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Rachael Dalton-Taggart,
January 2, 2008
The problem with the entire ‘global warming’ noise and the
‘sustainability’ yawn coming at us through the press is that normal
people like us are tempted to just do nothing. I mean, why bother? Even
as a middle of the road liberal, I often feel that there are too many
things I simply cannot control. But if given a chance, a hope perhaps,
that I may be able to affect my environment even a little bit, at a low
cost to myself, I would be willing to adopt some more environmentally
conscious actions.
Buzz Kross, Executive VP, Autodesk Manufacturing Division, and a
vocal advocate of sustainability, says “We have a system today that is
simply not sustainable. With the current use of materials, it would take
3.8 earths to support us in the future. Resources and output of the
world would have to grow 4 times to keep up with where we are today.
That by itself is reason enough to take the issue of our resources
seriously. We simply cannot sustain that growth and continue to live as
we do now.”
But if Designers are So Important, What Can They Do?
We have grown up in a throw-away society. Most products have been
designed for obsolescence and become expensive to fix if they break.
Furthermore they are often impossible to open up to repair (take an iPod
as an example). Thus there develops a threshold of cost versus
convenience to consider when a product fails: If the microwave breaks,
simply throw it away and get a new one for $49.95. That equation is
easy. Same goes for inkjet printers. The washing machine? If the repair
costs more than $300, then I might as well get a new one.
Allan Chochinov, a writer at Core77, created a ‘Manifesto
for Sustainability in Design’ which makes for a great read, saying
things I would like to say, only better. Chochinov offers guidelines on
what designers need to do to make sustainable products.
Add Fabrication Into the Form and Function Equation
Fabrication has always tended to be in the area of ‘faster, cheaper.’
It has never before had to have the ‘better’ as part of it. But that
idea of ‘better’ now also goes deeper to the choice of materials, the
creation of inadvertent waste, the carbon footprint, the way parts are
assembled, and also with far more thought into the end of the product’s
life.
Edwin Datschefski of
BioThinking has three main protocols for defining a framework for
sustainable products which covers fabrication, form and function of
products into a broader understanding.
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