There is a wealth of resources on sustainability and sustainable design from organisations offering practical help to online networks and software tools
The Carbon Trust
www.thecarbontrust.co.uk/carbontrust/
Provides comprehensive advice on reducing carbon emissions and general energy efficiency, including sources of loans. Also run an annual Innovation Award for carbon reducing or energy efficiency innovative thinking or technology. Practical stuff.
The Climate Change Projects Office
www.defra.gov.uk/environment/climatechange/04.htm
Aims to advise business not only how to meet the need to adapt to climate change, but how to take advantage of it.
Envirowise
www.envirowise.gov.uk
Offers free workshops and numerous guides, case studies and checklists on saving costs through waste minimisation and clean design, including a Cleaner Design Guide. Also provide an Environment & Energy Helpline. Probably one of the most practical and down to earth sources of government help.
The Waste and Resources Action Programme (WRAP)
www.wrap.org.uk
Helps to create markets for recycled resources, with main focus on plastic, paper, glass and wood.
Design Wales
www.designwales.org.uk
Offers an ecodesign advisory service.
Pre Consultants
www.pre.nl
From the group that devised Eco Indicator, one of the main software tools available to help with materials selection comes a free newsgroup service which is great for finding out about life cycle analyses on specific products or materials.
World Business Council for Sustainable Development (WBCSD) newsletters
WBCSD newsletters
This industry think-tank offers newsletters on various topics including Sustainable Livelihoods, Energy and Climate News and Sustainable Mobility. Business and Sustainable Development News is one of the best all-round newsletters going.
GreenClips
www.greenclips.com
A fortnightly newsletter on sustainable building design and related government and business issues. Although focused on the building issue, this is worth following for developments in sustainable design generally.
Greenleap
www.green-innovations.asn.au/greenleap.htm
A newsgroup for people interested in moving towards a sustainable economy – it has a strong focus on Australia, but many of the articles it posts have general relevance, and it’s a good way to keep track of initiatives in Australia which aren’t always as well known as those in Europe or the US. It tackles a wide range of issues, though there is often an assumption that left wing approaches are axiomatically superior.
RMI Solutions
www.rmi.org/sitepages/pid97.php
The newsletter of the Rocky Mountain Institute, one of the most dynamic and influential sustainability organisations in the world. They’re behind the Natural Capitalism concept, among other things.
General
Department of Trade and Industry
www.dti.gov.uk/sustainability
Provides information on sustainability, including current and forthcoming legislation.
Forum for the Future Directory of Sustainability in Practice
www.forumdirectory.org.uk
Provides case studies of both private and public sector projects in sustainability.
Ecological Footprint Quiz
www.myfootprint.org
A quiz to help people work out their own environmental impact, a possible warm-up exercise.
London Sustainability Exchange
www.lsx.org.uk
Recently launched to help build partnerships to make London a more sustainable city.
Sustainable Measures
www.sustainablemeasures.com
Trying to tackle the issue of metrics in sustainability - ie how to measure it.
The Environmental Management Navigator
www.em-navigator.net
A programme by the Wuppertal Institute to help Small and Medium Sized Enterprises.
InformationInspiration
www.informationinspiration.org.uk
Designed for designers, and aims to both inspire and inform, providing examples and guidance. A lovely place to start to learn about ecodesign strategies and tools, it covers design, use, and end of life.
Tempo
www.tempodesign.net
Provides a network for those interested in sustainable design. Another nice place for a browse.
Business
Business and Sustainable Development: a global guide
www.bsdglobal.com
One of the most comprehensive overviews of sustainability and business. Provides an introduction to all the jargon and standards, with short case studies. Excellent starting point.
Roadmap to Sustainable Business
www.cestt.cn/roadmap/index.php
Maps dozens of websites on sustainability to the business process, with snap-shot examples throughout and jargon-free writing. Websites have been filtered for maximum accessibility in order to avoid information overload-overwhelm-overkill. It also gives an easy entry to the best sources on some key sectors, including chemicals and construction.
World Business Council for Sustainable Development (WBCSD)
www.wbcsd.org.wbcsd.org
A think-tank of multinationals. They have several great email newsletters (see ‘Newsletters’ above) and provide a number of guides and documents than can be downloaded, including:
- Sustainability Through the Market: Seven keys to success. A great beginner’s guide to understanding how more sustainable products and services can create business opportunities. Packed with innovative examples, it includes strategic guidance, and even a kick-start to do list for Next Monday Morning.
- Eco-efficiency: creating more value with less impact is an essential compendium of information for understanding eco-efficiency.
Put this site in your sustainable business favourites as it has won a Globescan award for the best source of sustainability information on the web in a survey of sustainability professionals.
The Global Environmental Management Initiative (GEMI)
www.gemi.org
Provides some excellent guides and tools for setting your company in a sustainable direction, including the Sustainable Development Planner™ as a starting point for planning how to integrate sustainability into your business. Have a look at some of their guides and tools:
- Compendium of Selected Sustainable Development Tools is a short, clear table outlining key (and generally free) tools available to help companies integrate sustainability into business processes.
- Forging New Links: Enhancing Supply Chain Value Through Environmental Excellence, can be downloaded from the GEMI website.
- New Paths to Business Value – Strategic Sourcing: Environment, Health and Safety provides guidance on Environment, Health and Safety (HSE) as an important source of business value in the supply chain.
Another site to add to your sustainable business favourites.
