Biofore-Magazine-2021

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B IG P ICTURE

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T he demand for sustainable products has exploded in recent years, and the trend shows no sign of slowing down. As more sectors seek to increase their sustain ability, really considering what the word means, and incorporating this thinking in the design phase of product development, has taken on new importance. “The idea of sustainability, and phrases such as re duce, reuse, recycle, have been gaining momentum for years now – and interest hasn’t plateaued,” says Drew Felty , co-founder and CEO of the US-based Packaging School. “But it can mean so many things. I don’t think there can be one succinct defini tion right now.” Felty adds that, when it comes to design, the issue of sustainability shouldn’t be raised as its own separate point, “but at manydifferent points all through theproduction cycle.”

to sustainability specifically, then I really think it’s understanding that human part of the system,” she explains. “Since sustainability is such a huge area, it’s about identifying all the different stakeholders, helping to concretise and visualise those systems so we can have a discussion over where bottlenecks and opportunities could be, and facilitating this discussion between very diverse professional groups. It’s such a huge area, that no professional can tackle it on their own.” In terms of what these solutions might actually look like, Björklund explains that there’s currently a lot of discussion around lifecycles – “thinking about energy consumption, material consumption, and fig uring out what designers can do in these areas – for example, by advo cating for the use of new eco-materials.” She uses a pair of scissors as an example of how to approach design ing sustainable lifecycles. “Can we replace the plastic in those scis sors for something else, whilst maintaining functionality? Howmany pieces are in the scissors?Will they last for 50 years, or 100 years? Can they be recycled? Should we be looking at the material? Should we be looking at how families are able to use these household products?” The next step is to scout the environment for potential solutions

to these challenges, thinking outside the box to draw from a range of materials. “The design can be the force that pushes us to start scouting,” she says, adding that designers must also challenge themselves to avoid “greenwashing” – the practice of presenting a product or service as more environmentally friendly than it really is. “Even if you come up with a solution you need to ask, is this really the most impactful thing we could be doing? If you’re not looking at the bigger picture, you might havemissed amuch bigger opportunity that’s out there.” Choosing the right material One company that’s fully invested in sustainable product life cycles is the Finnish beauty brand Lumene. Kerttu Ylipoti , packaging R&D manager at Lumene, says that sustainability guides the entire design process. “It’s a really big part of what we do,” she says. “Our brand values are very close to nature, and we use a lot of Nordic ingredients in our for mulations. So, it’s one of the core values we need to constantly keep in mind.”

“It’s not, for example, just environmental sustainability, but also so cial sustainability and economical sustainability, and designing solu tions that touch on all of these,” Björklund says. “With this kind of holistic sustainability, the way I approach it is really through the humans connected to it,” she continues. “So, with any kind of change effort, if you’re trying to create sustainable solu tions, then there are people who will be affected by that solution.” According to Björklund, involving your customers, your supply chain or the employees producing the products in the change process and understanding their needs helps identify opportunities for improve ments in sustainability that would otherwise be missed – as well as locating bottlenecks. “If I think about what the ‘secret sauce’ is that designers can bring

Tua Björklund , a professor at Aalto Univer sity Design Factory, echoes this, saying that sus tainable design should be about taking a “holis tic perspective.”

“If you’re trying to create sustainable solutions, then there are people who will be affected by that solution.”

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