Sustainable design often gives an additional immaterial value and creates a win-win situation. Consumers pay less and get more. Companies spend less on manufacture and materials and therefore gain more on profits. All the processes in-between are environmentally friendly. Clearly a positive situation from all the angles. Scarcity of materials has made it imperative to design products for re-use and recycle, for which some use the terms life after the life or cradle to cradle approach. This approach means thinking about the products past and future, by reducing the usage of raw materials for the next product and creating a closed circle of the production. The product distribution should also be taken into account. By reducing the use of materials, simplifying the production, and economizing on transport, we make it more economically feasible for the companies and therefore for the consumers as well.
Environmental awareness in the future industrial development, however, cannot be secured just by trimming current production. That may require a radical change of our pattern of consumption. The designer’s creative and analytical approach, which includes testing many possible solutions, including untraditional ones, has a key contribution to make in achieving this change. However, Sustainable Design is only fully sustainable if it is attractive to consumers, therefore, the consumers should feel as if they are not sacrificing anything by consuming sustainably.
BACK TO NATURE
In most cases, well designed products do not harm the environment, but instead economize on raw materials and simplify the production processes. Process optimization often leads to great savings, both in raw materials and energy. Therefore, the designers should be included in the development process at an early stage in order to address all the parameters that have an environmental impact.
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