Furniture Design Ideas

You Get What You Measure 40 Social measures 42 environmental measures 50 Financial measures 57 Putting it am together 67 a Better Way? 77 39 Enter code DITPDE for 15% off any Rosenfeld Media product directlypurchased from our site: http:Zrosenfeldmedia. com You Get What You Measure T his is the reality of most of the […]

Lastly, no decision is perfect or comes without consequences. Design requires decisions that narrow possibilities, ultimately until there is one solution. Designing more sustainable of­ferings may require you to balance inputs and outcomes and, often, compromise. It’s rare, in fact, that you’ll achieve everything that you want. For example, some recycled materials have lower strength, […]

While we’ve traditionally considered the im­portant players in the development process to be the client (or company) and the customer, these are not the only two actors to consider. The design industry has recently started to rec­ognize the importance of deep customer under­standing (often called design or user research) in the development of successful solutions. […]

For sure, innovative solutions, no matter how sustainable, can’t be effective if they aren’t fi­nancially viable. While designers, traditionally, eschew these considerations or assume others are “on top of them,” this further disempowers their work. Currently, the economy is stacked against sustainable solutions because it doesn’t recognize or value the true cost (that which totals […]

To be considered sustainable and just, many designers require products to have a positive impact on the society they are serving (as well as those who helped create them). Product planning must embrace the concept of stake­holder involvement and incorporate social responsibility. Most people in the West are appalled and embarrassed when they find that […]

There is no question that an unhealthy, unsta­ble environment decreases efficiency and our ability to create stable, healthy societies and communities. Yet, human history is filled with examples where we do just the opposite. For a variety of reasons, we have accepted the de­struction of healthy, vital habitats for ourselves and the natural systems that […]

Competition, while a powerful motivator in innovation, is not the only ingredient needed for successful, sophisticated solutions. Despite how we characterize innovation and design, nothing is created in a vacuum, and no solu­tion is successful without cooperation between people, including design teams, partners, sup­ply chains, and customers. Competition, while a powerful mo­tivator in innovation, is […]

While it’s often easier to manage a few, cen­tralized systems, these are often less sustainable solutions because, though strong, when they fail, the rest of the system fails with them. This is why a tree falling on a power line in Wash­ington state can trigger a power outage over most of the Western United States. […]

Perhaps the best way to judge any system or solution is to assess how resilient it is. Sys­tems that are resilient have a greater chance of lasting, evolving, and responding to change. Nature has evolved and proven to be tremen­dously resilient, which has allowed it to grow, change, and continue for millennia. Cultures and societies […]

Because sustainability requires a systems per­spective, sustainable design must also address the system, whether it is a market, an ecosys­tem, a social system, or the entire world. This allows the design process of sustainability to address the environment, markets, companies, and people. It’s easy to understand the concept of a sys­tems perspective: the system is […]