Sustainable Product Design
Making physical products more in touch with today’s alarming environmental risks has become the cornerstone of sustainable design and development and should be paid attention to.
The dangers of global warming and its effects on product design
Global warming has become a serious problem affecting our health, weather, oceans, and food. By increasing our carbon footprint, we make the planet warmer than it should be. A crucial contributor to the increase of greenhouse gases is the extreme use of plastics in the current economy, especially the way we deal or don’t deal, with it.
The only way to change the world is to change yourself first.
Understanding these issues, we start to look for new solutions, ways to lower or eliminate the carbon footprint we leave behind us through sustainable design practices while retaining harmony between all aspects of product design.
How can product design for sustainability help the environment and future generations?
Miroslavo believes that as product designers, we have the social, environmental and economic responsibility to contribute to our world by creating new solutions for a more sustainable future while respecting the established needs of consumers like owning a beautiful and functional product at a good price.
We can achieve that through:
- New material research and development.
- Source materials from more local companies to lower transportation emissions.
- Trying to use more natural materials where suitable.
- Minimising the parts used in a design to decrease material usage.
- Using more environmentally friendly plastics and compostable materials.
- Designing minimalistic packaging to lower waste.
- Using manufacturing processes that require less energy.
- Working with manufacturers that employ sustainability principles.
- Designing with reusing, recycling and upcycling in mind.
Read an article on why we should design products for sustainability on Miroslavo’s blog.
There are many available and feasible ways we can make product and industrial design more sustainable and new solutions are explored every day. It’s now up to us to take responsibility and make a change.