Show notes
Episode 04 : Show Notes.John Gertsakis, Director of the Product Stewardship Centre for Excellence, is a sustainability and communications practitioner with over 20 years of experience in the sector. Having worked as an advocate, consultant, and research academic, John is a trailblazer in this space. In today's episode, John talks to Nick Gonios about his experience and what it was like being at RMIT at such an innovative time in the institution's history. We talk about what good design truly means. John then dives into product stewardship and why this is so important if we are to work toward truly circular economies. Wrapping up, we touch on planned obsolescence, the dangers of greenwashing, and insights on how to create better systems. Tune in to hear it all!Key Points From This Episode:Get to know today's guest, John Gertsakis.What drew John to work in the sustainability sector.John's experience at RMIT during a pioneering time in design.Why companies were drawn to work with RMIT.The definition of good design, according to John.John's take on the state of design in Australia and whether the country has lost its way.The impetus for Australia's first product stewardship act in 2011.What product stewardship means and how this happens in Australia.Examples of different ways we are seeing product stewardship.The issue of planned obsolescence and developments that are happening in this space.Recycling alone is not enough for a circular economy.We have to get to positive and restorative outcomes.The importance of being weary of greenwashing.What the Product Stewardship Centre of Excellence is doing to get the message out there.Electronics contribute greatly to making a world better; we can't demonize them entirely.John's take on how we can create a better world.The pandemic has given us a great time to pause and reflect on systems that don't work.Quotable Quotes“The definition of good design increasingly has to address the creation of environmentally and socially-positive outcomes that are commercially successful too.” — @BlooPlanet [0:11:39]“Product stewardship at its core is around those who place products and related services on the market taking greater responsibility from an environmental perspective, a social dimension, for the impacts and issues associated with those products they place on the market.” — @BlooPlanet [0:25:26]“We can't talk about the circular economy if we don't deal, in real terms, with how we will prolong the life of products and materials.” — @BlooPlanet [0:32:45]“Normality, in many respects, has been anti-society and anti-environment.” — @BlooPlanet [0:50:59]Links Mentioned in Today’s Episode:John GertsakisCentre for Design RMIT UniversityTU DelftProduct Stewardship Centre of ExcellenceCirculist QuestCirculistHost Nick GoniosProducer Jim Lounsbury
