Design's Impact
Design is a powerful conduit for change. As the messages, artifacts and experiences we create pass through the hands, minds, and hearts of people, we have an opportunity to weave sustainability into the broader fabric of culture and to shift consumption and lifestyle aspirations to a more sustainable basis for living.
In order for individuals, societies, economies and the planet to flourish, we must support environmental responsibility, social equity, economic health, and cultural vitality and recognize that they are inextricably linked. The confluence of these four streams is the key to sustainable design.
Four Streams of Integrated Sustainability (1)
Environmental Protection
Actions and issues that affect natural systems, including climate change, preservation, carbon footprint and restoration of natural resources.
Social Equity
Actions and issues that affect all aspects of society, including poverty, violence, injustice, education, healthcare, safe housing, labor and human rights.
Economic Health
Actions and issues that affect how people and organizations meet their basic needs, evolve and define economic success and growth.
Cultural Vitality
Actions and issues that affect how communities manifest identity, preserve and cultivate traditions, and develop belief systems and commonly accepted values.
Design's Opportunity
Environment
Design can visualize complex information and make it comprehensible and relevant. It can help invent new systems, products and services to deliver more value for less material and energy used. Design solutions that integrate environmental criteria at every step can overcome natural resource constraints, whether animal, plant, mineral, air or water.
Society
Designs and messages that are based on principles of inclusion, equality and empathy provide harmonious and healthy conditions in which all members of society can flourish. Design can visualize acute needs, raise awareness, prompt response, and affect policy to improve quality of life.
Economy
Design thinking can help invent new economic and business models appropriate for 21st-century realities and set the foundation for a more sustainable world. Design's approach to investigation, analysis, and visualization can be leveraged to create opportunities and value for companies and people across all streams of sustainability.
Culture
Design can connect people with ideas, motivate behavior change, and shift mindsets. This transformative power can shape new values and provide a compelling understanding of sustainability that ensures its assimilation by a broad array of people, nations and cultures.
DESIGNERS' ROADMAP
Environmental Protection
Learn and inform about the environ-mental impacts of choices and behaviors.
Consider intended and unintended ecological consequences of components over the entire lifecycle, including extraction of raw materials from nature, conversion of materials into artifacts, artifact use / reuse, transportation, disposal, and recycling.
Consider the entire supply chain. Seek sustainable suppliers and clean production technologies at every step. Plan to optimize shipping volumes and transportation distances.
Eliminate waste. Maximize use of recycled, recyclable and compostable materials. Plan for use of materials in continuous cycles including disassembly, ease of recovery, take-back programs, upcycling and recycling.
Avoid the use of any substances that may cause environmental damage to air quality, water or the earth.
Consider appropriate durability to make artifacts last longer or decompose more easily. Design for multiple functions and repairability to encourage reuse.
Minimize energy use. Maximize use of clean energy sources such as wind and solar in manufacturing, transportation and product use.
Social Equity
Create messages, artifacts, services and experiences that respond to the needs of all people, celebrate beauty and promote and enable joyful, healthy living.
Consider intended and unintended consequences for individuals and communities from all components over the entire lifecycle, including impacts on human toxicity, water pollution, cancer-causing potential, resource depletion and climate change.
Understand the ethical supply chain to ensure that products and services are manufactured under safe and fair labor conditions, supporting human rights and basic needs like sufficient pay, healthcare and benefits.
Minimize environmental, health and safety risks to employees and communities involved in manufacturing, use, and end-of-life scenarios with safe technologies, facilities and operating procedures.
Economic Health
Understand financial parameters and ensure that solutions meet market criteria for performance and cost.
Communicate truthfully and with transparency.
Understand and communicate sound business values and short- and long-term benefits of sustainable solutions including efficiency, competitive advantage, profitability, increased sales, brand equity and employee morale.
Consider and encourage business models that incorporate product takeback systems, end-of-life product collection, product upgrading and material recycling.
Consider solutions that turn products into lease or service models.
Consider equitable systems of corporate ownership and governance, such as co-ops.
Cultural Vitality
Create messages, artifacts, services and experiences that provide people with choices that can change attitudes and redefine prosperity.
Support and promote the uniqueness of different cultures and recognize that highly functional systems like ecosystems and human communities are resilient because of their diversity.
Consider historical, place-based, social, cultural and economic contexts to make design and messaging culturally relevant and to preserve local cultures.
Promote desirable visions that compel people to want to live sustainably.
Professional Practices
The Living Principles for Design are meant to guide purposeful action. They will evolve, grow and draw openly from a wide range of professional practices.
Join our feedback loop on Facebook and help create and share tried-and-true best practices, guidelines, tools, ideas, case studies, and general support for a broad range of design disciplines, including:
Communication Design
Packaging Design
Experience Design
Interaction Design
Fashion Design
Industrial Design
Architecture/Interior Design
Service Design