The Future of Product Design: How Sustainability is changing the way we produce and consume

Sustainable product design refers to the process of creating products that are environmentally friendly, socially responsible, and economically viable. This means that the product should be designed in a way that minimizes its environmental impact and resource consumption takes into consideration the needs and well-being of all stakeholders, and is financially viable for the manufacturer and consumer.

3 Pillars of Sustainability (Image representation by FOLKA)

There are several principles that guide sustainable product design, including:

1. Life cycle thinking: This means considering the entire life cycle of a product, from raw material extraction, through production and use, to disposal or recycling.
2. Cradle-to-cradle design: This approach aims to design products that can be continually recycled or reused, rather than being disposed of after a single use.
3. Eco-efficiency: This involves designing products that use fewer resources and generate less waste, while still meeting the needs of the user.
4. Design for disassembly: This involves designing products in a way that makes them easy to disassemble and recycle, rather than being difficult to take apart or requiring special treatment to dispose of.

If we look into the Sustainable Development Goals of the United Nation, Goal number 12 specifically aims to “ensure sustainable consumption and production patterns.” It says that, Unsustainable patterns of production and consumption are the root cause of triple-planetary crises. The term “Triple planetary crisis” refers to the three interconnected global challenges facing humanity: Climate change, Biodiversity loss, and Pollution.

It is often the case that pollution and overconsumption are byproducts of poor design. When products and systems are designed with little consideration for their environmental and social impacts, they can contribute to pollution and the overconsumption of resources.

For example, products that are designed to be used only once and then disposed of, such as single-use plastics, can contribute to pollution when they are not properly disposed of and end up in the environment. These products also contribute to overconsumption, as they require the constant extraction and production of new materials, rather than being designed for reuse or recycling.

Similarly, systems that are designed in a way that encourages the overconsumption of resources, such as the linear “take-make-waste” model of production and consumption, can also contribute to pollution and resource depletion. For example,

1. Just think about the “Food delivery system or any online delivery system”. You might be getting your things in a well-mannered and safe package. What will happen to those Packages after you unpack your item?
2. Need not say about our E-waste. The world produces as much as 50 million tonnes of electronic and electrical waste (e-waste) a year, weighing more than all of the commercial airliners ever made. Only 20% of this is formally recycled.

By contrast, when products and systems are designed with sustainability in mind, they can help to reduce pollution and overconsumption. This can involve designing for durability and reuse, using eco-friendly materials and production processes, and incorporating features that encourage resource efficiency.

Also, it is important to educate your users about the impacts of your product and suggestion to reduce the negative impact.
How many of us know about the negative impact of unwanted data stored in the cloud? Let us look into this.

1. Our day-to-day activities using the internet like email, chatting, browsing online, uploading images, playing music, and streaming video. Each of these activities you perform online comes with a small cost — a few grams of carbon dioxide are emitted due to the energy needed to run your devices and power the wireless networks you access. With new devices connecting to the internet every second, according to a recent McKinsey study, data centers account for 1.8% of electricity use in the United States and contribute to 0.3% of all global CO2 emissions.

If you know this fact, as a digital product designer what would have you done to reduce the environmental impact? Would you encourage your user to erase unwanted data from storage? Or encourage them to buy more space?

As a product designer/Product owner or UX designer, you might be using a number of frameworks while designing/developing the product. Can we tweak it to get more sustainable solutions?

Sustainable design thinking: Sustainable design thinking is an approach to design that integrates sustainability principles and practices into the design process. It involves considering the environmental, social, and economic impacts of a product or system throughout its life cycle, and designing for resource efficiency, reuse, and recycling.

Sustainable Design Thinking (Image representation by FOLKA)

There are several ways in which design thinking can be applied to sustainability challenges:

1. Identifying opportunities for resource efficiency: Design thinking can be used to identify opportunities for reducing resource consumption and waste, and for designing products and systems that are more efficient in their use of resources.
2. Exploring alternative materials and technologies: Design thinking can be used to explore the use of alternative materials and technologies that are more environmentally friendly, such as biomaterials or renewable energy sources.
3. Designing for repair, reuse, and recycling: Design thinking can be used to design products and systems that are easier to repair, reuse, and recycle, which can reduce their environmental impact at the end of their useful life.

