Almost everything around us is the result of design: the clothes we wear, the desks we sit at, the houses, towns, and cities we live in – and even the supply chains and infrastructure that support all of these things.
What is design?
The World Design Organization (WDO) defines design as a strategic problem-solving process that uses creativity to improve products, services, systems, and experiences.
Therefore, design doesn’t just apply to products; it applies to services, architecture, home designs and more. Designers have a unique responsibility to not only define a product, but the entire experience surrounding what they are creating.
What is sustainable design? Definition and meaning
Sustainable design, also known as green design or eco-design, is defined as the creation of long-term products or services that reduce waste and improve society’s well-being. It is a core component of building a circular economy by focusing on reducing waste and extending the life of materials.
Why is sustainable design important? Environmental impacts of design
According to McKinsey, up to four-fifths of a product’s lifetime emissions are determined by decisions made at the design stage. And while R&D accounts for five percent or less of the total cost of a product, it influences up to 80 percent of that product’s resource footprint. That’s because designers help determine a product or service’s shelf life – from the resources used to make it, the manufacturing process, how easily it can be repaired or maintained, and even what happens at the end of its life. Designers don’t just decide what a product looks like – they have a profound environmental impact.
People in every country face record-breaking threats to health and survival from the rapidly changing climate. The 2024 Global Report of the Lancet Countdown reports that 10 of 15 indicators tracking health threats have reached concerning new records.
This isn’t something businesses can afford to ignore. A growing number of regulations, including the 2005 Energy Policy Act, the 2020 Guiding Principles for Sustainable Federal Buildings and the 2024 Ecodesign for Sustainable Products Regulation, are placing greater demands on organizations. At the same time, investors increasingly rank companies on their environmental performance and consumers demand greener products and services.
The UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) has called for urgent action, noting a significant gap between existing adaptation and what is needed. “Keeping warming to 1.5°C above pre-industrial levels requires deep, rapid and sustained greenhouse gas emissions reductions in all sectors,” it said.
Those organizations that prioritize sustainable design can evolve into more responsible businesses, attract more investors, retain more customers and enjoy stronger revenues as a result.
In today’s waste economy era, where raw and artificially created materials are collected, turned into products and then all too quickly thrown away, designers have an opportunity to incorporate sustainable design principles into their work. Embracing sustainable design can help contribute to a circular economy, address the effects of climate change, and reduce society’s carbon footprint.
What are the principles of a circular design model?
In contrast to the traditional ‘take-make-waste’ linear model, the circular design model aims for a restorative and regenerative approach. As defined by the Ellen MacArthur Foundation, it represents a new systems approach for companies based on three principles:
1. Eliminate waste and pollution,
2. Keep products and materials in use
3. Regenerate natural systems
Starting the sustainable design process and reimagining current workflows
According to former Apple VP and University of California Design Lab director Don Norman, change requires a different way of thinking when we design. “It’s not just about if somebody can understand and use [a product] to satisfy their needs,” Norman told McKinsey, “It’s also about how the manufacturing process may destroy the planet. What is the process? What is happening?”
Norman’s solution is what he refers to as humanity-centered design – a phenomenon that builds and expands on the principles of human-centered design. “We must think about all living things and about the environment,” he said. “We must realize we are part of a complex system, so what we do here can impact people all across the world and have a long effect.”
By adopting this approach, designers can contribute to achieving the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) within the 15-year deadline. According to the WDO, those designers who solve some of our biggest economic, social and environmental problems will also experience some of the most lucrative growth opportunities.
At Dassault Systèmes, we want to empower designers to better design. That’s why we are working toward having sustainable design as part of an industry’s full supply chain. This means developing new products, new processes and even new business models – all supported by agile short-term production planning software and more effective logistics planning software.
Since 2011, Dassault Systèmes’ DESIGNStudio has proven exactly what it means to innovate with a sustainability mindset. Ran by a team of transdisciplinary team of designers working under the leadership of Anne Asensio, vice president of Design Experience, DESIGNStudio’s mission is to empower companies, small and large, to make their innovation happen. They have successfully empowered a multitude of designers to explore how 3D technology like the 3DEXPERIENCE platform can create sustainable, forward-thinking experiences.
From designing electric motorcycles with luxury top of mind to a furniture collection printed in 3D, circular design is well on its way to impacting every industry.
What are sustainable design principles?
There are six sustainable design principles to consider:
- Use sustainable materials: Researchers can leverage materials science and engineering to facilitate a deeper understanding of how and why their products work to better tie them to project and business goals concerning sustainability.
- Co-design: When all stakeholders work together on a project, outcomes improve. Designing disruption through virtual twins can enable this approach.
- Reduce, reuse, recycle: Whether designing supply chains, packaging, or entire cities, it is important to consume fewer materials, repurpose where possible and have a plan in place for end-of-life.
- Use processes that can be traced using different metrics: Measuring sustainable performance and setting targets for sustainability can help design teams stay on track.
- Consider the entire product lifecycle: A product lifecycle includes all stages from raw material extraction to end of life. Advanced Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) tools leverage virtual twin technologies to help designers understand the impact their actions will have on the environment and optimize their design choices from the outset.
- Transparency and communication: Effective collaboration between team members during the design process can foster transparency and improve project efficiency.
What are examples of sustainable design?
