Sustainability in Design

By: Farah Al-Taweel

Sustainability

Sustainability is one of the wide-spread topics in the design industry. It has become an issue of great importance not so long ago; when people started being aware of the harmful products being used, and their effects on the surrounding environment. During the industrial revolution, new products were introduced to several industries. Many of those new products included synthetic materials, but probably the biggest, most important revolution, was the introduction of plastic.

Plastic has been used a lot ever since. It is cheap and easy to make, and people like it because it is disposable. However, they didn't really acknowledge the negative effects of such materials to the environment until the late 1940's, where they began noticing the toxins emitted from the decomposition of those materials to the ground, and the harmful fumes emitted from the process of manufacturing them.

Over time, several philosophies have emerged to support the concept of sustainability. “Cradle to Cradle” (C2C) is one of those philosophies, which says that all designers have to think about the life cycle of their products, and how it could be re-used over and over. “Cradle to Cradle” is now a standard that some companies apply in their design thinking.

Today, sustainability has developed into a much larger concept that is not just concerned about the safety of our planet, but also about saving money, and the well being of the human race. People today have more awareness regarding sustainability and many companies are trying to meet sustainable standards and implant sustainable concepts in their design thinking.