Designing for Sustainability

I recall the moment that sustainability really connected with me personally. It was after being introduced to the design principles of Dieter Rams. He called out that good design “…is environmentally friendly. Design makes an important contribution to the preservation of the environment. It conserves resources and minimizes physical and visual pollution throughout the lifecycle of the product.” When I heard that, I thought, wow, that’s exactly right. It absolutely should be a core part of what we do when we design and create.

Fast forward all those years to today, so many businesses, including ones I’ve been a part of, create a lot of carbon and plastic which play a significant role in the environmental challenges we are now facing. While we need to combat this on many fronts, I believe one of the biggest opportunities to reduce environmental impact arises early in the design process when key decisions about a product are made.

Good design and great engineering can “design-out” impacts before they arise. And, the environmental impact of products should be considered at each stage of the product development cycle, alongside user experience, technical feasibility, and cost. Life Cycle Assessments on products can help us with objective and data-informed decision-making on material and process impacting product sustainability. I believe there is a real opportunity for a stronger focus to be put behind the materials that go into products, using recycled plastics or biomaterials can help us close the circularity loop. I’m hopeful that these materials will become more readily available with work underway in our company and organizations across the world.

We recently announced Logitech’s efforts in sustainability and recognize that our growth does not come without an environmental impact. While we have made progress, over the years, we have only just begun to hit our stride in designing for sustainability.

Rams introduced the idea of sustainable development in design and we have every opportunity to step up and make changes that are better for the future. Climate change is real and it’s irresponsible to act like it isn’t.

– Written by Bracken Darrell, CEO, Logitech

As posted on LinkedIn 12/4/19: https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/designing-sustainability-bracken-darrell/?trackingId=vOlh1zRNac%2FEsKG5RuwQ3g%3D%3D 

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