vii
Preface
The designer’s primary job is to present compelling synthetic solutions that meet
people’s needs. Good design, at every scale, wins both hearts and minds. It can stir
the emotions while satisfying multiple utilitarian requirements. At this point in
human evolution, however, it is necessary—and possible—to do more.
Every 4 days, a million babies are born to families around the world. As more
and more people strive for better lives, how do we design a world that not only significantly reduces our already outsized global footprint but also changes negative
environmental impacts into positive ones? This is arguably the largest design challenge in the history of the world.
Design professionals entrusted with protecting public health, safety, and welfare,
as their primary public charge, can now shape humankinds’ response to this challenge. To practice ethically, we must now evaluate each new product’s potential to
physically impact the earth’s ecosystems throughout its entire life cycle prior to
bringing it into the world. How our species survives and thrives throughout the next
50 years and beyond depends on the individual and collective choices we make
about how and what we design, make, and consume.
Science-based design approaches can positively influence those decisions. Life
cycle assessment methods and tools can provide a clearer picture of how to optimize
individual designs that not only do less harm but also promote healing in our ecosystem. This book clarifies the terms and root causes of the environmental dilemma
we face today—the result of market responses to both rational and irrational human
demands—and presents life cycle assessment (LCA) within this context as an illuminating, data-driven methodology to help designers and their clients make better,
evidence-based decisions.
In order to affect positive environmental change, it is not enough to provide facts.
Data quality increases our abilities to precisely describe and present realistic solutions to problems that humankind presently faces. Change is possible, but only
when design operates with an awareness of the larger context, that is, the constant
psychological, political, and economic forces at work. Arguments fueled by fear,
mistrust, greed, and inertia, made by the very people for whom we are designing,
Preface
The designer’s primary job is to present compelling synthetic solutions that meet
people’s needs. Good design, at every scale, wins both hearts and minds. It can stir
the emotions while satisfying multiple utilitarian requirements. At this point in
human evolution, however, it is necessary—and possible—to do more.
Every 4 days, a million babies are born to families around the world. As more
and more people strive for better lives, how do we design a world that not only significantly reduces our already outsized global footprint but also changes negative
environmental impacts into positive ones? This is arguably the largest design challenge in the history of the world.
Design professionals entrusted with protecting public health, safety, and welfare,
as their primary public charge, can now shape humankinds’ response to this challenge. To practice ethically, we must now evaluate each new product’s potential to
physically impact the earth’s ecosystems throughout its entire life cycle prior to
bringing it into the world. How our species survives and thrives throughout the next
50 years and beyond depends on the individual and collective choices we make
about how and what we design, make, and consume.
Science-based design approaches can positively influence those decisions. Life
cycle assessment methods and tools can provide a clearer picture of how to optimize
individual designs that not only do less harm but also promote healing in our ecosystem. This book clarifies the terms and root causes of the environmental dilemma
we face today—the result of market responses to both rational and irrational human
demands—and presents life cycle assessment (LCA) within this context as an illuminating, data-driven methodology to help designers and their clients make better,
evidence-based decisions.
In order to affect positive environmental change, it is not enough to provide facts.
Data quality increases our abilities to precisely describe and present realistic solutions to problems that humankind presently faces. Change is possible, but only
when design operates with an awareness of the larger context, that is, the constant
psychological, political, and economic forces at work. Arguments fueled by fear,
mistrust, greed, and inertia, made by the very people for whom we are designing,