Sustainable design cards

DESCRIPTION

The Sustainable Design Cards have been developed as a learning tool to inspire designers and additional actors in and relating to design to work with strategic approaches to sustainable development focusing on product longevity. The cards consist of a physical deck of 28 cards and a supporting digital platform with additional instructions and cases. The cards have been developed with a dual focus; an educational and a corporate focus in order to reach existing real-life challenges and future potentials. The concept of sustainability is both far-reaching and complex. The cards focus on clarifying different ways in which design can support sustainable development or sustainable thinking.

AIMS

• Guide, inspire and create awareness towards sustainability in design processes
• Frame and concretize processes and strategies for sustainable thinking
• Communicate knowledge and values to external stakeholders
• Create shared understanding in cross-disciplinary teams
• Refect on and re-examine existing processes or strategies to identify new opportunities.

HOW TO USE THE TOOL

• There are 28 cards in total, all of which are linked to six categories that correspond to the product lifecycle approach. First choose from these six categories.
• The cards below each category provide information on various sustainable design methods such as “Customization”, “Environmentally Friendly Materials”, “Labeling”, “Multifunctionality” and “User Understanding” … and so on. A visual compass on the cards shows how the individual cards relate to the three overall approaches to sustainable design. Technical focus (green)，Functional focus（blue) and Emotional focus (red).Select one of them.
• Click the card you selected, the fact side presents information on the specific approach, including descriptions of what the approach is about, why it is useful, particular challenges, real life case examples, links to other approaches and further reading.

RESULTS

The “Sustainable Design Card” is a way to achieve sustainability in different kinds of design activities.Whether for individuals, teams or companies, Sustainable Design Cards can be used as a motivational start: as a brainstorming session or conceptual framework, as a way to transfer knowledge and values: as an extension center for values and knowledge and for synergy analysis, as a way to analyze: using the cards to analyze existing processes or products, looking for connections and areas where improvements can be made.

TO VIEW AND DOWNLOAD THE TOOL : https://www.designskolenkolding.dk/sites/default/files/publication/download/sustainable_fur_cards-a4print-small.pdf