Context
Accenture Song came to the Royal College of Art (RCA) with the brief to create innovation in the entertainment and leisure industry with particular consideration of our century’s sustainability challenges. Despite the increased awareness of environmental damage and sustainable practices in economies and societies, the latest UN climate report paints a frightening picture of the future. The message is clear: Immediate action is needed by everyone.
The Challenge
Currently, the overlap between entertainment, leisure and sustainability is small. The challenge is clear: How might we make the things we do for entertainment and leisure more sustainable and thereby tackle the planetary crisis through the things we enjoy? How might we use the things we do for entertainment and leisure as platforms for making sustainability mainstream?
Why the Self Pleasure Industry
Self-pleasure is maybe one of the most universal and personal topics, touching millions of women on the planet, yet it is disconnected from the discussion of environmental sustainability. Our study revealed that on a macro level, the sex industry as a whole has barely recognized its environmental responsibility and potential. At the same time, sexual pleasure for women is a loaded and frequently stigmatized topic, which makes it unnecessarily difficult to discuss openly and experience personally.
We had overwhelmingly enthusiastic responses to our research survey and interviews. Many great insights have surfaced from this successful research process and we would like to highlight the most important and relevant ones to our design. In summary, the sex toy industry faces numerous problems, particularly related to sustainability, which are not addressed and even worsened by existing businesses.
1. Health and safety: Material safety needs to be a top consideration for women’s health and the sex toy industry has not done enough currently. Sex toys that are labelled as "body safe" may not actually be safe for women, despite meeting regulatory standards. These standards not only are not yet mandatory for all businesses, but also only prohibit the use of illegal chemicals. This does not ensure complete material safety.
2. Financial accessibility: Sex toy materials that are safe for women's bodies, such as medical grade silicone, are expensive and inaccessible to many. This continues to be worsened as silicone prices have risen significantly in the last year.
3. Unnecessary overconsumption: Buying a sex toy is a trial and error process - which is neither sustainable nor efficient. With a strict no-return policy, especially first time customers have no choice but to buy a toy blindly. Women either look at an overwhelming amount of sex toys online without any guidance or to visit a sex store, which many just don’t do due to internalized feelings of shame and guilt.
4. Non-existent circularity: The sex toy industry generates great waste with no sign of stopping since reusing and recycling practices are almost non-existent globally. The lack of sex toy recycling practices and infrastructure, coupled with critical stigma associated with sex toys in society, makes it almost impossible for consumers to be able to properly dispose sex toys and be motivated to do so in the first place.
Future sex toys need to be undisputedly safe, sustainable, digitally connected, inclusive, holistic in terms of sexual wellness, and accompanied with proper education. This is what we want to build.
