On a personal level, designers can do their part to change the world towards more sustainable behaviors and attitudes. Below are a few tips for designers on how they can play their part.
- Design to minimize the ecological footprint of the product. This includes the carbon footprint, the amount of resources used in the production process, and the biodegradability of the product.
- Design to harness renewable forms of energy to power the product rather than non-renewable forms.
- Design to enable the seperation of the products’ components, so that the product can be easily recycled or reused upon the end of it’s consumption life.
- Design to exclude the use of toxic and harmful substances in the production process.
- Design to educate the consumers as well as the client about conservation and the environment.
- Design to re-examine original assumptions of the existing concepts behind products and materials, so they can be designed to innovative and encompass positive nevironmental attitudes and outcomes
- Design for the social commons by publishing designs in the public domain, especially designs that may not be produced under the commercial market.
- Design to create more affordable sustainable products for the consumer market.