Thats about solar panels, ditching meat, flying less, and driving an electric car, right?
Absolutely, but thats only half the story.
For a lot of product designers,sustainabilityis becoming the key focus of their creative process.
The good news: breakthroughs are already being made everyday!
Future Talks: Sustainable Materials
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He uses it both when designing individual buildings, as well as on the city-scale.
The most obvious example of this is having plants in your home.
But, more often, nature is also found in custom-designed furniture based on eco-friendly materials.
Its argued that this approach has all kinds of health, environmental, and economic benefits for residents.
Interaction with nature is key, says El Amrani.
Our F***ing Backyard
The collaboration with Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam is obvious.
Take, for example, the work of artist Eric Klarenbeek, who makes glass out of micro-algae.
The algae take CO2 out of the water (and the water adsorbs it from the air).
With this CO2, the algae can create a plate armor of glass.
Klarenbeek harvests the algae, dries it, and turns it into strong, solid glass.
The entire exhibition is full of products made out of recycled waste or new nature-based products.
Ceramic waste in furniture, textiles made out of pine needles, tableware made of cows blood (!
), but also the reintroduction of an ancient painting technique for dyeing clothing.
2030 is the year
AndPolestar?
What does this new kid on the EV block have to do with this?
Well, maybe everything.
This is a major task as we realize that electrification is perhaps the easiest part of the process.
But that doesnt mean the job is done.
How are we going to do it?
asked managing director of Polestar Netherlands, Willem Baudewijns, on stage at Future Talks.
Lots of questions arent answered yet, lots of problems still need to be solved.
Producing and recycling a battery comes with an average of 9 tons of CO2 equivalent.
Designing towards positive impact
At that moment somebody from the audience took the floor…
Designing towards a positive impact, thats the goal you should chase, she said.
Fighting climate change, unchaining a revolution, it all starts with a positive narrative.
It may sound marginal, but in my opinion it makes a big difference.
To my surprise, all of the speakers on stage fully agreed with this alternative narrative.
Big changes still start with a good story, I thought.
And designing towards a positive impact may be the subject for future talks on sustainability.
In 2009 he founded De Zonnefabriek, the first solarpanel company in Holland.
