Environmental concerns Concerns about the environment have been raised since the 1950s when an increasing number of people began to question the assumption that the earth could accommodate and absorb all human activity. Only recently has it been widely accepted that human activity is having a negative effect on the planet (deriving largely from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change report of February 2007 involving 600 scientists from 133 countries). Product design and product designers are thought to play a signifi cant role in environmental impact issues. This late agreement has meant environmentally friendly products have been quite slow to appear on the market, but there is now a trend towards creating ‘greener’ products. New ideas and technologies are emerging to help designers make the necessary breakthroughs in producing more environmentally friendly products.
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Case study: Emmanuel Laffon de Mazières
Sustainability The term ‘sustainable development’ was defi ned by the World Commission report on Environment and Development (the 1987 Brundtland Commission) as ‘development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs’. Sustainability therefore encompasses broad concepts of economics and politics in addition to its more familiar environmental considerations.
u Market trends u Case study: Luigi Colani