Communicating sustainability is a complex matter. Nevertheless, we wish the judges in the TV programme ”Denmark's Next Classic” had taken responsibility. Therefore, we share our own 3 top tips for incorporating sustainability into the development process..
Five excellent designers compete each week in a new category, and it's always a pleasure to watch the craftsmanship unfold in the TV programme ”Denmark's Next Classic” on DR.
However, as inventors and product makers, there is one point that frustrates us: the judges' dithering when it comes to assessing how sustainable something is.
Sustainability is very important to us, and it's far too superficial when a new design is called sustainable simply because a recycled plastic cord has been used somewhere at the back of a chair. The judges ought to take more responsibility in setting concrete goals for the designers and explaining to the viewers what specific approaches can be used in the design process.
Therefore, we would like to broaden the perspective slightly and introduce the 3 good rules of thumb that we ourselves work by when we need to turn products from idea to reality – whether it's a table, a stand or a complex crane system.
Choose materials that are part of an already established recycling practice
There's good PR in choosing new, exotic recycled materials for a product, but it's not necessarily good in itself. In fact, we believe it's much more important to keep it simple and focus on materials that are already part of established recycling processes.
If one chooses pure, common plastic fractions such as PP and PE – and does not include e.g. reinforcement – it can easily be recycled when the product has served its purpose. The same applies, among others, to aluminium and steel, which are rarely associated with sustainability – but which in practice can be recycled very, very many times if the materials are kept pure.
One can, of course, also choose pure recycled goods, such as an old plank floor, but it is incredibly rare for the source to be able to supply it in the long term.
Minimise the amount of materials
It stands to reason that the less material a product requires, the less it depletes the Earth's resources.
In return, it requires a great deal of effort and a lot of work to find the right construction if you actually want to minimise material consumption in practice. On the other hand, there are often big savings to be made if you do it right.
Construct your product so it can be easily disassembled at end-of-life
When designing and constructing a product, it is not enough to consider only the materials and quantities used at present if you want to be sustainable. In the grand scheme of things, it is at least as important to make it as easy as possible to recycle the different fractions when the product reaches end-of-life.
Fortunately, this can also be incorporated into the development process, so the product is easy to disassemble and sort – either by the end-user or at the recycling centre. If you only need to loosen a screw or two to ensure each part ends up in the correct container, the materials will be recycled far more optimally.
