Testimonials
-
Victor Papanek (1923 - 1998), Austrian-American designer and advocate of socially and ecologically responsible designThere are professions more harmful than industrial design, but only a few.
-
Henry Ford (1863 - 1947), American industrialistThe only prosperity the people can afford to be satisfied with is the kind that lasts.
-
Jasper Morrison (born 1959), English product and furniture designerI struggle with the idea of Ecological Design because I am not sure that design can be ecological.
Imagine a chair which could be made with zero energy and last forever or be recycled without polluting the environment. If that were possible, it would be a good thing you would say, but then consider that it has to be catalogued, stored in a warehouse, packaged, transported, displayed and delivered to the customer … and you realise that the chair itself is only half the problem. The only zero emissions chair I can imagine is one that you buy second hand and walk home with and take back to the shop when you have finished with it. As a designer I'd like to think there is a way to design responsibly in a way that the storage, packaging, transport issues are minimised, and that the design of the chair itself insures that it will have a long and useful life and not be a waste of resources. -
Victor Papanek (1923 - 1998), Austrian-American designer and advocate of socially and ecologically responsible designDesign, if it is to be ecologically responsible and socially responsive, must be revolutionary and radical.
-
Richard Buckminster Fuller (1895 - 1983), American inventor and visionaryThe best way to predict the future is to design it.
-
Allan Chochinov, Teacher at the School of Visual Arts in New York City, leading advocate against wasteful designUnderstanding that all design happens within a context is the first (and arguably the only) stop to make on your way to becoming a good designer.
(from: Manifesto for Sustainability in Design") -
Richard Buckminster Fuller (1895 - 1983), American inventor and visionaryYou never change things by fighting the existing reality. To change something, build a new model that makes the existing model obsolete.
-
Robert L. Peters (born 1954), Canadian designerDesign creates culture. Culture shapes values. Values determine the future.
-
Hans Leo Höger (born 1960), Professor for Theory and History of Design and Communication, Bozen | Bolzano (Italy)Designers have a dual duty; contractually to their clients and morally to the later users and recipients of their work.
-
Frank Chimero, American designer, writer, and illustratorPeople ignore design that ignores people.
-
Theo Colborn, Dianne Dumanoski, John Peterson Myers - Authors of the book "Our Stolen Future" (1996)The journey to a different future must begin by defining the problem differently than we have done until now. . . The task is not to find substitutes for chemicals that disrupt hormones, attack the ozone layer, or cause still undiscovered problems, though it may be necessary to use replacements as a temporary measure. The task that confronts us over the next half century is one of redesign.
-
Allan Chochinov, Teacher at the School of Visual Arts in New York City, leading advocate against wasteful design (from: Manifesto for Sustainability in Design")"First do no harm" is a good starting point for everyone, but it's an especially good starting point for designers. [...] We have to remember that industrial design equals mass production, and that every move, every decision, every curve we specify is multiplied—sometimes by the thousands and often by the millions. And that every one of those everys has a price. We think that we're in the artifact business, but we're not; we're in the consequence business.
-
Pope John Paul II (1920 - 2005)Modern society will find no solution to the ecological problem unless it takes a serious look at its lifestyle.
-
Victor Papanek (1923 - 1998), Austrian-American designer and advocate of socially and ecologically responsible designAdvertising design, in persuading people to buy things they don`t need, with money they don`t have, in order to impress others who don`t care, is probably the phoniest field in existence today.
-
Alfred P. Sloan (1875 - 1966), American industrialist; president of GM and an inventor of planned obsolescenceSome have an idea that the reason we in this country discard things so readily is because we have so much. The facts are exactly opposite - the reason we have so much is simply because we discard things so readily. We replace the old in return for something that will serve us better.
-
Aldous Huxley (1894 - 1963), British novelist, from his novel "Island"Armaments, universal debt, and planned obsolescence — those are the three pillars of Western prosperity. ... And while you people are overconsuming the rest of the world sinks more and more deeply into chronic disaster.
