Designing for Sustainability : Increasing Biodiversity Awareness in Coffee Consumption

The loss of biodiversity is an inevitable problem that we will need to face in the near future. According to recent scientific studies, at least 10,000 species are going extinct every year. This is a serious biodiversity crisis. Despite the significant effort of the scientific community to deal with climate change, biodiversity has been rather neglected. Considering the impact on our everyday activities in the loss of biodiversity, this thesis explores ways to increase the public’s awareness regarding biodiversity in their daily and ordinary activities. More specifically, this project focuses on human activities surrounding coffee consumption. Coffee is the second most traded commodity in the world, and most coffee trees are planted in biodiversity hot-spots. Hence the coffee production has a significant impact on local ecosystems. This thesis project presents a possible solution to help biodiversity-friendly coffee shops to build their relationship with customers through shared value, and together move towards a more biodiversity-friendly coffee consumption experience. The final design centers on communicating the story of coffee and biodiversity by using the interactive table and the mobile application. It seamlessly integrates information, delivering into existing coffee experience. The final result is summarized into five design principles. Although this thesis project focuses on increasing the awareness in coffee consumption, the design implications can be further applied to other issues surrounding coffee and other daily commodities.