From an Ecodesign Guide to a Sustainable Design Guide: Complementing Social Aspects of Sustainable Product Design Guidelines

Abstract

Background Designers influence the environment and society because they influence the way most products are made, used, and discarded. Sustainable design guidelines are usually the first and handy method that designers can easily consult and apply to their projects even at an individual level for specific ways of achieving more sustainable design results. Environmental design philosophies have evolved from green design to ecodesign and now to sustainable design. Environmental design’s scope of interest has also been expanded from just the environment to the economy and then to society in general. However, I found most current guidelines actually lack social aspects in their strategy list. So, this study aims to suggest a new sustainable design guideline that complements social aspects. Methods I examined 16 sustainable design approaches for this study and selected four sustainable design guidelines optimized for the industrial design field. Then I reviewed the features of each guideline and conducted a comparison analysis at the specific strategy item level. I identified the guidelines’ strengths and weaknesses through the analysis and discovered that most guidelines do not properly cover the social aspects of sustainable design and actually function as ecodesign guides. So I conducted further study on social aspects using three relevant books and extracted topics to suggest a new sustainable design guideline that properly covers social aspects. Results The new guide evolved from an ecodesign guide to a sustainable design guide by incorporating social design aspects. I also tried to integrate the strengths because I found that each of the four guides has its own strong points. Through the comparative analysis, I extracted commonly suggested, high-priority strategy items. I also tried to minimize the number of items by combining similar or redundant items to keep this integrated guide as essential as possible. Finally, I updated the explanations and examples for each strategy item that were obscure or outdated. Conclusions Sustainable development is an ongoing unresolved issue requiring long and tortuous efforts by people from all walks of life and the design field is no exception. The role of sustainable design guidelines is crucial but I found that all of the reviewed guides leave room for improvement, especially regarding social aspects. So I tried to craft a better sustainable design guide by taking issues from three renowned social design books so that the revised new guideline can be consulted for thorough sustainable design issues. I hope this study’s result will be a convenient guide and an easy introduction to sustainable design for people seeking specific ways to make products more sustainable.