-
Lewis Mumford (1895 - 1990), "an almost forgotten American environmentalist", The Pentagon of Power (1970) Megatechnic Costs and BenefitsBut what would become of mass production and its system of financial expansion if technical perfection, durability, social efficiency, and human satisfaction were the guiding aims. The very conditions for current financial success — constantly expanding production and replacement — works against these ends. To ensure the rapid absorption of its immense productivity, megatechnics resorts to a score of different devices: consumer credit, installment buying, multiple packaging, non-functional designs, meretricious novelties, shoddy materials, defective workmanship, built-in fragility, or forced obsolescence through frequent arbitrary changes of fashion. Without constant enticement and inveiglement by advertising, production would slow down and level off to normal replacement demand. Otherwise many products could reach a plateau of efficient design which would call for only minimal changes from year to year.
-
Cameron Tonkinwise, Professor of Design, University of New South Wales, Australia (from: "Transition Design as Postindustrial Interaction Design?)The best designers are always changemakers.
-
Allan Chochinov, Teacher at the School of Visual Arts in New York City, leading advocate against wasteful design (from: Manifesto for Sustainability in Design")Before we design anything new, we should examine how we can use what already exists to better ends. We need to think systems before artifacts, services before products ...
-
Ernst Friedrich Schumacher (1911 - 1977) - German-born British economist; from "Small is beautiful"…a technology with a human face, is in fact possible; that it is viable; and that it re-integrates the human being, with his skillful hands and creative brain, into the productive process. It serves production by the masses instead of mass production.
-
Cameron Tonkinwise, Professor of Design, University of New South Wales, Australia, from his "Design the Future" Lecture 2016A society with a reduced number of things being used more productively for longer by more people should be a significantly more ecologically sustainable society.
-
Nicholas Georgescu-Roegen (1906-1994),Romanian-born mathematician and the father of ecological economics, from "Energy and Economic Myth", 1975'Bigger and better' motorcycles, automobiles, jet planes, refrigerators, etc., necessarily cause not only 'bigger and better' depletion of natural resources, but also 'bigger and better' pollution.
-
August Wilhelm von Hofmann (1818 - 1892), German chemist and first director of the Royal College of Chemistry in LondonIn an ideal chemical factory there is, strictly speaking, no waste but only products. The better a real factory makes use of its waste, the closer it gets to its ideal, the bigger is the profit.
-
Philippe Starck (born 1949), French designerWe are the prisoners of a “throw-away” society. The only way to escape is to create sustainable design.
-
John Donahoe (born 1960) as CEO of eBay (2008 - 2015)The greenest product is the one that already exists, because it doesn’t draw on new natural resources to produce.
-
Albert Einstein (1879 - 1955), German-born theoretical physicistIf I had an hour to solve a problem I'd spend 55 minutes thinking about the problem and 5 minutes thinking about solutions.
-
Philippe Starck (born 1949), French designerThere won't be any designers. The designer of the future will be the personal coach, the fitness trainer, the nutritionist.
-
Jonathan Chapman (born 1974), Professor of Sustainable Design, best known for his theory of 'emotionally durable design'It’s actually very easy to design and manufacture a toaster that will last 20 years; that can be done. What’s not so easy is to design and manufacture a toaster that someone will want to keep for 20 years, because as people ... we haven’t been trained to do that.
-
Philippe Starck (born 1949), French designerI have been a producer of materiality. I do feel ashamed for this. What I want to be instead now is a producer of concepts. This will be much more useful.
-
Sven Lindqvist (born 1932), Swedish author; from "Exterminate All the Brutes"You already know enough. So do I. It is not knowledge we lack. What is missing is the courage to understand what we know and to draw conclusions.
-
Philippe Starck (born 1949), French designerEverything I have designed is absolutely unnecessary.
-
Charles Moore, US-American marine researcher, initiated monitoring of the 'Great Pacific Garbage Patch'Only we humans make waste that nature can’t digest.
-
Eliel Saarinen (1873-1950), Finnish architect and city plannerAlways design a thing by considering it in its next larger context - a chair in a room, a room in a house, a house in an environment, an environment in a city plan.
-
Phil Libin (born 1972), Everynote's cofounderIf you’re thinking in 100-year terms, the culture is the only important thing. The culture is everything in the long-term. The culture is much more important than the current product. The product is the current product, the culture is the next hundred products.
-
William McDonough (born 1951), American designer and co-author of "Cradle to Cradle: Remaking the Way We Make Things"The Stone Age did not end because humans ran out of stones. It ended because it was time for a re-think about how we live.
-
Helena Norbert-Hodge (born 1946), pioneer of the local economy movement, founder of "Local Futures"Economic localization is the key to sustaining biological and cultural diversity - to sustaining life itself. The sooner we shift towards the local, the sooner we will begin healing our planet, our communities and ourselves.
