Abstract – ‘Better by Design Project’
The challenge of moving beyond limited-incremental improvements to environmental attributes in
products is being met through an approach which seeks to engage and inspire product designers.
The Better by Design project leverages optimized, life-sustaining design examples from the
natural world to drive innovative design along with a systematic, life-cycle perspective. This
counters lessons learned from abandoned eco-design methodologies or tools that do not
inherently promote the interests of the designer as well as the environment. Sustainable design
becomes realized as a powerful, unparalleled window of opportunity to distinguish products and
designers while championing the environment. Publicly available implementation resources for
this approach are readily accessible on web for companies, most notably small and mediumsized enterprises seeking to initiate sustainable product design and development.
Supplement information provided by Kurk:
The Better by Design Project
Fran Kurk
Business Assistance Specialist
Minnesota Pollution Control Agency
520 Lafayette Road North
St. Paul, Minnesota 55155 U.S.
Phone: +1 651 215 0242
Fax: +1 651 215 0246
E-mail: fran.kurk@state.mn.us
The author is the pollution prevention team leader in the Technical Assistance Division of the
Minnesota Pollution Control Agency whose primary focus is providing Design for the Environment
(DfE) technical assistance to industry. Her work in development of DfE implementation resources
began in the early 1990s during her environmental work with businesses at Minnesota Technical
Assistance Program at the University of Minnesota.
Premise: Inspiring Designers is Key
Those who bring shape to our physical world by designing products have an unparalleled window
of opportunity to champion the environment. Their decisions about which materials, resources,
and processes will be used essentially determine the environmental impacts of a product for its
entire lifecycle. These key decisions are more likely to result in environmental attributes designed
into products if there are incentives to do so. One such incentive is revealed when designers are
encouraged to tap into and borrow inherently ingenious, proven designs already found in the
natural world. The potential results are distinguished product designs that are not only optimized,
but are always life-sustaining.
An invitation to borrow from nature’s designs was initially revealed in Janine Benyus’s book,
Biomimicry: Innovation Inspired by Nature. She describes how nature, imaginative by necessity
has already determined what works, what is appropriate, after 3.8 billion years of research and
development (Benyus, 1997). While historically there has been incidental use of natural design
by product developers, a revitalized emerging trend is resulting in products such as Lotasan TM
paint. After application this paint dries to form a textured surface that mimics the self-cleaning
surface found on the lotus plant. At the same time, geckos scampering up glass walls are
inspiring others to develop alternative adhesive technologies that do not use hazardous materials.
These intriguing examples can engage and inspire designers who ultimately benefit when they
incorporate what they have learned from nature into their designs.
An abundant array of eco-design tools from matrices, checklists, flowcharts, eco-indicators, and
software programs are currently available for use by product design teams. The key is to allow
inspiration from nature to complement these methods and bring vitality to the core life-cycle
perspective of the tools. This can lead to leverage of other natural design principles such as
form-fits-function, self-assembly, gradient structures, and continuous biofeedback all contributing
to broad sustainable attributes. As ecodesign matures into sustainable product design and
development (SPDD) with the inclusion of social along with environmental and economic factors,
as the global economy becomes more inclusive, it is critical that use of SPDD practices continue
to expand. With a primary focus during this past decade with development of tools and
methodologies perhaps those of us working so diligently to move towards sustainable product
design have not given enough attention to a most fundamental human aspect, motivation.
Inspired product designers are key to this expansion of SPDD, without intrinsic motivation even
the best of tools or methodologies will remain idle.
Our approach: Leveraging What Works
Clues to the importance of understanding motivation became
revealed during early ecodesign work with a medical products
manufacturer, Perfusion Systems, the cardiac business of
Medtronic, Inc. Upper level management support was secured
up front, perhaps less obvious was the need to gain support from
each department represented on the product design team.
Gaining this support entailed understanding what motivates
members of each department. For example, the production
department was evaluated on how many products they produced
in a certain time, therefore they were likely to support product
improvements that decreased manufacturing cycle times. The
As rain water hits the rough surface of a lotus
research and development representatives were interested in
leaf it runs off in small beads, taking dirt with it.
keeping the cost per unit down and performance, while the
This natural self-cleaning mechanism has
inspired development of dirt resistant paint
marketing department wanted selling points for customers.
and window surfaces.
Presenting suggested design improvements to the team as a
whole in a manner that related to improved performance for
each department established a consensus for the proposed changes. The company continues to
save $1.2 million per year from a 75-85% reduction in chemical use and wastewater loading due
to design changes made to an oxygenator product.
Acknowledging the significance of simultaneous benefits Greg Vande Corput, IBM Development
Engineer, reveals, “Design for the environment surprisingly coincides very well with design for
manufacturability. (With) design for the environment, we have a lot of components and pieces of
hardware that snap together or can come apart easily, and that also benefits our manufacturing
assembly time…So not only do we get the environmental benefits, but we get the manufacturing
benefits at the same time” (Better by Design video, 2004). A testimonial of how leveraging
concurrent benefits of manufacturing assembly and eventual disassembly of parts for recycling at
the end of a product’s usefulness drive environmental improvements related to design.
