EDF - What is D|Mat Design?

DEFINITIONS EXAMPLES THE ROLE OF DESIGN

D|Mat is the EcoDesign Foundation's contribution to the debate for Sustainable Consumption and dematerialised products and economies. This debate gained momentum in the mid-1990s in response to the failure of Design for Environment and Cleaner Production intitiatives to deliver significant environmental impact reduction. Product design and development has integrated many environmental impact reduction methods, but the benefits of purely technical responses have been outstripped by increasingly higher volumes of consumption - our domestic appliances are now energy-efficient but we own more of them. International research is now addressing the way we consume and attempts to disassociate consumption and economic growth from environmental impact. This means designing less material and energy intensive products and services. It also involves addressing and re-imagining the culture of consumption.

The body of substantial international research in this area is growing rapidly. Sustainable Product Service Systems began just a few years ago as a theoretical and highly speculative proposal - many such systems are now being successfully field tested and devleoped into new business scenarios. The EDF is collating this research, assessing its environmental merits and adapting the findings for Australian contexts.

DEFINING DE/IM-MATERIALISATION

Dematerialisation
This term generally refers to a reduction in the quantity of, and the more eco-efficient use of materials in products. It can refer to production-side initiatives such as light-weighting or use of recovered materials, or more radically, products designed for closed-loop take-back and components or materials reuse (referring to Design for Environment, Design for Recycling and Extended Producer Responsibility initiatives). But increasingly it is used to refer to user-side product-service mixes, that is, services designed to extend the use-life of a product. These are often called Product Services and Systems (PSS). PSS would include products designed for easy maintenance and repair and the provision of maintenance services by producers (service provision would become a producer's core competency).

Immaterialisation
This term refers to the substitution of activities that do not require materials, for the consumption of products or resources. Because humans are embodied-beings, immaterialisation is an ideal and only possible in a relative way within artificially bounded systems. For example, conversation can substitute for shopping, but conversants still need warmth and food, and to a lesser extent, light and furniture. Immaterialisation is most often used with reference to substitutive digitalisation, that is, making use of information and communication technologies instead of physical systems. Design for immaterialisation is sometimes called Sustainable Services Substitution (3S).

These definitions are different to what technology advocates refer to when they make promises such as the realisation of the 'paperless office' through Information Technology;

While IT is constantly projected as 'new economy', as 'immaterial' and 'knowledge based', it is still deeply implicated in 'the material'. IT products and services draw heavily not just on component industries, like chip production, which in turn rests on the high energy demands of silicon manufacture, but also on many other materials based industries - like plastics, steel, non-ferrous alloys, glass and chemicals - which themselves have received a considerable amount of basic impacts analysis.
(Please refer to Tony Fry and Anne-Marie Willis' analysis
Openings into the Ecology of Information Technology)

An information-based economy has the potential to contribute to D|Mat in principle, but hitherto has failed to do so. Positive research in this direction has focused on Tele -working, Tele-commuting, Tele-shopping and electronic documentation.

Some Examples of D|Mat
The merits of these examples can be assessed according to how well they enable the reduction of material and energy use for the delivery of customer satisfaction. They can do this by getting more use from materials and products (increased service intensity) through shared use and product life extension.

Functional Sales: Selling services or results rather than tangible products. This means finding the end result that the customer is looking for - someone buying a heater is actually seeking 'warmth' (warmth as a function can be delivered to a customer in a variety of ways that do not necessarily or solely include a tangible 'heater').

Multiple Use: Selling or facilitating the shared use of products or environments such as co-housing initiatives or libraries (books, toys, tools).

Product Leasing: This facilitates product maintenance and upgrade, and end-of-life product take-back (as required by European EPR legislation) by retaining the manufacturers long-term ownership of the product. In this scenario, it is in a company's interest to extend the life of the products it retains ownership of.

Extending Use-Life: Making a product last longer through increased material and psychological durability. A product that is easy to repair prevents the purchase of a replacement product.

The Role of Design
D|Mat design considers the socio-cultural and material aspects of reducing our material impact. If designing for a product to be used in a shared environment, it must be materially durable but must also attempt to break through some cultural barriers. People like the freedom and convenience of using their own products. How can a designer make a shared product as appealing as one personally owned? Designers will also need to move beyond their products to facilitate new sustainable consumption behaviours. This may involve designing systems to support products including whole new business scenarios - a somewhat entrepreneurial role. The complex but leading role for design is a major theme in the EDF's D|Mat research and education.

For a full account of the concepts and implications of D|Mat, please read Cameron Tonkinwise, 'Draft Proposal for Asia-Pacific Centre for Dematerialisation Design'.