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