TH: What do you think has been the main change in the field
of ecodesign in the last years?
And here is one of those «irresistible force meet immovable object» moments
in ecodesign.
Nilan Ireland has announced that all Nilan heat pumps have achieved best - in - class performance under the EU's new
Ecodesign Directive, which came into force last September.
Innovations in sustainable packagingAligned with the principles of circular economy, AIMPLAS will also present in its INTERPACK stand its innovations in sustainable packaging based
on ecodesign and the use of recyclable and sustainable materials, such as the development of biodegradable materials from wastes of the juices or the bakery industries with antioxidant and barrier properties respectively.
Read sustainable packaging news including PHB packaging advances,
ecodesign principles, mulch from recycled wood waste, refillable glass wine bottles and more.
David Bergman was a teenage environmentalist in the seventies, received degrees in architecture and economics and became an architect in the eighties, but then got sidetracked from environmentalism until the early nineties when he found it had become possible to
do ecodesign that didn't look like it belonged in the sixties.
Rome based designer Marco Capellini has become a well - known name in the
Latin ecodesign movement.
He also
teaches ecodesign at Parsons and his book, Sustainable Design: A Critical Guide, will be released next month.
This is all part of a plan by EU bureaucrats dubbed the
European Ecodesign Directive, which aims to regulate consumers into radical energy efficiency and low carbon emission lives.
Now ecodesign has different «goals» according to designers and companies interests: it can be to reduce energy, recycle, reuse, among others.
Almost half of all entries this year were in
the Ecodesign category (recyclability, reduction at source, weight reduction).
The objective of the Energy Related Products Directive is to improve the environmental performance of energy related products (ERPs) through «
ecodesign.»
Envisioned by beer brewer Alfred Heineken and designed by Dutch architect John Habraken, the «brick that holds beer» was ahead of
its ecodesign time, letting beer lovers and builders alike drink and design all in one sitting.
What disappoints is the arrogance of those who feel that they have all the final solutions to
ecodesign.
All and
any ecodesign projects make me feel optimistic because it means that more and more designers whether they are doing it right or not are not ignoring the need to design with nature.
In the ongoing maturation of
ecodesign and its merger with the larger enterprise of design, this is a beginning, not an end.
MC:
Ecodesign is an old word; in the future all design will have environmental, social and quality considerations.
Learn more in the extended.TreeHugger: You say that
ecodesign is not a trend but an industrial problem and necessity, why?
Well versed with the various styles of furniture design and crafting including neolithic, classical, early modern, modern, postmodern, fusion,
ecodesign, etc..