Monday, November 23, 2009

Sustainable Innovation


On November 18th, Nathan Shedroff presented a lecture about sustainability in design at the University of California, Davis. His lecture primarily focused on the importance of merging the very different worlds of design, business, and sustainability.

According to Shedroff, sustainability is often a mix of ecological, social, and financial ideas that need to be incorporated into design. Shedroff stated that although “there is no such thing as sustainable design, there is such a thing as more sustainable design.” Throughout the lecture, viewers were graced with valuable information about creating and selling sustainable products. Design strategies for making efficient merchandise encouraged designers to create usable, accessible, and meaningful products. Shedroff also mentioned the benefits of using local resources, substituting wasteful materials like plastic with recyclable ones, and design for durability. By following these guidelines designers will never run into problems like Shedroff’s biggest pet peeve, “designing things today that will make tomorrow worse.”

At the end of his lecture, Shedroff presented six tips for sustainable innovation:
1. Provide more for less
2. Focus on efficiency and health
3. Use and promote local energy, resource, and labor
4. Don’t use (American) PVC
5. Design solutions to be savored
6. Don’t spend more declaring your results than the value they provide

Designers ultimately create the future, so it is incredibly important that they incorporate sustainability into their design process. Sustainable innovation is not only important for designers now, but designers in the future. Because consumerism has drastically increase and will most likely continue to do so, it is up to designers to create efficient products that will benefit the environment and society.

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