You don’t have to look very far to see the benefits of sustainable product design, or even how it can be realised. What’s holding the vast majority of businesses back? Fear of costs? Tradition? The false choice between the environment and the economy? It’s high time things changed.
One of the best examples of a traditional business adopting sustainable design to the max is Ray Anderson’s carpet company, Interface Inc. Ray took the traditional take/make/waste system and flipped it upside down, believing that they should “take from the earth, only what can be renewed by the earth naturally and rapidly.” Costs are down. Net greenhouse gas emissions are down 82%. Sales have increased by two-thirds and profits have doubled.
Sure, not everyone will be as successful as Interface Inc., but it’s a wonderful example of what can be done. From the simplest packaging changes to starting planting the seed of sustainability at the start of the design process, sustainability can be managed on many levels.
It can also appear on many levels. Getting rid of plastic waste is an obvious example, and while biomimicry (the practice of emulating nature to solve human problems) isn’t quite as familiar (even though Velcro is a perfect example of it), it demonstrates how we can take the lead from nature, and look to our surroundings for motivation and inspiration.
It’s all been on our minds quite a bit here at Designit, so to dig a bit deeper, and to encourage your views, we asked some Designits to express their personal thoughts and opinions. From our new intern in Gothenburg to established Designits in Munich, here’s some food for thought.
First, we have Fredrik Lundin sharing his thoughts on how we’ll see sustainability implemented in the (hopefully near!) future.
Next up we have Eleanor Davis and Friedrich Foerstner from Munich. Eleanor asks the question, and Friedrich shares his thoughts.
‘Design for Disassembly & Recycling’ is a YouTube video currently doing the rounds, published by Autodesk as part of their Sustainability Workshop series; An easy to follow, live sketch presentation, it communicates a simple guide on key steps designers can take to reduce the risk of seeing their designs end up as landfill.
Well-meaning and positive as the message is, I couldn’t help notice feeling slightly resigned afterwards. Pulling a copy of ‘Cradle to Cradle’ off the shelf later, the feeling was confirmed, noticing it was published in 2002. Though released as ‘provocative and visionary’, in the ten years that have followed, I am yet to come across a single potential client for whom ‘Cradle to Cradle’ thinking or ‘Design for Disassembly’ has featured as a realistic design consideration. Yet videos are being produced a decade later, depicting the same ‘provocative and visionary’ issues.
Watching the video again, I kept coming back to the motivation behind this design approach; in order to benefit material and save resources, the usual method is to encourage users to choose to repair or upgrade their products. This leads me to believe that the science behind this is not in question, and so the video visualises what we have known for years. However, what has been left unanswered is the question of the economics behind it. And so, I pose this question to our business design colleagues; what provocative and visionary economic principles could be released this decade to support the product design principles that ‘Cradle to Cradle’ promoted ten years ago?
Why don’t we see more businesses tapping into sustainability by design? Because we are missing a clear, short-term, unique selling proposition for sustainability. For companies, sustainable solutions beyond green washing often require innovation in material research and unusual business models. Thus, realising sustainability is perceived as a costly, time-consuming task rather than as an opportunity. For consumers, sustainable products tend to be more expensive and a lack of transparency doesn’t allow for comparison with conventional products.
As a consequence the most convincing drivers for sustainability have been crisis and disasters, where sustainability is perceived as the only option. Examples are the reintroduction of buffalos for farming in Thailand during the financial crisis, establishment of sustainable communities in the US after hurricane Katrina and Japan’s renewable energy efforts after the explosion of the Fukushima nuclear power plant.
What will drive sustainability on a global level? Global environmental endeavours like the fight against C02 emissions are internationally acknowledged due to their global impact. They simply can’t be outsourced to developing countries. Raising commodities and energy cost, data driven transparency and customer’s high requirements in flexibility are all global, imminent threats to traditional business models. They will drive sustainability solutions into the mainstream markets. It won’t happen over night but sustainability will become a monetizable asset.
As designers and strategic consultants we have the mindset and qualifications to push forward this industrial transition. The integration of business design, product design and experience design will allow us to balance compromises of sustainability-driven products or even turn them into advantages. Trends like Web 3.0, collaborative consumption, material design on the nano level, 3D printing and access based business models will be our tools on the way to a ‘provocative and visionary’ society where sustainability becomes the standard.
So how do you see it? Do you think we’ll see a decline of ownership, and an increase of product renting? What do you think is staning in the way of sustainability? Economic incentives? Tradition? A lack of USP? We’d love to hear your views on the matter. Head over to Facebook and share your opinions - no matter what they are.
See you in March!