McCloud Tells Hay We Must be a Low Consuming Society

[MsRedEye]

The Government’s car scrappage scheme should itself be scrapped, TV presenter Kevin McCloud told the Hay Festival.

During a talk on sustainability, he said society needs to turn away from the rampant consumerism of the past and embrace preservation in order to save resources.

“Forget the scrappage scheme – just buy less and use what you have got more,” Mr McCloud, presenter of Channel 4’s Grand Designs, told a near-packed pavilion yesterday.

The scrappage scheme, under which drivers are given a cash bonus to swap their old car for a newer and supposedly less-polluting model, has given new-car sales a much-needed boost.

But he declared an old car, despite its lack of a catalytic converter, may be seen as greener than an electric model – because resources have not been wasted scrapping the car and building a new one for the driver. He said the desire to buy everything new needs to be quashed.

“We need to not just move towards a low-carbon society, which is the Government’s obsession, and move to a low consumerism society.”

Mr McCloud, 51, said this would be very difficult to achieve in a world where “until recently acquisitiveness was a national sport”.

But he added: “Maybe in this credit crunch we are already changing and have come off the back of rampant consumerism and we are reassessing our relationship with objects.”

In a talk where the designer generally kept away from the subject he is most famous for – architecture – he also slammed cheap fashion retailers for creating products that left him feeling “dirty”.

He talked of how Aldi’s £8-a- pair jeans have an incredibly negative impact on the world, having been shipped from country to country to be put together by the cheapest labour using the cheapest materials.

“All that makes me feel quite dirty when I know about it,” he said.

“I do feel a bit better about my hemp and recycled cotton jeans.

“Whereas the £8 pair, despite the rhinestones and the way my bum looks in them, will never seem clean to me, no matter how much I wash them.”

Mr McCloud said simple functionality and beauty should no longer be the only values on which we judge a product.

He stated ethics should also be a consideration before purchases are made, whether they be houses or cars.

“We are on the cusp of the biggest change since 1100. It is not just about functionality or beauty any more. It is now a requirement for things to be made in a way that does the least damage to the planet.”

When pressed on whether good design or sustainability was more important, he said “one goes off” even the most beautiful buildings when you discover how its thin walls and windows haemorrhage heat.

Continuing on the building theme, he talked of how the recession should be used as a time to take stock and learn to get things right.

Referring to the days before the economic downturn, in which housing developments by major builders sprang up across the country, he said: “I think the age of the developer that builds it and buggers off is dead.”

Mr McCloud said the future lay in supporting the new communities that are built to be as sustainable as possible, as he is doing with the 41 homes he is developing in Swindon.

“We are using hemp to build our houses and taking a quite sophisticated attitude to how the buildings are designed and used.”

Appealing for society to adopt a new attitude, he said: “I want to appeal to redefine design in relation to sustainable development.

“I want design not just to be seen as a way of improving the planet, but one that also takes account of the use of resources as we go along.

“There’s no point in improving the car and the house, if we completely bugger up the planet in the process.”


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