8.3: Sustainable Design

8.3
Sustainable Design
Essential idea: Sustainable design is a philosophy of developing products in line with social, economic, and ecological sustainability principles.

Green design versus sustainable design

• Green design (short scale) : designing in a way that takes account of the environmental impact of the product throughout its life.
• Products that have little or no affect on the environment
• Cradle to grave approach
• Shorter (than sustainable design) therefore easier and cheaper to address environmental concerns in products
• Incremental idea generating techniques are feasible as possibly only small changes need to be made

• Sustainable design (long scale): the philosophy of designing physical objects, the built environment, and services to comply with the principles of social, economic, and ecological sustainability,
• Deals with TBL (triple bottom line) sustainability, economic, environmental and social
• Cradle to cradle (life to a new life)
• Longer timescale which can affect the R&D stage of the design process, and increases costs.
• Idea generating techniques are more radical to re-think the nature of the product and how it works

Datschefski's five principles of sustainable design: cyclic, solar, safe, efficient, social
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He came up with 5 principles as a holistic approach to sustainable design, but not all five principles will apply to all products.

Principles of sustainable design

• Cyclic – The product could not only be made from recyclable materials but is also  compostable, of organic materials or from minerals that are recycled in a continuous loop such as bio plastics.
• Solar – The energy (both embedded and in use) the product requires comes form only renewable energy sources that is cyclic and safe.
• Safe – By-products products of the that are emitted into the environment (air, land & water) and ’space’ are non-hazardous, i.e. non polluting. The by-products are “food” for other systems. Hydrogen fuel celled cars’ by-product when in use is H2O.
• Efficient – Requiring 90% less energy, materials and water than equivalent products in 1990.
• Social – The products manufacture and usage should underpin basic human rights, safe work practises, fair trade principles and natural justice.