Strategic, practical and inspirational information helps designers, engineers and managers learn from industry experts, and each other, about what it takes to make smarter, more sustainable products
“Governments, businesses and communities are demanding change. Designers and manufacturers must start making greener products. The will is there, but the know-how is not,” says Terry Swack, CEO and Co-founder of Sustainable Minds. “Our goal is to increase awareness and deliver knowledge – not just to designers, but to all types of people who have input into product design and manufacturing decisions. The biggest shift required is to bring life cycle thinking and a whole systems approach to the beginning of the design process. Product teams need to understand the impacts of their design decisions holistically and early enough in the process so they can create a greener product from the start.”
“These are the first of our information services which deliver new knowledge, processes and strategies for a life cycle-based approach to product design, and are the counterpart to our decision support software. This combination is key for design organizations looking to innovate or differentiate through delivering more sustainable products or design services. Product design professionals can acquire new green skills, increasing their value on the job and having greater impact in organizations. Manufacturers can access new markets with innovative, environmentally superior products that meet customer needs, and increase brand value by credibly marketing ‘greenness’. Our aim is to cover the exceptionally broad topic of sustainable design with experts from diverse areas who drill down to specifics that practitioners will find illuminating,” says Swack.
One of the new sections is Ask the Okala Experts, where readers can ask for advice from the co-authors of Okala™, a comprehensive ecological design course and the first North American life cycle assessment methodology. The co-authors, Philip White, Louise St. Pierre and Steve Belletire, are educators and designers who have spent years developing Okala to help guide product teams to design more sustainable products. They provide knowledge, insights and practical solutions to the latest sustainability issues facing product development organizations and individuals today, and are looking for both questions and feedback from readers.
In addition to Ask the Okala Experts, the Sustainable Minds Industry Blog connects readers with experts in design, marketing, green manufacturing and business. The posts cover a wide range of sustainability topics from contributors representing consultancies, non-profits and manufacturing companies such as Lunar, Gensler, Green Seal, Whirlpool, and Sun Microsystems. Sustainable Minds invites readers to be part of the solution by adding their thoughts and ideas in response.
Some of the Industry Blog contributors include:
- Eric Brody, Shift Advantage
- Linda Chipperfield, Green Seal
- Lorne Craig, Unicycle Creative
- Chris Frank, Sun Microsystems
- Scot Herbst and Travis Lee, LUNAR Design
- David Laituri, Sprout Creation
- Ken Hall, Gensler
- Richard Kubin, Vertex Consulting
- Rajat Shail, Whirlpool
- Zac West, IDeology
About Sustainable Minds
Sustainable Minds’ mission is to mainstream sustainable product design in an accessible, empowering and credible way. To do this, it has integrated deep knowledge of product design, life cycle assessment and environmental systems design with expertise in Web-based business, software design and customer experience. SustainableMinds.com is the first on-demand, early-stage design decision support software and information services suite that estimates a product’s potential life cycle environmental and human health impacts, in a collaborative, learning work space. Sustainable Minds is committed to helping create products that are environmentally beneficial, economically viable and socially and ethically equitable. More information about Sustainable Minds, founded in 2007 and headquartered in Cambridge Massachusetts, can be found at www.sustainableminds.com.
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