Thoughts on Design & The Environment:
My generation is growing up in a world in which topics like environment, going green, global warming, recycling are thrown around often. We see it in the media, in politics and even in general conversation. With each passing year the concern becomes more relevant. As science and technology continues to develop so does humanities understanding of the fragility of our natural world. We have recognized that our prior behavior has had a lasting negative effect on the very environment we live in. A primary would be the automobile industry. After decades of rapidly consuming gasoline and burning it off in vehicles averaging 15mpg we've realized one, the worlds oil supply will not last at the rate we're going and two, the chemicals we are putting it into the environment are essentially destroying it and even the very atmosphere we would not be here without. It is todays designers and engineers that work to deal with these issues and hopefully make up for our mistakes. Videos like William Mcdonough on cradle to cradle design and Janin Benyus: biomimicrary in action that we watched in class show this. Developments like new sources of energy to run our cars and better gas milage all come from creative designers like them looking to improve on what we have in order to improve our relationship with the environment. Really any designer who is environmentally concious, which we all should be, can work to create new products and methods that will improve rather than harm our world. Even things like bottle and package design can be recreated using less materials or even biodegradable materials can greatly improve the amount a trash we put in the environment I think that the time is now for the next generation of designers to show what were made of and how much of a difference we can make from what has been done in the past.
Below is a Link to the EPA's Design for the Environment program followed by a short description:
United States Environmental Protection Agency - Design for the Environment
Design for the Environment is an Environmental Protection Agency partnership. While this organization does not physically design products for the environment it does encourage it. Manufacturers are able to be certified and stamp there products (developed by designers) with a DfE emblem. This shows that they have meant strong guidelines set forth by the EPA to make their product safe for environmental and human health. It encourages them to use safer chemicals and means of producing their products and also can benefit them financially. Consumers these days are always more attracted to products that are accredited as being safer and more "green" for the environment than those who are not. Because of the EPA and DfE programs companies are encouraged to fund the design of more environmentally friendly products.
Below the links provided exemplify some designers and products working with environment in mind (Not necessarily accredited by the DfE and EPA):
inhabitat.com is a design blog with all sorts of posts related to environmentally friendly designs. It contains anything from new car designs, to new solar-powered cell phones to various "green" architecture ideas, both actual and conceptual. Just scroll through and see what you discover. These are the necessary thoughts of the future.
Eco Friendly Home Furniture Design Ideas
http://www.furniturehomedesign.com/ is a another "blog" type website with postings focused on eco friendly products, appliances and furniture. It is an excellent source to find environmentally sound products and ideas.
Bertrand Piccard's Solar-powered Adventure
This is a video of a speech by Bertrand Piccard from TED.com. Bertrand Piccard is known for his trip around the world via hot are balloon. Now he is looking to travel the world in a plane operated by solar power. To some this may seem like a publicity stunt with no real value, but Piccard is actually researching a new idea that could absolutely change the way we use energy. If eventually with the use a solar-power we could design a new way to power our airplanes, cars, homes and so on it isn't hard to imagine how the environment could benefit.
Eco Coke Bottle Design Designer: Andrew Kim
This is a design idea created by Andrew Kim, age 19 at the time, for his semester midterm project. I discovered this awhile back on Stumbleupon.com of all things. He idea is brilliant and has earned him a lot of recognition. His presentation done via Adobe Photoshop is very well done, attractive and understandable to the viewer. Just take a look, his work is very easy to understand (all in pictures) and his product idea would absolutely improve the environment.
