Resources

This guide predominantly draws on the work the EcoDesign Foundation has done in sustainable design for the last 10 years. As far as other guides go, we have found J.C. Brezet and C.G. van Hemel Ecodesign: A Promising Approach (Paris: UNEP 1997) to be one of the most useful product design guides produced—see Further Introduction for their 'New Concept Development' strategies. Another more recent guide by Helen Lewis and John Gertsakis et.al.Design and Environment: A Global Guide to Designing Greener Goods (Sheffield: Greenleaf, 2001) was reviewed in the January 2002 issue of the Sustainments newsletter. Most guides and checklists however do not account substantially enough for the cultural contexts that are, as we hope to have suggested in this Guide, the key aspect of designing for sustainability.

A Few Recommended Books:

Beukers, Adriaan and Ed van Hinte. Lightness:the inevitable renaissance of minimum energy structures. Rotterdam: 010 publishers, 1998.
Beck, Ulrich. Ecological Politics in an Age of Risk. trans. Amos Weisz, Cambridge: Polity Press, 1995.
Buchanan, Richard and Victor Margolin (eds.). The Idea of Design . Cambridge: MIT Press, 1995.
Buchanan, Richard and Victor Margolin. (eds.) Discovering Design: Explorations in Design Studies . Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 1995.
Frascara, Jorge. User-Centred Graphic Design: Mass Communications and Social Change . London: Taylor & Francis, 1997.
van Hinte, Ed (ed.) Eternally Yours: Visions on Product Endurance . Rotterdam:010 publishers, 1998.
Fry, Tony. A New Design Philosophy: an introduction to defuturing. Sydney: UNSW Press, 1999.
Fry, Tony. Remakings: Ecology, Design, Philosophy. Sydney: Envirobook, 1994.
Graedel, T.E and B.R Allenby. Industrial Ecology. New Jersey: AT & T /Prentice Hall, 1995.
Manzini, Ezio. The Material of Invention: Materials and Design. Cambridge: MIT Press, 1989.

McKenzie Mohr, Doug and William Smith. Fostering Sustainable Behaviour: an introduction to Community-Based Social Marketing. Gabriola Island: New Society Publishers, 1999.
Norman, Donald. The Design of Everyday Things. New York: Doubleday, 1990.
Papanek, Victor. The Green Imperative: Ecology and Ethics in Design and Architecture. London: Thames and Hudson, 1995.

Some Relevant Links For design issues:

This is an excellent design for sustainability resource site from Goldsmiths College, University of London Demi Design for Sustainability
Eternally Yours is an organisation with broad design affiliations that focuses on how the relationships between people and the products we buy and use designs the value, durability and quality of products.
SusHouse project is a European research project concerned with developing and evaluating scenarios for transitions to sustainable households.

For materials information:
http://www.ebuild.com
http://www.timbershop.wilderness.org.au
http://ecospecifier.rmit.edu.au/flash.htm

For energy information and issues:
CADDET ( Centre for the Analysis and Dissemination of Demonstrated Energy Technologies) is an international agency for the exchange of information on renewable energy projects including biomass, geothermal, hydro, solar, wind, waste and PV. Extensive case studies with technical data and contact details.

For toxics and hazardous substances information:

Index of toxic or hazardous substances.

Links to important current and emerging legislative drivers for design for sustainability:
The EU's WEEE (Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment)Directive
The EU's Directive on Packaging and Packaging Waste
Australia's voluntary National Packaging Covenant
The EU's End-of-life Vehicle Directive
The EU's EEE (Environmentally-friendly Electrical and Electronic) product proposal (whereas the WEEE legislation is concerned with the end-of-life processing of the product, the EEE initiative focusses on the full life-cycle of the product).
The EU's Energy Label and Energy Star Program

For other useful references, go to the links section of the EDF website.