Are you a student looking for
information about ecodesign?
Ecodesign is a series of processes that can be incorporated into designing to minimise the ecological impact of whatever is designed.
A few basic rules of thumb are: a) make the product last as long as possible b) make the product out of non-toxic materials c) make the product as energy efficient as possible d) design the product for disassembly, and parts and materials recovery These are not easy guides to apply; they are often contradictory and all require creative thinking — they cannot simply applied to existing designs.
The EcoDesign Foundation also believes that minimising ecological impacts is not on its own enough to design more sustainable futures. The most unsustainable aspects of a product are: 1) the fact that it exists at all — less impact is still an impact 2) the behaviour associated with the product and all its associated products — a less impacting product can service a high impacting set of uses To signal the expansion of the process of ecodesign into these more ambitious areas of value redesign, EDF promotes the idea of 'sustainments'. A sustainment is an entrepreneurial environment (a product-service, a building, a business, an institution, a plan, etc) designed to promote and sustain more sustainable ways of living and working. In the SUSTAINMENTS section of this website are explanations of Sustainments and our archived Newsletter that gives examples of Sustainments. There are also plenty of ecodesign Resources and Links available.
You may wish to consider helping EDF out with its research into sustainment design, monitoring and reporting on particular areas of interest. Have a look at the Ways of Participating in EDF section of the website. There are also significant benefits to becoming a student member of Change Design.
