Connecting Sustainability to the Design Process

This paper presents the finding of a research investigation into how sustainable objectives can be incorporated into a design brief. It is based upon the development and trial of a pack of Eco-Design Cards. The initiation of the research was a feeling that some of the strategies, tools and processes within Eco-Design are cumbersome and inappropriate. That is, they are data intensive and rely on a scientific or quantitative approach to both strategies and assessments. Many are retrospective and assume that the product already exists or is well defined. All of this runs contrary to the intuitive way in which designers work. Designers work quickly whereas many of the strategies available are slow in execution. The intention was to learn from these yet produce a method by which sustainable methods could be introduced to design students. A qualitative approach which introduced the themes of sustainable design early in the development cycle was required. This view had been emphasised while teaching Sustainable Design Tools & Strategies to Year 2 BA(Hons) Product Design Students at UCCA. The resulting research reflected on what exactly ‘sustainable design’ is and how to introduce practical solution pathways to design students. It continued with the development of a pack of cards which were trialled with students both familiar and new to sustainability. The results of the trials and a reflection on the complexity of sustainable design and the value of the cards raised form the conclusion of this paper