Connecting Sustainability to the Design Process

This paper presents the finding of a research investigation into how sustainable objectives can be incorporated into a design brief. It is based upon the development and trial of a pack of Eco-Design Cards. The initiation of the research was a feeling that some of the strategies, tools and processes within Eco-Design are cumbersome and inappropriate. That is, they are data intensive and rely on a scientific or quantitative approach to both strategies and assessments. Many are retrospective and assume that the product already exists or is well defined. All of this runs contrary to the intuitive way in which designers work. Designers work quickly whereas many of the strategies available are slow in execution. The intention was to learn from these yet produce a method by which sustainable methods could be introduced to design students. A qualitative approach which introduced the themes of sustainable design early in the development cycle was required. This view had been emphasised while teaching Sustainable Design Tools & Strategies to Year 2 BA(Hons) Product Design Students at UCCA. The resulting research reflected on what exactly ‘sustainable design’ is and how to introduce practical solution pathways to design students. It continued with the development of a pack of cards which were trialled with students both familiar and new to sustainability. The results of the trials and a reflection on the complexity of sustainable design and the value of the cards raised form the conclusion of this paper. 1 CONTEXT/BACKGROUND As a practising product designer and lecturer I am acutely aware of the need to integrate sustainable strategies into the design process. Research has shown that: No matter where in the product life-cycle the impact lies, most of the impact is ‘locked into the product at the design stage [1] It is important that designers are not only aware of sustainable issues but are in a position to set realistic target in the early stages of design origination. That is to understand what targets should be set for a given design challenge and the methodology by which these goals can be achieved. Having taught a unit ‘Sustainable Design Tools and Strategies’ for year 2 Product Design Sustainable Futures students at UCCA, the author had come to the conclusion that the available material was not conducive to this process. That is most of the available tools were either retrospective or comparative. Some allowed you to define broad goals but few linked these to sustainable design methodology. This project started with the grandiose purpose of creating a blueprint of methods for sustainable development which could be utilised in the brief setting stage of design, seamlessly integrating sustainable principles into the design process.