Catching on to what we've been doing for 6 years :)

Designs for life
If style bible Elle Decoration decrees it, it must be true – eco-chic has arrived. The organic and fair trade clothing label, People Tree, is now stocked at that ultimate emporium of disposability, Top Shop. And for fashionistas who wouldn’t be seen dead in the Sinclair C5 styling of a G-Whiz, General Motors has just unveiled the Volt, the first car designed with electricity, rather than petrol, as its primary fuel source, and the most ‘normal-looking’ hybrid yet. Sustainable design even has its own celebrity poster boys in the form of Changing Rooms’ Oliver Heath and Grand Designs’ Kevin McCloud.
It’s true that the recent focus on improving the aesthetics of green products is helping to mainstream their appeal. Advocates have long talked of the need to ‘sex up sustainability’ to get away from its Heath Robinson image, and every good marketeer knows that product and packaging design play a key role in creating a seductive brand. A quick look at the latest high-end organic skincare or food products reveals luxury packaging (recycled, of course) to match the price tag - £85 for an organic cheddar truckle, anyone?
Environment into design
But for far-sighted organisations green isn’t just the latest fashion fad, and design isn’t just about making a product more superficially attractive. Martin Charter of the Centre for Sustainable Design stresses that certain sectors started integrating environmental considerations into product design and development a decade ago. 'What I call ‘eco-design’ has been driven largely by legislation, for example in the electronics industry, and has produced incremental improvements in areas such as energy efficiency and materials use,' he explains. 'But fewer companies have tried to address sustainable design, starting with a blank slate rather than a re-design, and considering the economic, environmental and social angles at the very outset of the process.' As evidence, he cites the low awareness and adoption of the new ISO/TR 14062 standard for integrating environmental considerations into product and service design and development.
As Europe’s largest electronics company, Philips has long been recognized for its comprehensive and long-standing EcoVision programme. Design sits at the heart of these efforts to embed environmental issues throughout the business, responding to customer needs and integrating other disciplines such as human sciences, technology and business. Its EcoDesign product development process encompasses the key green concerns of energy consumption, packaging, hazardous substances, weight, recycling and disposal and lifetime reliability. Top products with a significant green advantage over a predecessor or competitor product are awarded Green Flagship status, currently sported by everything from lighter heart defibrillators to longer lasting halogen bulbs to energy efficient and lead free MP3 players.
Pre-owned goods mean lower costs
And EcoDesign isn’t just about devising new greener products to replace their less efficient forerunners. Philips’ Diamond Select program offers healthcare customers pre-owned (the words ‘used’ and ‘second hand’ are carefully avoided) medical systems, refurbished, tested and installed as new. This keeps the cost down for customers, maintains standards for patients, while keeping still-useful equipment in service and away from the scrap yard.
Charter believes it won’t be long before other businesses are compelled to follow Philips’ lead. 'In Japan, materials security is a key concern as rare metals become harder to find, and in India and China they’re using design to improve dismantling and recycling, the only way to tackle their growing electronic waste mountains.' Closer to home, and the full design impacts of the EuP Directive on product energy efficiency have yet to be acknowledged. But Charter believes the biggest challenge is to get the smaller businesses on board. 'Outside the big leader companies and sectors, knowledge of the issues and the role design can play are virtually non-existent.'