I heard Brooks Stevens coined the term “planned obsolescence.” Didn he care about the environment?
Stevens lived in an era when people were not as conscious of threats to the environment as we are today. All the same, however, he was always careful to say that planned obsolescence was not the same as organized waste. He envisioned “obsolete” products going on the secondhand market, where they could be purchased by people of lower incomes. That way, he reasoned, everyone would have access to more and better goods. Of course, it hasn’t always worked out that way, but perhaps it’s unfair to blame Stevens for that.
