PRODUCT & SERVICE DESIGNGreen products and sustainable service solutions. Join the next revolution of sustainable consumption. It's time to radically rethink the story of stuff.The world of products, things and machinery is up for transformation. While the planet is high on people it's getting low on raw materials and fossile fuels. Thus, new ways of consumption and production are needed that work in harmony with nature's bio-capacity. Green Windows of OpportunitiesThe changing ecological landscape can be seen as a unique chance for developing new perspectives on modern society, redefining our material and immaterial values.For businesses it represents an opportunity to launch sustainable products and services that are truly ecological in use - but also to challenge the dogmas of the consumer society. For users it represents a chance to transform the passive "consumer mindset" and take on a more active and responsible role in the development, utilisation and disposal phase of products. The Eco-ProductsOne set of answers come with concepts such as craddle-to-craddle and other proactive life-cycle designs that reduce a product's ecological footprint to a minimum.It can be driven by the use of new materials such as bio-based, recycled or reused materials. It can eliminate non-essential product parts or provide innovative packaging. And it can take on a low-transportation perspective where locally sourced products and materials are utilized to minimize transportation costs. There are almost endless of opportunities in the eco-product category, where designers, engineers and users working together can come up with new and interesting solutions. The Saver-Products
The parallel occurence (or awareness) of the financial and the climatic crisis means that many people have changed consumption patterns - to save the planet and to save their money.From a sustainable perspective this provides big market opportunities for products that offer direct savings in terms of reduced energy or material usage. People want to cut down utility bills. Time Value Concepts However, with the present-day situation it is mainly products or services that offer a short-term benefit that are attractive to private users - whereas the green investments that only payoff in the long-term often are difficult to finance. Great potentials for innovation exists thus for introducing business models and services where businesses take on the long-term commitment and provide short-term openings for the consumer through leasing or performance-based contracts. DIY Saver products also include solutions for DO-IT-YOURSELF markets where people lower prices by contributing with their personal labour-force. Through design concepts this provides another big area for sustainable solutions where designers create products that can be assembled, co-designed or easily installed by end-users. The environmental savings can come from lowered transportation with compact-packaged solutions, less need of in-store promotion, diminished factory setups or lowered advertising expenses. Sustainable DIY products also include tools and materials for self-repair, furniture, clothing design and other fabrication of home-made products. Just like saver-products can target local production such as gardening and water harvesting that provide raw materials for the user. Loads of opportunities are available where the company can benefit from making a social contract with users to provide cheaper, greener solutions in a pragmatic way. The Super-Services
In combination with a physical product or as stand-alone concept service solutions offer another set of very interesting sustainable potentials. Much consumption is a "secondary consumption" or material use that mainly takes place to provide some other benefit. Besides the ones loving cleaning, could we think of sustainable services that would lower the need for vacuuming, scrubbing and polishing of our homes and work places? Who would have thought 20 years ago that a virtual store on the Internet could replace a good old fashioned brick and mortar solution? Or looking a one of today's space and material consuming trends, could we imagine natural or low-tech alternatives to the massive fittness equipment so popular today?Take the garden example where lawn mowing products make up a huge economic expense and at the same time is a serious cause for carbon emission and air-polution from machines. What if people could swap that cost into a sustainable garden maintenance service, that provided a beatifull experience or maybe even a small forrest garden with healthy plants? In many areas there are means to an end, with potentials for exchange with an innovative and effective sustainable service. Maintenance & Repair Another core issue is about maintenance, where many products break down simply due to poor maintenance. New and original services for maintaining customer products prolonging life-time are waiting to be introduced - for example led by new possibilities within digital communication and web-based interaction. Knowledge providers A third potential area for sustainable services is to provide knowledge products that actually remove the need for a "secondary product". Business could have a valuable exercise by thinking out possible scenarios that make their products obsolete from the introduction of a green alternative or service - and then of course see if they themselves could build a profitable business model around such a service. Much knowledge about green living is not easily available, or need to be wrapped in an inspiring form providing insights and motivation precisely to the single family or person. A very big market potential is there, for those organisations ready to act as a dedicated helper and provider of true green knowledge. More precision, less stuff. Take ActionCo·Creative offers strategic consulting services and assistance on the development and communication of sustainable products and service solutions.We also run creative workshops and camps for people-driven innovation activities. Please contact Project Developer & Director, Søren Femmer Jensen for more info: +45 30 279 111 / soren@cocreative.com |
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