Savvy Lifestyle

We designed our initial line of tools about 3 years ago and we’re in the process now of updating them.  Part of that update is aesthetic, part of it is function, but the majority of it is making them eco-friendly.  I came across this list of what makes a product “green” courtesy of Eco-Design by Alastair Fuad-Luke.  He calls it “A manifesto for eco-pluralistic design (designs that tread lightly on the planet)”:

1. Design to satisfy real needs rather than transient, fashionable or market-driven needs.

2. Design to minimalize the ecological footprint of the product, i.e., reduce resource consumption, including energy and water.

3. Design to harness solar income (sun, wind, water or sea power) rather than use non-renewable natural capital such as fossil fuels.

4. Design to enable separation of components of the product/material/service at the end of life in order to encourage recycling or reuse of materials and/or components.

5. Design to exclude the use of substances toxic or hazarodous to human and other forms of life at all stages of the product’s lifecycle.

6. Design to engender maximum benefits to the intended audience and to educate the client and the user and thereby create a more equable future.

7. Design to use locally available materials and resources wherever possible (thinking globally but acting locally.)

8. Design to exclude innovation lethargy by re-examining original assumptions behind existing concepts and products.

9. Design to dematerialize products into services wherever feasible.

10. Design to maximize a product’s benefits to communities.

11. Design to encourage modularity in design to permit sequential purchases, as needs require and funds permit, to faciliatate repair/reuse and to improve functionality.

12. Design to foster debate and challenge the status quo surrounding existing products.

13. Publish eco-pluralistic designs in the public domain for everyone’s benefit, especially those designs that commerce will not manufacture.

14. Design to create more sustainable products for a more sustainable future.

I think that’s a pretty good manifesto.  Each one of our tools is seeking to address as many of the above as possible and we hope other designers & manufacturers will do the same.

Rebecca_ SF