The Intergalactic Design Guide by Cheryl Heller

Author:Cheryl Heller
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Island Press
Published: 2018-10-04T16:00:00+00:00

WHAT ACTIONS CAN WE TAKE TO GET THERE?

Prove the science. Identify the cohort of people with the will and wherewithal to succeed, and engage them.

DOES IT WORK?

Is the scientific evidence conclusive? Does it work everywhere? Are people hearing, changing, acting together? Are we still alive?

CHAPTER 7

The Salvage Supperclub

Navigating with Feedback Loops

IT STARTED WITH A STORY, told by a buddy.

At an event hosted by a prestigious foundation, U2’s lead singer, Bono, delivered a passionate keynote to a crowd of well-heeled New Yorkers, whipping up righteous indignation among them about the state of global hunger and how to end it. The buddy, working a catering gig that evening, was rocked by the collision of enlightened message and unconscious behavior: “The crowd was hanging on his every word. And we were in the back, throwing plate after half-eaten plate of perfectly good food right in the trash.”

That story hit a nerve for a designer named Josh Treuhaft and launched his journey to find out what could be done about what he calls “the wasteful relationship we have with one of the most critical resources in our lives.” It’s taken him five years of almost fanatic dedication to see small changes, spreading like rumors, pockets of awareness that can eventually succeed in getting a lot of people—mostly in affluent Western countries—to question their assumption that if food isn’t perfectly fresh and unblemished, it is not worthy of eating. According to the Natural Resources Defense Council, “Getting food from the farm to our fork eats up 10 percent of the total U.S. energy budget, uses 50 percent of U.S. land, and swallows 80 percent of all freshwater consumed in the United States. Yet, 40 percent of food in the United States today goes uneaten.”1 Like Jeffrey Brown, Treuhaft is proving how even the biggest, most complex problems can be unraveled by really listening to feedback gleaned from small prototypes that keep designers’ work connected to the needs of the communities they serve.

Food waste isn’t a sexy topic. It’s not something people like to talk about at all. Asking people to consider changing their eating habits is not particularly appealing, either, especially when the guy (Treuhaft) starting the conversation is snacking on bruised apples, dry celery stalks, and limp parsley. It can make anyone less disciplined feel self-conscious. Yet Treuhaft found a way to connect with people, inspiring them to rethink their shopping, cooking, and eating habits. Through a series of prototypes that evolved into a venture called the Salvage Supperclub, his frustration, sparked by a secondhand anecdote, became a newsworthy, exciting concept that has traction in America’s foodie culture. Now in its fifth year, the Salvage Supperclub, a pop-up restaurant serving delicious, elegant food diverted from landfills, has expanded from New York City to Vermont, California, Oregon, and Japan. Dinners have been sponsored by global corporations, innovation hubs, and food-enlightened hosts and hostesses. The Salvage Supperclub’s story has been told in Forbes, Fortune, the Wall Street Journal, and a documentary film from Discovery Networks, among hundreds of other forms of modern media.

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