DESIGN
FOR SUSTAINABILITY/ ECODESIGN/ DESIGN FOR ENVIRONMENT
Demi Design
for Sustainability
This is an excellent design for sustainability resource site for students
and professionals from Goldsmiths College, University of London.
Society
for Responsible Designers (SRD), Sydney
Brief yet comprehensive advice for interior, graphic, fashion and product
designers. SRD have been involved with some excellent projects over the
yearsincluding the Ecospecifier. The news section is well maintained.
Centre
for Design at RMIT The Centre for Design is based in Melbourne, Australia
and has a strong commitment to Design for Environment, Life Cycle Analysis,
and Extended Producer Responsibility.
Greener
by Design
Edwin Datschefski (author of The Total Beauty of Sustainable Products,
Crans-Pres-Celigny, Switzerland, Rotovision, c.2001) has put together
this rambling and informative site. Useful for product designers looking
for inspiration, lots of links and up-to-date. The emphasis tends to be
on material selection and manufacturing processes which are judged according
to their direct polluting effects. This product-based approach lacks critical
depth and fails to address the dangers of consumer culture. A good starting
point to get a feel for sustainable design and lots of product examples.
Centre
for Sustainable Design
This site has excellent links for ecodesign, extended producer responsibility,
end-of-life management and other product and service development and design
specific sites. It also has a well regarded subscription-based journal,
The Journal of Sustainable Product Design.
o2
An eco-design site from the Netherlands Design Institute put together
by Ed Van Hinte and Conny Bakker (authors of Trespassers: Inspirations
for eco-efficient design, Netherlands Design Institute, 010 Publishers,
Rotterdam (1999) and Van Hinte (ed.) Eternally Yours: Visions on product
endurance, 010 Publishers, Rotterdam, 1997). Mainly for product design,
with some good content on Green Architecture (Smart Architecture, inflatables
etc), and some theory which is relevant to all disciplines. This is one
of the best sites around - (but hasn't been updated for a while) it looks
great and has selective links and product examples. Another branch of
02 containing good content.
o2-USA
An up-to-date site with comprehensive links.
Manufacturing
Modeling Lab at Stanford University
This is the best resource for developments in Design for Environment
in the field of product design, particularly useful if you are researching
this area. This site offers technical, product-based approaches to design
which are fairly dry but are increasingly addressing wider contexts such
as infrastructures and supply chains. If you want to design your (electronic)
product for ease of disassembly and recycling, it will be useful. This
is an academic site for people already familiar with the idea of Design
for Environment. Stanford has done a lot of work recently on the End-of-Life
product phase.
U.S.
Environmental Protection Agency Product Stewardship
To hear the 'good news' stories about what the big names in computer manufacturing
are doing with the idea of Product Stewardship or Extended Producer Responsibility,
follow the links on these pages.
Sustainable
Consumption and Production in Canada
A few good downloadable reports on Sustainable Consumption, Production
and Design for Sustainability from IndEco, an Industrial Ecology Consultancy
in Canada. Also a fair bit of work on Sustainability Indicators in the
Projects section.
Delft
University Design for Sustainability Program
University eco-design site with publications and links. Main areas include
Eco-Efficiency of End-of-life Systems, Ecodesign Methodology and Eco-Efficient
Services and Systems Design including some online design tools. Seems
not to have been updated in a while. Another site www.kathalys.com
connected to Delft contains some kooky stuff, but most links don't go
anywhere. Not updated unfortunately, but you can find a page on a Novel
Protein Foods workshop. The methodology sounds great but where did it
go?
U.K.
Design Council
Nicely designed site introduces users to Design for Sustainability
Ec[o]ncept
Excellent glossary, nicely designed site (in looks and navigation) but
many links go nowhere. Main areas include sustainable design and eco-design
with research and links up to 2000. Most of the useful information is
in the Service section.
Pre
An LCA and eco-design consultancy in The Netherlands and distributor of
Sima Pro, LCA software. Very good introductory tips for eco-design.
Design
Community
A big site for all design disciplines with a resources page for Green
Design (E-Design) and a discussion forum.