In 2019, Dassault Systèmes began an experimental collaboration with London-based architect Arthur Mamou-Mani to focus on assembly and disassembly, an issue facing most industries. Together, they began exploring circular design practices using the 3DEXPERIENCE platform. One result of this collaboration was the AURORA project, an exploration and adoption of new processes, tools and solutions that allow designers and innovators to push boundaries and design more sustainably.
Other sustainable design examples include:
- Sustainable home design: Turning the traditional process of home construction on its head, Netherlands-based company Unbrick is using the 3DEXPERIENCE platform on the cloud to build houses faster, smarter and more sustainably. Digitizing its processes from end-to-end enabled the company to develop collaborative design, improve efficiency and create complex assembly instructions.
- Sustainable building design: US-based Assembly OSM is on a mission to transform construction by adopting a more sustainable process of digital design, manufacturing, assembly and on-site installation for architecturally distinctive high-rise buildings.
- Sustainable product design: In the near future, customers will be able to purchase shoes from Japanese sportswear brand ASICS that perfectly fit their feet. This is one of ASICS’ long-term visions, achieved through digital, personal, and sustainable product development, to support people to live healthy and active lives.
- Sustainable packaging: Paperboard producer Metsä Board is using the 3DEXPERIENCE platform to improve the functionality, recyclability and brand impact of its customers’ packaging solutions, maximizing product performance while minimizing both carbon footprint and costs.
- Sustainable architecture: Sustainable urban development is increasingly dependent on cities’ ability to reduce CO2 emissions, limit the consumption of building materials, improve water and waste management systems, and develop reliable and safe urban infrastructure. With this in mind, Dassault Systèmes has helped reimagine the Eiffel Tower as a Vertical Garden that could enrich the lives of Parisians and showcase sustainable construction methods.
What are sustainable design strategies and practices?
Moving an organization from a linear to a circular way of thinking does not happen overnight. It often requires a deep analysis of your current business model, empowering employees at every level to understand the value and transforming internal operations. Again, the Ellen MacArthur Foundation provides an overview of sustainable design strategies that can help organizations move towards a full circular economy transformation.
- Evaluate the system you are working in: Mapping a linear system rather than isolating a problem helps provide context and nuance, allowing an understanding of a system’s origin, its evolution, its strengths and limitations. This process “can reveal the most impactful opportunities or intervention points to begin shifting from linear to circular,” according to EMF.
- Imagine a future that embraces circular design principles: Reimagining how a product or business would behave within a circular economy invites new possibilities. Future building allows actors to consider how a business must evolve to embody circular economy principles of eliminate, circulate and regenerate.
- Embrace collaboration and utilize the expertise of others: Transitioning from a linear to a circular economy is complex and requires collaboration among a more diverse set of actors. EMF has a number of recommendations for approaching these crucial collaborations, including working with facilitators to kickstart the process.
- Analyze and address the skills gap: Embracing circularity means moving design to a more central role and building out circular design capabilities. To do so, organizations can leverage and stretch existing skills while identifying gaps and utilizing circular design learning and training programs to promote the mindset shift.
- Create new rules, principles and guidelines fit for a circular economy: Using a common language that connects the circular economy with the organization’s values and vernacular, rewriting policies, principles and guidelines that break from the status quo. This builds alignment around common goals and “helps define what good looks like at different levels of the system.”
- Develop and use tools designed for sustainable design: Building on new rules, developing new tools helps embed principles of circularity at all levels of the design processes. Ideation prompts, creative briefs, product guidelines and data-informed digital design tools can all be useful in this regard.
More frequently asked questions about sustainable design
What are the main components of sustainable design?
There are three main components to sustainable design:
- Reduce: Sustainable design seeks to reduce the amount of material and energy required for production.
- Reuse: Sustainable design enables the reuse or repurposing of a material or product.
- Recycle: Sustainable design enables a recycled product or material to be transformed into a new one.
Other components of sustainable design include energy efficiency, water conservation, renewable energy sources, sustainable materials and waste reduction.
What is the difference between sustainable design and circular design?
Sustainable design is a broad concept that aims to minimize one’s carbon footprint and environmental impact; circular design is a more specific approach. Circular design aims to create no waste in the supply chain and keep resources in use indefinitely.
Learn more about circular design.
What is the difference between green design and sustainable design?
The terms “green design” and “sustainable design” are often used interchangeably. However, green design may also be defined as a subset of sustainable design that focuses on reducing environmental impact in the short term through material use and reducing energy. Sustainable design focuses on long-term impact and considers environmental, social and economic factors and how they will impact future generations.
Final thoughts
The transformation required to support a circular economy will require new ways of managing products, services, and buildings over their entire lifecycle, starting with design.
Virtual twin technology can accelerate sustainable design practices. In fact, a whitepaper co-authored by Accenture and Dassault Systèmes detailed how virtual twins can help companies unlock combined benefits of US$1.3 trillion of economic value and 7.5 Gt CO2e emissions reductions by 2030.
Virtual twins allow users to design, test and model disruptive new sustainable products and processes in record time. However, while 100% of the world’s top EV manufacturers and 90% of the top drug and healthcare laboratories use virtual twin solutions, most private and public organizations globally are yet to pilot and scale such solutions. Those forward-thinking organizations that look to harness these technologies now can drive significant and sustainable change in the years and decades to come.
Related resources
