Going Dutch with Design Cards
by Jenna Watson, Barcelona on 09. 7.07
World Changing has opened our life-cycle assessment hungry eyes with their inside scoop on this handy set of cards developed by Serge de Gheldere from Future Proof/ed, that help you use eco-indicators to analyze and compare the environmental impacts of commonly used materials and processes. The set is called Ecolizer Designwijzer and is an updated version of Eco-indicator 99, a Dutch impact assessment methodology that includes resource depletion, land-use, climate change, ionizing radiation, acidification/eutrophication and toxicity along with human health, ecosystem quality and resource damage categories.
Since the set of cards is only available in Dutch and only distributed through workshops we have yet to see a real live version; however the World Changing team tells us that it includes background information on the eco-indicators, an explanation of the card contents, a glossary and an example-based tutorial. They also say that the bulk of the guide consists of approximately 80 cards with several hundred eco-indicators that quantify the environmental impacts of production, use and disposal phases of materials and processes. It appears to be what a lot of designers have been waiting for and a useful tool for designing with the environment in mind. Let’s hope they translate it and distribute it at a larger scale soon. Read more details here. Image credit and via: World Changing.
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Very similar data (much based on the same source) is available in a short book that also has great guidance on green design: the Okala Design Guide from IDSA.
http://www.idsa.org/whatsnew/sections/ecosection/okala.html
Very similar data (much based on the same source) is available in a handy chart in the back of a short book that also has great guidance on green design: the Okala Design Guide from IDSA. Very useful--and in English.
http://www.idsa.org/whatsnew/sections/ecosection/okala.html
Hello,
I just want to clarify that it is the OVAM, who did the Ecolizer project. OVAM is the waste agency of the Flemish region of Belgium. Ecodesign is one of our strategic paths in finding ways to reduce waste. Influencing the point were a product is designed is one of the reasons why we decided to make the Ecolizer design tool. We noticed that al lot of designers and companies are open to ecodesign but cant 't find a way how implement ecodesign . At the meantime there is a lot of academic ecodesign reasearch and data available that doesn 't find it's way to the designers. With the Ecolizer we tried to fix this by using the Eco-indicator 99 method as a good and international accepted assessment method, in a lay-out and form that appeals to the designer. We could have made it a book or software program, but we wanted something to have on a designers desk, immediately accessible and a source of discussion in meetings. The Ecolizer finds it's way to Flemish designers succesfully and seems to be a good introduction tot ecodesign and life cycle thinking. At the end of 2008 we will add new cards, with new materials to the Ecolizer. Next year also bioplastics will be added. Did I mention the Ecolizer is made of recycled aluminium and paper and has cards that can be replaced by new ones? Unfortunately it is only available in Dutch, but reactions and publications like on Treehugger can give us more arguments to translate it to English.