The Designers Accord: Showcasing Why Design Makes a Difference
by Collin Dunn, Corvallis, OR, USA on 01.24.08
Photo credit: hingeschmierter
Business Week has a great piece detailing the recent progress of The Designers Accord. Born from the "Kyoto Treaty" of Design, a manifesto for incorporating sustainability throughout the design process, the agreement aims to foster open source-style sharing and "co-opatition" among design firms, big and small, around the world; ultimately, they hope to create a network of best practices and strategies to make sustainability part of every conversation about design.
So far, it appears to be working; there are more than 3,500 signees thus far, and they aren't just committed to replacing conventional materials with more sustainable ones. The accord encourages designers to re-think the system and usability of any given device; this Cradle-to-Cradle-like approach is a big step for some, and a smaller one for others, but the bottom-up approach (rather than the top-down that would come with government regulation) might allow for more innovative solutions and totally new ways of doing things. Ultimately, we hope it'll help showcase that good design and sustainable design go hand-in-hand, and that good design really makes a difference. ::Designer's Accord via ::Business Week and ::Core77
