ABSTRACT
It is often said that 80 per cent of a product’s environmental impact is decided on the drawing board. 1 Whether there is any empirical evidence for that claim is unclear – I suspect it is a read across from the rule of thumb that 80 per cent of through life costs of a product are determined at the design stage. But there is little doubt that product design is the most cost-effective way of reducing the environmental impact of your business. A designer has the opportunity to eliminate problems and exploit opportunities across the whole product lifecycle (raw materials extraction, manufacturing supply chain, distribution, use, disposal) without leaving their desk. Eco-design gurus Bill McDonough and Michael Braungart have a great saying: ‘take the filters out of the pipes and put them where they belong – in the designers’ heads’.