-
Heinrich Böll (1917 - 1985), German writer - winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1972You can recognize the humanity of a country by what ends up in its garbage bins. By the everyday items, by what could still be used but is disposed of. By the kind of poetry it throws away. By what is deemed worthy of destruction.
-
Prabhjot Singh (born 1982), Previous Director of Systems Design at the Earth InstituteWe spend a lot time designing the bridge, but not enough time thinking about the people who are crossing it.
-
Albert Einstein (1879 - 1955), German-born theoretical physicistWe can’t solve problems by using the same kind of thinking we used when we created them.
-
Klaus Krippendorf (born 1932) German-born American Emeritus Professor of Communication. The Annenberg School for Communication, University of PennsylvaniaMost outsiders see design as an applied art, as having to do with aesthetics, unlike a solid profession unto itself, with technical knowledge, skills, and responsibilities to rely on. Insiders to design, by contrast, talk of innovative ideas, coordinating the concerns of many disciplines, being advocates for users, and trying to balance social, political, cultural, and ecological considerations.
-
Ivan Chermayeff (1932 - 2017), American graphic designerDesign is directed toward human beings. To design is to solve human problems by identifying them, examining alternate solutions to them, choosing and executing the best solution.
-
Otl Aicher (1922 - 1991), German graphic designer and typographer.The quality of the designs is the quality of the world.
-
Linus Pauling (1901 - 1994), American Chemist and who recieved two unshared Nobel Prizes — for Chemistry (1954) and for Peace (1962).The best way to have a good idea is to have a lot of ideas.
-
Japanese proverbVision without action is a daydream. Action without vision is a nightmare.
-
Peter Senge (born 1947), American systems scientist, from his book: "The Fifth Discipline: The Art & Practice of the Learning Organization"Today's problems come from yesterday's "solutions."
-
Pete Seeger (1919 - 2014) American environmental / anti-war / civil rights activist, singer, guitarist, songwriterIf it can't be reduced
Reused, repaired
Rebuilt, refurbished, refinished, resold, recycled or composted
Then it should be
Restricted, redesigned
Or removed
From production -
Mark Shayler, ecodesigner and founder of the environmental consultancy Tickety BooDesigners are excellent problem solvers, but we’re giving them the wrong problems to solve.
-
Mollie Beatie (1947 - 1996), former director of the United States Fish and Wildlife Service.In the long term, the economy and the environment are the same thing. If it's unenvironmental it is uneconomical. That is the rule of nature.
-
Henrik Tikkanen (1924 - 1984), Finnish-Swedish writer and artistBecause we dont think about future generations, they will never forget us.
-
Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi (1869 - 1948); cited in "The Real Circular Economy"If it took Britain the exploitation of half the globe to be what it is today, how many globes will it take India?
-
Oren Harari (1949 - 2010) was an American business professorElectric light did not come about from the continuous improvement of candles.
-
Ralph Thurm from Reporting 3.0There is no sustainable business in an unsustainable world, so companies that wish to be sustainable have to work not only at the level of their own organization’s sustainability, but also at the systems level.
-
Kenneth E. Boulding (1910 - 1993), English-born American economist, philosopher and system scientist.The closed economy of the future might similarly be called the 'spaceman' economy, in which the earth has become a single spaceship, without unlimited reservoirs of anything, either for extraction or for pollution, and in which, therefore, man must find his place in a cyclical ecological system.
-
Sir Peter Blake (1932 - ), British pop artistNew technology is common, new thinking is rare.
-
Albert Einstein (1879 - 1955), German-born theoretical physicistI’m more interested in the future than in the past, because the future is where I intend to live.
-
Roberto Mangabeira Unger (born 1947) - renowned political and social theorist who has also served as Brazil’s Minister of Strategic AffairsAt every level the greatest obstacle to transforming the world is that we lack the clarity and imagination to conceive that it could be different
-
Albert Camus (1913 - 1960), French philosopher and writerReal generosity toward the future lies in giving all to the present.
-
Simon Sinek (*1973), British-American author and inspirational speakerProfit isn't a purpose, it's a result. To have purpose means the things we do are of real value to others.
-
Winfried Wolf, born 1949, former German politician, as guest speaker during a “Friday For Future” school strike in March 2019 in Düsseldorf, GermanyWe don't want little biscuits. We want the whole bakery.
