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Sustainable Design Strategies

At IDC, we understand that every project is different and will require different approaches to sustainable design for it to successfully consider environmental, social and economic factors. Approaches towards Sustainable Design at IDC include:

Early Integration:
Economic, social and environmental issues are considered and integrated into the product design and development process as early as possible. These aspects are used in deciding how to meet the brief and the clients and end users’ needs. The earlier the integration, the greater the opportunity for reducing any environmental impact and the greater cost reductions and profit can be made.

Life Cycle Thinking:
Sustainable design and eco-design considers the environmental aspects associated with a product over its entire life cycle, taking into account issues such as raw material use, energy consumption, emissions to the atmosphere, waste production etc. Looking at all of the impacts helps to highlight the areas in which the greatest environmental improvements can be made. Considering the life cycle as a ‘closed-loop’ can extend the life of the product and reduce its impacts through re-use, repair or recycling.

Assessing and Prioritising Core Benefits:
The functions and benefits of the product are considered first in order to assess alternative solutions to achieving the desired outcomes. Alternative options may be very different from the current solution and therefore have different environmental impacts. Thinking in functions and services as apposed to products allows IDC’s designers to assess the core benefits of products.

In order to successfully use these approaches toward product design and development, IDC have a series of in-house tools and processes such as the IDC Design Compass that reviews the product life cycle and prioritises where biggest reductions in impact can be made.

Aspects of the design strategies that we use at IDC include: