As the country warms to sustainable living, designers are preparing to transform the way we interact with the world. Consider some hard facts. Australians are now using six times the amount of energy they did in the 60s and on average we own 10 times as many products. Mass-produced merchandise now accounts for a third of man-made greenhouse gases. The world’s population has doubled since the 60s, with a further billion individuals soon to have sufficient income to spend on energy guzzling devices.

So what can designers do? Two strategies are worth considering. The first is full implementation of eco-design for all mass produced goods. Simple in concept but complex in delivery, eco-design limits the energy required and material used at every step in the product cycle – manufacture, use and final disposal. As with self-sustaining eco-systems we need a closed loop for man-made goods so products don’t end up in a dead end landfill; cradle to cradle rather than cradle to coffin.

It’s a sobering fact for designers that 80 per cent of a product’s environmental impact occurs during the design phase. Sobering but also encouraging; designers really can make a contribution to the sustainable revolution. Even small design changes can have substantial impact. For example; halve stand-by mode power consumption of TVs and similar products with the inclusion of an

80 cent electronic chip and the world would need 10 less fossil fuel power stations. Save a forest by making sure websites are formatted to print economically and include a black/white option to reduce colour printing. However for all the savings a designer might be able to achieve, gains will be limited without an adequate support system in place. There is little point in designing a mobile phone to fall apart easily for recycling if the phones are not being collected, or there is no market for the resulting parts or material. With the right systems in place we should be able to reduce the impact of products on the environment tenfold.

Clean and green products are vital but they won’t get us out of the environmental woods. Rising consumerism is outpacing the gains made through eco-design. The more efficient we get at making products the cheaper they get and the more free money there is to purchase more. Strategy two therefore goes to the heart of the problem. Eco-innovation seeks creative solutions to inflated consumerism, water conservation, land care, tourism, and indeed all the issues that have got us into this pickle. What sort of ideas might flow from design lead eco-innovation? First there are products specifically designed for environmental benefit. An example is a new combined toilet and sink with the sink waste filling the cistern. Another is safety lighting powered by capturing the energy generated by walking on floor boards. But eco-innovation can go beyond products. Recent student ideas help to explain this approach. An integrated water control system for the Murray Darling basin using a combination of water gauges, testers, GPS and local farmer networks addressed a very topical issue. Another allows amateur ornithologists to “visit” remote hides via the internet in real time, operating cameras and binoculars remotely. No international flights needed and damage to wet-lands avoided. These solutions combine information systems, remote sensors, specialised products and new company structures based on services rather than selling objects.

The sustainable environment is such a rich area for innovation with the ideal combination of virgin issues to explore and a host of new technologies on hand; a designer’s paradise! Designers also have a role in weening consumers away from purchasing physical things into investing in relatively environmentally benign pursuits. The digital world and human service based industries tend to be far less destructive; itunes for example is not only highly profitable it also eliminates most of the material aspects associated with music. Visual communication designers are busy exploring this world of material-less consumerism.

Vision, focus and a good measure of creativity will be needed to turn around decades of waste and environmental vandalism. Go designers!

Associate Professor Douglas Tomkin is head of the Architecture and Building School of Design at the University of Technology Sydney.