-
Guatamo Buddha, DhammapadaJust as a bee in a flower
harming neither hue nor scent
gathers nectar, flies away,
so in towns a Wise One fares. -
Paul-Jacques Grillo (1908 - 1990), French architect, from: What is design? (1960)Wenever design loses contact with the public, it is on the losing end.
-
Frans Timmermans (born 1961), Dutch politician, from: Opening speech as First Vice-President at the Circular Economy Conference, Brussels (June 2015)I passionately believe in the opportunities of the circular economy, for many reasons. But the main reason is this: everyone who looks at the structure of our economy, the structure of our society even, will see that the future is not in low-wage production, that the future is not in making things with finite components. The future is providing services to our citizens in a long-term process. Services that then materialize in products, instead of the other way around, and products that are used and re-used time and time again, so that you reduce the use of raw materials and don't deplete the earth's natural resources. I think this is the economic concept that by now has been embraced, by many enterprises across the world.
-
Yoda, Star Wars characterYou must unlearn what you have learnt.
-
Pablo Picasso (1881 - 1973), Spanish innovative artistEverything you can imagine is real.
-
Maja Göpel, Secretary-General of the German Advisory Council on Global Change, from: "The Great Mindshift"This is why I also want to make the case that we should not simply stick the label ‘transformation’ on any amendment to the status quo, or call each technological efficiency gain an ‘innovation.’ If the benchmark for the changes to which we aspire is not radically different to the one that has guided development solutions so far, humanity will not escape those strong path dependencies.
-
Victor Lebow, economist and retail analyst, from: "Price Competition in 1955"Our enormously productive economy... demands that we make consumption our way of life, that we convert the buying and use of goods into rituals, that we seek our spiritual satisfaction, our ego satisfaction, in consumption... we need things consumed, burned up, replaced and discarded at an ever-accelerating rate.
-
Kate Burningham, Senior Lecturer in the Department of Sociology and Centre for Environmental Strategy at the University of Surrey, UKDesign is everything. People often think about design in an artistic way, but absolutely everything involves design, from what kinds of houses we live in, to what kind of transport we use and how our food is packaged.
-
Bridget Snaith - Landscape architect, urban designer, social researcher and educator, senior lecturer at University of East LondonThere is a fear among some clients that sustainable solutions may not be accepted by the public…. Change has to be attractive and culturally appropriate.
-
Alice Walker (born 1944), American writer, poet and activistActivism is the rent I pay for living on this planet.
-
Douglas Adams (1952 - 2001), British writerA common mistake that people make when trying to design something completely foolproof is to underestimate the ingenuity of complete fools.
-
Douglas Adams (1952 - 2001), British writerThe major difference between a thing that might go wrong and a thing that cannot possibly go wrong is that when a thing that cannot possibly go wrong goes wrong it usually turns out to be impossible to get at and repair.
-
Kate Raworth (born 1970), English economist, from: Doughnut Economics: Seven Ways to Think Like a 21st-Century EconomistInstead of aiming merely to ‘do less bad’, industrial design can aim to ‘do more good’ by continually replenishing, rather than more slowly depleting, the living world. Why simply take nothing when you could also give something.
-
Zig Ziglar (1926 - 2012), one of the world's most popular and motivational speakers, AmericanWhen you change your thinking, you change actions, when you change your action you change your future.
-
Herbert Simon (1916 - 2001), American economist, recipient of the 1978 Nobel Memorial Prize in economics, devised the terms “bounded rationality” and “satisficing”Everyone designs who devises courses of action aimed at changing existing situations into preferred ones.
-
Simon Sinek (*1973), British-American author and inspirational speakerOur vision is only actionable if we share it. Without sharing, it’s just a figment of our imagination.
-
Simon Sinek (*1973), British-American author and inspirational speakerThere are only two ways to influence human behavior: you can manipulate it or you can inspire it.
-
Pablo Picasso (1881 - 1973), Spanish innovative artistInspiration exists, but it has to find you working.
-
Aras Baskauskas, CEO of Los Angeles based label Christy DawnWhat are we trying to sustain — the fires, the tornadoes, the mass extinction? We don’t need to be sustainable, we need to be regenerative.
-
Robert Swan (born 1956), British polar explorerThe greatest threat to our planet is the belief that someone else will save it.