Design for Sustainability: A Practical Approach

Design for the Environment initially summarises historical and current issues of the environmental debate in the context of sustainable product development, highlighting the benefits gained from considering the impact on the environment and issues of sustainability when designing. The authors answer the questions: What is sustainable product development and why is it important? What are the main drivers of sustainable product development? How can design help to control human impact on the environment by not only minimising pollution, waste, energy use and use of scarce resources, but also thinking outside the box to create services and infrastructures that make it less necessary to manufacture some kinds of products? The end of Part 1 makes the commercial case for design for the environment and argues that it can facilitate the design of better products and services in an absolute sense.The case studies in Part 2 divide into those demonstrating product improvement and redesign and those exemplifying the more radical approach of service design and infrastructure development. Product design examples include those that reduce waste, pollution and energy consumption, designing for recycling and reuse of parts, and making fewer products do more. They range across a number of product sectors including electrical goods, IT and furniture.In Part 3 Design for the Environment outlines and assesses the methods, tools and techniques available to designers, both for design innovation and design improvement. In this section the authors take the reader through a whole sustainable design project from start to finish, from brief to manufacture and product review. References and sources of information are also included.

Tracy Bhamra is Reader in Sustainable Design in the Department of Design and Technology at Loughborough University.