From sandwich wrappers to solar-powered clothing, sustainable design is helping companies become more innovative and to stay ahead of the competition
Project: Ecopaint
Sustainable design elements: reducing pollution, enhancing health
The British company Millennium Chemicals has developed Ecopaint, a coating for buildings which soaks up the nitrogen oxides that cause smog and respiratory problems. The paint could be used for buildings and street furniture, to improve air quality. In a European project, a similar coating on a road in Milan reduced nitrogen oxide levels by up to 60% and residents found they could breathe better.
Project: Stop & Start
Sustainable design elements: reduced fuel consumption, reduced carbon emissions, reduced noise
Introduced to the Citroen C3, the Stop & Start system means that when a car is stopped, such as at a traffic light, it switches the engine to standby mode. Releasing the brakes restarts the engine. Citroen calculates that this switching on and off reduces fuel consumption and CO2 emissions by 10% to 15% and should make traffic jams quieter and cleaner too. The system will be introduced to other Peugeot Citroen models.
Project: SkySails
Sustainable design element: renewable energy, energy savings
A German company SkySails has designed giant kites for cargo ships, which it estimates will reduce fuel consumption by about a third. The kites fly 100 to 300 metres above the sea, where the wind is less turbulent and on average 50% stronger than at sail level. Since fuel comprises 60% of shipping costs, the savings both environmentally and economically could be huge. Also, the International Maritime Organization has recently brought in new marine pollution rules which could increase the costs of fuel by about 50%. SkySails say they can fit a ship with their kites for 400,000 to 2.5 million Euros, according to their size. With a $50 a barrel oil price, this would be recouped in 4-5 years.
Project: Aeron chair
Client: Herman Miller, US
Designers: Don Chadwick and Bill Stumpf
Sustainable design elements: design for durability; design for disassembly; easy to repair, refurbish and recycle; teddy bear factor; minimising energy use
Ergonomics in motion - this iconic chair is so comfortable that people want to drag it with them from office to office. It's easily assembled and disassembled, allowing for maintenance in situ (avoiding transport back to the workshop), and for recycling at the end of life. Designed to be more durable than most office chairs, it also replaces the standard foam-and-textile back with a breathable membrane. Not only does this keep the sitter's body at ambient temperature, it can also reduce air-conditioning costs.
In pursuing a more sustainable business model Herman Miller has redesigned the way it packages chair bases. In the process, it has saved labour time and costs, as well as reducing the amount of waste it had to send to landfill (and pay for) and the materials it had to buy in for new packaging. In other words, the company aims to hit all bases - social (better employee conditions), environmental (reduced raw materials coming in and waste going to landfill) and economic (lower financial costs).
Project: Kodak disposable camera
Sustainable design elements: design for recycling and remanufacture; maximising product utility
'Disposable' is often a dirty word in sustainable design, suggesting a careless 'throwaway' attitude to valuable resources. Kodak's disposable camera has been designed to snap apart, allowing nearly 90% of the parts to be recycled or remanufactured into new cameras. Because of the high rate of turnover, the cameras maximise 'utility', that is, they are in use much more than most of the non-disposable cameras we have sitting at home. Maximising utility - the amount a product is actually in use - is a key strategy for reducing environmental impact, hence the benefits of car-sharing, with fewer cars being needed to serve a given number of people.
Project: Reverse Vending Machines
Sustainable design element: design for recycling and remanufacture
A Norwegian company, TOMRA, has designed reverse vending machines for use in supermarkets, enabling people to drop off their empty bottles and cans while shopping. Using 3D image recognition, they identify and separate containers, then issuing coupons which can be redeemed for cash in the supermarket. The cash incentive seems to encourage recycling. Europe recycles less than 20% of its containers while Norwegians are recycling 90% via supermarkets. Since the TOMRA machine can be customised for different markets and containers, it might go some way to persuading more people to recycle some of the 700 billion plastic cartons, cans and bottles that are in circulation.
Project: solar powered clothing
Sustainable design element: renewable energy, energy savings
A range of jackets by Scottevest include photovoltaic cells which can power a battery pack to supply power to pockets for an iPod or Gameboy. The cells charge as fast as the mains and over time, a single solar powered battery for different devices could also reduce the plethora of chargers we need, itself reducing material consumption (and user inconvenience).
Project: Interface plant in Shanghai
Sustainable design element: systems thinking to design a problem out in the first place, simplifying design, energy savings
Interface employed a Singaporean efficiency genius to drastically reduce costs and energy use in a plant in Shanghai. The savings were based on rethinking the layout. Usually, plant equipment is put in place and then piping installed to connect it. This was turned on its head – the piping was laid out first to minimise bends and so reduce friction. Friction was further cut by using large pipes and small motors, as opposed to the standard practice of smaller pipes and large motors. This led to plummeting levels of horsepower, from 95 to 7. The initial extra outlay was repaid in energy savings in less than a month. This principle of reducing friction in pipes and so being able to use smaller motors has been replicated in a new Texas Instruments plant in Dallas.
Project: Mobility, Switzerland
Sustainable design elements: systems design to dematerialise mobility
The Swiss transport system Mobility links car hire with about 200 rail stations. It allows people to combine the convenience of a car with use of the railways - a generally more sustainable mode of transport. This sustainable product service system maximises the utility of cars, so reducing the need for each driver to own their own car. It also increases choice in that customers can choose from a range of cars for different needs - impressing a girlfriend, or taking the family out for the day - without needing to own several types of vehicle.
Project: Foo Go sandwich packaging
Sustainable design elements: biodegradability, appropriate design
A good example of a mismatch between the life of a product and the life of its packaging is the average sandwich wrapper. How long does a sandwich last – a few days? Yet most wrappers end up in landfill for a few hundred years. Foo Go have introduced wrappers that will biodegrade within 14 weeks, using water based boards, inks and coatings and windows made of corn starch. Although they cost five times more than conventional packages, the company is confident that consumers will prefer to know they won’t be contributing to the 10 million or so wrappers that every lunchtime head for a 200 year retirement in the luxury of landfill. Foo Go’s turnover has grown to £7m in its first three years, and it hopes to increase sales to £50 million in five years, with all its products 100% biodegradable.