Ideation as eco practice

Design ideation, as a social activity placed within a 'culture of innovation', often conjures up the never ending call for "What new?" or, "What next?" Or, to borrow from literary criticism, ideation may be seen as a form of  'stream of consciousness' - a narrative mode that attempts "to depict the multitudinous thoughts and feelings which pass through the mind" of a narrator, in which case the ideator is the narrator depicting, or visualising a myriad of thoughts and ideas. Stream of consciousness followed by an apparently endless stream of consumer products and gadgets. But this striving in modern consumer society of always doing or getting something new, whether that is creating or buying a new product or service, is controversial. And as technology brings an increasing pace of change into everyday life, including the design sector, more responsibility is being placed on designers, and their ideas to ensure that innovation is aligned with global issues such as sustainability. This may suggest that the culture of innovation, where innovation seems confused with change for change's sake, and arrived at via the free market system, is no longer sustainable to meet urgent environmental concerns. The question, then, will a new ecosystem of innovation, or knowing when to change be championed by designers themselves, as part of distributed leadership in industry and education? Or, will the necessary change happen through external forces and market regulation?