustainability consulting and product certification firm that emphasizes the Cradle to Cradle® philosophy. (A “Cradle to Cradle” system, as explained by the book of the same name, is one that produces no waste throughout its lifecycle, only nutrients for other processes.)
• In 2000, also with Braungart, McDonough founded GreenBlue, a non-profit institute that assists businesses in moving toward sustainable design and production.
• In 2009, McDonough started the Cradle to Cradle Products Innovation Institute, which develops global standards for healthy and safe products.

These environmental efforts have been repeatedly recognized through national achievement awards (including the Presidential Award for Sustainable Development, 1996; the first EPA Presidential Green Chemistry Challenge Award, 2003; and the National Design Award for environmental design, 2004). Now McDonough is a sought-after public speaker and quasi-celebrity, even partnering with Brad Pitt (below) to help New Orleans rebuild its Lower 9th Ward in the wake of Hurricane Katrina, and mugging for the camera with Cameron Diaz (above) after a Stanford lecture on sustainability.

Brad Pitt, Make It Right Foundation

McDonough didn’t set out to capitalize on the green trend. Rather, his thriving architecture practice, MBDC, GreenBlue, and his other endeavors rest on his passion for ecology and social equity. He recognized the inevitability of—and the necessity for—sustainability. He addressed the absence of environmentally minded designers, products, and companies, all during a time when it became no longer possible to ignore the need for ecological awareness. McDonough built a green empire by embracing a trend and riding it the top of his game.

So my question for you is, what social and cultural trends could be the foundation of your empire?

All blog posts

Part 6: Social + Cultural Trends—12 Factors That Can Make or Break Your Design Business

24 April 2012

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