Chapter 1: Interpreting Frugality
Frugality is about being a good manager of resources while being careful and acknowledging of the value of those resources. The lens of frugality is needed because it allows identifying our true priorities. It allows us to define the Why? before we jump to the What and How of doing things. Frugal innovation is not “jugaad” or find a quick fix to problems, but it is about finding a sustainable solution that makes use of the existing resources in the most efficient manner while keeping in mind the local and human factors that would determine the use fullness of the innovation.
We need the frugal innovation approach as the current manufacturing scenario is completely unsustainable. We are not paying for the full cost of the things we use, but the costs have been externalised into manifestations that affect everyone- rich or poor globally such as air and land pollution. Frugal innovation involves using new technology to ensure efficient use of resources such as 3D printing Such corporate centralisation in the consumerist economy has dehumanised the artisans and innovators. Decentralised services such as repair and 3D printing promote the lesser waste generation and increased and prolonged use of products versus the centralised goods production that promote a consumerist economy.
WHAT FRUGALITY MEANS TO ME:
Mapping my activities
I started by mapping out what are the activities in my daily life.
Then, on the basis of my understanding of frugal living, I highlighted what are the more frugal alternatives to achieving those tasks:
Metaphor of snake and ladders
A frugal living encourages a more sustainable living. While making the above mind maps, I was able to visualise the road to a frugal life as a metaphor in the form of a game of snake and ladders.
The theme of “Frugal actions lead to a frugal future” was established through the game.
Here is a prototype for the game:
What factors influence frugal decisions- consumerist ad non-consumerist
Keeping the above metaphor of a game in mind, I also evaluated what were the environmental, economic and social factors that affected the frugal decisions of an individual.
WHAT FRUGALITY MEANS TO THE CITY OF BANGALORE:
To understand the context of frugality in the city of Bangalore, I explored Yelahanka, New Town with the lens of frugality in mind.
Bangalore is known as the garden city. So, seeing the parks of Bangalore as a model of frugal recreation was indispensable:
I took a deeper look at the Swami Vivekananda Park, Yelahanka New Town to understand what are the various modes of frugal recreation employed by the citizens in Bangalore’s parks. This included the open outdoor gym, the basketball court, the football court, the children’s play area, sitting areas and the nearby street vendors. Hence, I could observe that while the costs of maintenance of the park were being paid for by BBMP, spending on an individual level for the citizens of Bengaluru for recreation was next to nothing. Most of the park equipment installed ran mechanically by human power and could withstand Bangalore’s weather conditions.
When it comes to modes of transport, buses seem to be the most economically and environmentally friendly option here in Bangalore. However, I did observe that almost all vehicles ran on petrol or diesel. CNG adoption was next to nil- hence having an adverse impact on air quality.
Bangalore is known as the Silicon Valley of India. We have in abundance talent of young creative and technical expertise eager to learn and build new projects. Hence there is massive potential for this crowd to work on frugal innovation. Also, maker spaces that provide space and infrastructure like 3D printing technology to encourage frugal innovation are becoming popular. One such maker space in Bangalore is Workbench Projects.
Bangalore also depends on the decentralised units of repair shops: from cobblers and tailors to electronic goods repair shops that make efforts to prolong the use of products.
Another interesting case study of frugal workspaces in the city is that of street vendors.
The city sees the celebration of festivities quite very often. People sink statues of Ganeshas during Ganesha Chaturthi in the water. These are usually made up of chemicals harmful and toxic to water. But some statue sellers have started adapting to more eco-friendly statues. For example, the Ganesha statues in the below image are made up of clay and covered in 9 food grains as per traditional practices:
WHAT FRUGALITY MEANS TO THE WORLD:
Issues in both developed and developing countries are converging and hence there is a greater need for frugal innovations that allow reverse innovation to solve challenges such as global warming, chronic diseases and water and food scarcity.
Hand me down approaches do not work as they lack consideration of ground-level operational challenges.
I observed that successful frugal innovations in MNCs focus on extreme affordability and reliability, modular serviceability and co-creation with customers. For example, The Good Knight Advanced Fast card is just one rupee (affordable) and requires no electricity (keeping in mind the conditions in developing nations).
CONCLUSION:
In the end, I reflected that in this world of consumerist abundance dominated by services and products sold by centralised global corporates where their business models thrive on minimizing product life cycles instead of maximising them like our native decentralised small scale service providers do, it has become harder to think frugal on a personal note where convenience always trumps other conscious thinking. It feels like one needs to be more than creative to contribute towards the frugal future of Bangalore.
