Emily’s concentration, Designing the Good, investigates the intersections of design, ethics, and the environment. Her studies are based around the assertion that designer consider not only the aesthetic and utilitarian qualities of design, but also their environmental, societal, and cultural effects. She explores ethical questions such as “Is something well designed if it is not environmentally sound?” Emily is interested in designer agency, and in understanding what she, as an aspiring industrial designer, can do to promote social and environmental equity. She examines the relationship between Western consumption and the environment, specifically focusing on single-use culture, planned obsolescence, the effects of outsourcing production/manufacturing and attempts to unpack how this reflects the West’s values. Emily ultimately aims to reimagine the way we make things and believes that to create designs that are environmentally conscious, we must first redesign our value systems.