In the peak age of both climate crisis and mass consumerism, product solutions are continually being designed where they are not truly needed. How do you find a common motivation between the industry, the user, and the environment to consume more sustainably, where current methods are failing?

Affective Sustainability is when an emotional attachment is placed on a product by its owner, resulting in the product being kept for longer and cared for. This results in a sustainable effect by increasing the lifetime of the product. Through research and testing, a kettle was redesigned to be Affectively Sustainable. This led to the understanding of its potential application in the design process, and projected life cycle analyses showed the possible environmental benefits. This has been applied and tested through the redesign of a basic kettle with features to invoke a sense of achievement, personalisation and functionality, to elicit an emotional attachment from its user.

Affective Sustainability does not require the conscious motivation of other sustainable solutions. The successful implementation of Affective Sustainability can be a genuine contributor to the goal of truly effective, long term, sustainability.