Sustainable design thinking can be applied to a wide range of fields, including product design, service design, and organizational design.

I happened to read an article written by Tingbin tang. Tingbin Tang is a design researcher, who has developed an enhanced design thinking process that incorporates sustainability principles and practices into the design process.

Tang’s enhanced design thinking process involves the following steps:

1. Empathize: This involves understanding the needs and perspectives of users and other stakeholders and identifying opportunities for design intervention.
2. Define: This involves defining the problem or challenge to be addressed and identifying the constraints and opportunities that will influence the design process.
3. Ideate: This involves generating a wide range of ideas for potential solutions, and considering the feasibility, desirability, and viability of each idea.
4. Prototype: This involves creating physical or digital prototypes of the most promising ideas, and testing them with users and other stakeholders to gather feedback and refine the design.
5. Implement: This involves bringing the final design to market, and considering the environmental, social, and economic impacts of the product or system throughout its life cycle.

Tingbin Tang’s Enhanced Design Thinking Process.

Tang’s enhanced design thinking process integrates sustainability principles and practices into each stage of the design process and emphasizes the importance of considering the environmental, social, and economic impacts of design decisions.

Sustainable Business Canvas model: You all might be familiar with the Business canvas model. There are many modified versions are available. In our company FOLKA, we modified BMC, which gives high priority to the environment.

BMC model by FOLKA

Another stratergy is Permaculture design. Permaculture as a guiding principle and approach for creating sustainable design systems: It is a design approach that seeks to create sustainable and self-sufficient systems that mimic the patterns and relationships found in nature.

Permaculture design principles include:

1. Observe and interact: This principle involves taking the time to observe and understand the natural patterns and processes in a system, and using this knowledge to inform design decisions.
2. Catch and store energy: This involves capturing and conserving energy in the form of water, sunlight, and other resources, and using it efficiently.
3. Obtain a yield: This principle involves maximizing the useful output of a system, whether that be food, fuel, or other products.
4. Apply self-regulation and accept feedback: This involves designing systems that are self-regulating and able to adapt to changing conditions, and being open to learning from the feedback that a system provides.
5. Use and value diversity: This principle involves incorporating a diverse range of species and elements into a system, as this can increase its resilience and productivity.
6. Use edges and value the marginal: This involves maximizing the use of edges and marginal areas in a system, as these can often be the most productive and diverse.

Why product designers should adopt sustainability in the 21st century?

1. Environmental concerns: The 21st century is marked by a range of environmental challenges, including climate change, biodiversity loss, and pollution. Product designers have the opportunity to address these challenges by designing products and systems that are more environmentally friendly and have a lower impact on the planet.
2. Resource constraints: The increasing demand for resources, such as energy, water, and raw materials, is putting pressure on the planet’s finite resources. Product designers can help to address this issue by designing products and systems that are more resource-efficient and that use fewer resources.
3. Social responsibility: In the 21st century, consumers and society as a whole are increasingly aware of the social and environmental impacts of products and are looking for more sustainable options. Product designers have the opportunity to meet this demand by designing products and systems that are socially responsible and that address the needs of all stakeholders.
4. Economic opportunities: Sustainability can also present economic opportunities for product designers, as the demand for sustainable products is increasing and there is potential for cost savings through resource efficiency and the avoidance of environmental externalities.

Product designers have the opportunity to play a key role in addressing the sustainability challenges of the 21st century, and to create products and systems that are environmentally friendly, socially responsible, and economically viable. We need to update ourselves on these sustainable practices and implement them in others, from stakeholders to customers. We can contribute much more to achieve Sustainable development goals by 2030 and lead others to achieve the same.