Sustainable Design Collective – Eco Design

Design Insider is thrilled to announce our support of Sustainable Design Collective as a media partner.

Sustainable Design Collective is a ‘think tank’ group committed to acting as a collective within the workplace design community to identify developments and ‘best practice’ relating to sustainability. The purpose of the Group is to promote and applaud achievements and, more importantly, to create a forum for knowledge sharing and exchange.

The group represents the full scope of the office design sector – architects, designers, manufacturers, suppliers and sustainability experts. Working towards the greater good – ultimately to reduce our climate impact. 

The Sustainable Design Collective March event focused on Eco Design which the group of industry leading Commercial Interior Designers immediately felt needed a clear definition ‘Eco design involves designing or redesigning products, services, processes or systems to avoid or repair damage to the environment, society and the economy.’

Download the full March report here

We identified 3 key concepts covered in the report:

1. Gathering and evaluating data must take place at every stage of a project, this includes the building manager and fit-out company who must become engaged early in the process rather than only at the later stages.

“Carbon calculations must be undertaken much earlier in a project. Material passports must be implemented and we, as an industry, have the opportunity to influence this.”  

2. Reuse of materials needs to be better facilitated which could include material passporting, imposed building standards which cover operations and maintenance, and a deeper understanding of embedded carbon in materials in relation to the re-use of materials.

“We need better ‘buy in’ from the client. We need to help educate our clients in terms of the carbon savings through reuse.”

3. The environmental responsibility must lie with the whole project team including senior management.

“They [Sustainability Manager] can be a custodian, but it has to be everyone’s job to enquire and investigate impact.”

“Senior management must support the sustainability commitment otherwise it’s not within the DNA of the business.”

We look forward to sharing information on the next Sustainable Design Collective which will take place in May.