An informal survey by the author of product designers revealed that a primary motive for their
work is to achieve distinguished, innovative designs. As a result, the Better by Design resources
were developed foremost to assist product designers with gaining new perspectives for innovative
design. Awareness of a vast resource of ideas offered by the world of natural design can be an
intrinsic driver for long term use of sustainable design. Another current fundamental challenge is
moving beyond incremental improvements to products designed with comprehensive
environmental attributes. At the Sandia National Labs, Jeff Brinker’s work with abalone shells to
demonstrates just such a diffuse impact. The self-assembly mechanism of the shells is mimicked
to create rapid self-assembly of nanocrystal arrays that will be used for memory storage in nanoelectronic devices. This nano-technology break-through demonstrates a potential alternative
design for laminated materials that does not require traditional energy intensive ‘heat, beat, and
treat’ production processes.
The intent is to foster individual designers along with the aggregate ingenuity of design teams.
Design teams are encouraged to select the tool that best fits the culture of their company,
customize it as needed, then integrate it into their current product design system. Deference is
also paid to related issues such as how to make a business case recognizing that the company
also has drivers, some of which are financial.
The Better by Design guide is being presented by invitation to product designers at Target
Corporation in March 2006, an update on this work will be forthcoming. This guide and case
study resources are readily available online for use by small and medium businesses (SMEs).
Implementation steps, tool options, and supporting resources are consolidated for use by a
champion at an SME who would like to advance sustainable design.
The Consumer Factor
Exactly what draws consumers to pick up a product or just to want it is sometimes referred to as
“Factor X”. It is likely that multiple factors, including price, identification with image of the
product, usefulness, color, and so on determine a consumer’s decision. The unique feature of
products designed through sustainable principles is their sole capacity to ‘produce authentic
satisfaction’ for consumers. Only the environmental attributes in products are able to release a
genuine sense of harmony with our natural world and that satisfaction that the environment is
being preserved for our future generations. A concept that has deep historical roots indigenous
cultures, as noted in Iroquois Great Law, "In our every deliberation, we must consider the impact
of our decisions of the next seven generations."
International survey data consistently shows that the majority of consumers in industrialized
countries prefer not to purchase products that are socially or environmentally harmful” (O’Rourke,
2005). Nature as a partner in emerging technology can help designers build effective solutions
compatible with life along with consumer’s innate sense to protect their environment.
Conclusion
Nature as the consummate teacher and engineer continues to inspire while leading us to
sustainable solutions. Expansion of related resources continues with the recent opening of the
Center for Biologically Inspired Design at Georgia Tech. As SPDD progresses it is important that
designers are exposed to these types of resources along with practical tools that fit within the
culture of an organization to drive long-term use with holistic results. The author suggests that
simply asking designers to avoid use of certain materials, meet eco-label standards or all sorts of
other environmental requirements will not entice product designers to embrace sustainable
design. While meeting environmental objectives is a necessary aspect, sustainable design
resources ultimately need to bridge the interests of designers with those of environmental
advocacy.
References and sources
Benyus, Janine M., ‘Biomimicry: Innovation Inspired by Nature, New York, New York: William
Morrow and Company, Inc., 1997, pp 3-5.
.
Better by Design Guide. Available at
http://www.moea.state.mn.us/publications/betterbydesign.pdf. Accessed 3/14/06.
Bhamra, T.A., ‘Ecodesign: the search for new strategies in product development’, Proceedings of
the Institute of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers, Vol. 218 Part B February 2004, pp. 557568.
Center for Biologically Inspired Design. Georgia Tech. Available at http://www.cbid.gatech.edu/
Accessed 3/13/06.
Great Law of the Iroquois Confederacy. Available at http://www.indigenouspeople.net/iroqcon.htm
Accessed 3/14/06.
Medtronic Case Study. Available at http://www.moea.state.mn.us/p2/dfe/dfeguide/medtronic.pdf
Accessed 3/14/06.
O'Rourke, Dara., ‘Market Movements: Nongovernmental Organization Strategies to Influence
Global Production and Consumption.’, Journal of Industrial Ecology, Vol. 9 Issue 1/2
Winter/Spring 2005, pp. 117.
Ryan, Chris., ‘Learning from a Decade (or So) of Eco-Design Experience, Part 1’, Journal of
Industrial Ecology, Vol. 8 Issue 4 Fall 2004, pp. 3-5.
Sandia National Labs News Center. Available at http://www.sandia.gov/news-center/newsreleases/2004/micro-nano/nanotoolcase Accessed 3/14/06.
Sto Lotusan. Available at http://www.lotusan.de/lotusan/_01_home/index.jsp Accessed 3/14/06.
Vande Corput, Greg. Better by Design Video (DVD). Available upon request by postal mail.