Eco-efficiency checklist
www.environment.sa.gov.au/epa/pdfs/eechecklist.pdf
A simple checklist to find out how eco-efficient your office is.
Sustainable Business
www.sustainablebusiness.com
Provides news and articles on sustainable business.
The Centre for Sustainable Engineering
www.cseng.org.uk
A new national hub to help companies which are trying to exploit sustainable products or processes.
Global Reporting Initiative (GRI)
www.globalreporting.org
An initiative to bring some order and guidelines out of the chaos of sustainability reporting by companies.
Business and Human Rights Resource Centre
www.business-humanrights.org
Produces principles and guidelines on the social aspects of sustainable business.
The Natural Step
www.naturalstep.org
Provides a framework for helping organisations move towards sustainability.
Global 100 Most Sustainable Corporations in the World
www.global100.org
An initiative of Corporate Knights Inc and Innovest, a sustainable investment research firm. Launched in 2005, the annual Global 100 is announced each year at the World Economic Forum in Davos.
The European Pollutant Emission Register (EPER)
www.eper.cec.eu.int
At the other end of the scale is a database of the 10,000 most polluting companies in the EU.
Green procurement
Buying Green: a handbook on environmental public procurement
Buying Green
Useful pdf published by the European Commission.
Green procurement checklist
www.bsdglobal.com/tools/bt_green_pro.asp
One of the clearest and most concise overviews of ‘green procurement’ with a simple checklist for implementing a more sustainable procurement programme.
Guides to sustainable supplies
www.greenseal.org
Free guides to sustainability and various products and materials – these reports are models of clarity and succinctness, giving straightforward facts and a list of suppliers (which tend to be US-based however). More useful for guidance than for supplier lists therefore.
Lovely as a Tree
www.lovelyasatree.com
Website that aims to enable and inspire graphic designers to make more environmentally friendly choices in their work.
Materials
Rematerialise
www.rematerialise.org
A joy for any designer interested in exploring more sustainable materials – you can search materials according to their qualities (eg ‘bendy’) rather than according to their earthy-worthiness.
Inspire Recycle
www.inspirerecycle.org/
Showcases products made by small UK companies using recycled materials. Shows what can be done and that sustainable design isn’t just for big companies.
Green Design Initiative
www.ce.cmu.edu/GreenDesign/
Currently developing a tool to help with materials selection.
ESPDesign
www.espdesign.org
A simple, clear resource on Environmentally Sensitive Product Design which includes a guide to eco-design you can download, providing a more detailed version of the website’s content. It has a nice, clean design, and concise information.
Green Seal
www.greenseal.org
Offers free guides to sustainability and various products and materials - these reports are clear and concise, giving straightforward facts and also a list of suppliers of more sustainable alternatives (tend to be US-based however).
Tools and databases
Industrial Design Society of America (IDSA)
www.idsa.org/whatsnew/sections/ecosection
Gives a clear introduction to tools such as the Eco-Indicator.
Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) database
www.pre.nl/LCAsearch/default.htm
Pre have indexed over 5,000 PDF files on LCA which you can download. You can search by keyword to find documents related to your sector or problem.
Ecoinvent
www.ecoinvent.ch
A huge database of Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) performance data – go here if you want to find some generic data rather than do your own LCA. Produced by the Swiss Centre for Life Cycle Inventories, most of its data relates to European conditions.
LCA Software Survey
www.ivl.se/rapporter/pdf/B1390.pdf
A comparison of key Life Cycle Assessment software packages, produced by the Swedish Industrial Research Institute.
Life Cycle Assessment information
www.life-cycle.org
The following centres conduct first-class, wide-ranging research in sustainable design.
The Centre for Sustainable Engineering
www.cseng.org.uk
A new national hub to help companies which are trying to exploit sustainable products or processes.
The Design Department at Goldsmiths
www.goldsmiths.ac.uk/departments/design/
Now merged with what was the Ecodesign Department, signalling a shift to the mainstream of eco-design education. This means eco-design is integrated into the design courses offered there.
ESRC Centre for Business Relationships, Accountability, Sustainability & Society (BRASS)
www.brass.cf.ac.uk
A recently launched interdisciplinary research centre.
International Ecotechnology Research Centre
www.ecotechnology.org.uk
In addition to research, the centre also offers an MSc course.
Kingston University, Designing for Sustainability, Faculty of Art, Design & Music
www.recyclingbydesign.org.uk/
Two design departments at Kingston are doing working on materials for sustainable design, particularly recycled materials. The Recycling by Design project is studying materials specification criteria in designers and architects to help tailor recycled materials information to their needs.
Loughborough University, Department of Design and Technology
www.lboro.ac.uk/departments/cd/
Has been gathering sustainable design experts over the last few years. As with the merger of Goldsmiths Ecodesign and Design departments, this heralds a welcome shift towards the integration of sustainable design into mainstream design schools.
Centre for Sustainable Design
www.cfsd.org.uk
Good at disseminating information to a wider (particularly business) audience, through training courses and also the annual conference (circa October), as well as the excellent Journal of Sustainable Product Design (which is about more than products). Part of the Design Faculty at University College for the Creative Arts.
Sustainable Product Design
www.ucreative.ac.uk/index.cfm?articleid=9219
University College for the Creative Arts at Farnham has recently launched an MA in sustainable product design.
Sustainable Product Development
http://spd.bournemouth.ac.uk/
The School of Design, Engineering and Computing at Bournemouth University offers courses in sustainable product development.