About Ecodesign, Circular Economy and Our Project

 

Testimonials


  • Victor Papanek 1

    There are professions more harmful than industrial design, but only a few.

    Victor Papanek (1923 - 1998), Austrian-American designer and advocate of socially and ecologically responsible design
  • Henry Ford

    The only prosperity the people can afford to be satisfied with is the kind that lasts.

    Henry Ford (1863 - 1947), American industrialist
  • Jasper Morrison

    I 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.

    Jasper Morrison (born 1959), English product and furniture designer
  • Victor Papanek 2

    Design, if it is to be ecologically responsible and socially responsive, must be revolutionary and radical.

    Victor Papanek (1923 - 1998), Austrian-American designer and advocate of socially and ecologically responsible design
  • Buckminster Fuller

    The best way to predict the future is to design it.

    Richard Buckminster Fuller (1895 - 1983), American inventor and visionary
  • Allan Chochinov1

    Understanding 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.

    Allan Chochinov, Teacher at the School of Visual Arts in New York City, leading advocate against wasteful design
    (from: Manifesto for Sustainability in Design")
  • Buckminster Fuller 2

    You never change things by fighting the existing reality. To change something, build a new model that makes the existing model obsolete.

    Richard Buckminster Fuller (1895 - 1983), American inventor and visionary
  • Robert L. Peters

    Design creates culture. Culture shapes values. Values determine the future.

    Robert L. Peters (born 1954), Canadian designer
  • Hans Leo Höger

    Designers have a dual duty; contractually to their clients and morally to the later users and recipients of their work.

    Hans Leo Höger (born 1960), Professor for Theory and History of Design and Communication, Bozen | Bolzano (Italy)
  • Frank Chimero

    People ignore design that ignores people.

    Frank Chimero, American designer, writer, and illustrator
  • Our Stolen Future

    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.

    Theo Colborn, Dianne Dumanoski, John Peterson Myers - Authors of the book "Our Stolen Future" (1996)
  • Allan Chochinov2

    "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.

    Allan Chochinov, Teacher at the School of Visual Arts in New York City, leading advocate against wasteful design (from: Manifesto for Sustainability in Design")
  • John Paul II

    Modern society will find no solution to the ecological problem unless it takes a serious look at its lifestyle.

    Pope John Paul II (1920 - 2005)
  • Victor Papanek 3

    Advertising 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.

    Victor Papanek (1923 - 1998), Austrian-American designer and advocate of socially and ecologically responsible design
  • Alfred P. Sloan

    Some 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.

    Alfred P. Sloan (1875 - 1966), American industrialist; president of GM and an inventor of planned obsolescence
  • Aldous Huxley

    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.

    Aldous Huxley (1894 - 1963), British novelist, from his novel "Island"
  • Lewis Mumford

    But 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.

    Lewis Mumford (1895 - 1990), "an almost forgotten American environmentalist", The Pentagon of Power (1970) Megatechnic Costs and Benefits
  • Cameron Tonkinwise

    The best designers are always changemakers.

    Cameron Tonkinwise, Professor of Design, University of New South Wales, Australia (from: "Transition Design as Postindustrial Interaction Design?)
  • Allan Chochinov 3

    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 ...

    Allan Chochinov, Teacher at the School of Visual Arts in New York City, leading advocate against wasteful design (from: Manifesto for Sustainability in Design")
  • Ernst Friedrich Schumacher

    …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.

    Ernst Friedrich Schumacher (1911 - 1977) - German-born British economist; from "Small is beautiful"
  • Cameron Tonkinwise 2

    A society with a reduced number of things being used more productively for longer by more people should be a significantly more ecologically sustainable society.

    Cameron Tonkinwise, Professor of Design, University of New South Wales, Australia, from his "Design the Future" Lecture 2016
  • Nicholas Georgescu-Roegen

    '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.

    Nicholas Georgescu-Roegen (1906-1994),Romanian-born mathematician and the father of ecological economics, from "Energy and Economic Myth", 1975
  • August Wilhelm von Hofmann

    In 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.

    August Wilhelm von Hofmann (1818 - 1892), German chemist and first director of the Royal College of Chemistry in London
  • Philippe Starck 1

    We are the prisoners of a “throw-away” society. The only way to escape is to create sustainable design.

    Philippe Starck (born 1949), French designer
  • John Donahoe

    The greenest product is the one that already exists, because it doesn’t draw on new natural resources to produce.

    John Donahoe (born 1960) as CEO of eBay (2008 - 2015)
  • Albert Einstein

    If I had an hour to solve a problem I'd spend 55 minutes thinking about the problem and 5 minutes thinking about solutions.

    Albert Einstein (1879 - 1955), German-born theoretical physicist
  • Philippe Starck 2

    There won't be any designers. The designer of the future will be the personal coach, the fitness trainer, the nutritionist.

    Philippe Starck (born 1949), French designer
  • Jonathan Chapman

    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.

    Jonathan Chapman (born 1974), Professor of Sustainable Design, best known for his theory of 'emotionally durable design'
  • Philippe Starck 3

    I 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.

    Philippe Starck (born 1949), French designer
  • Sven Lindqvist

    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.

    Sven Lindqvist (born 1932), Swedish author; from "Exterminate All the Brutes"
  • Philippe Starck 4

    Everything I have designed is absolutely unnecessary.

    Philippe Starck (born 1949), French designer
  • Charles Moore

    Only we humans make waste that nature can’t digest.

    Charles Moore, US-American marine researcher, initiated monitoring of the 'Great Pacific Garbage Patch'
  • Eliel Saarinen

    Always 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.

    Eliel Saarinen (1873-1950), Finnish architect and city planner
  • Phil Libin

    If 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.

    Phil Libin (born 1972), Everynote's cofounder
  • William McDonough

    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.

    William McDonough (born 1951), American designer and co-author of "Cradle to Cradle: Remaking the Way We Make Things"
  • Helena Norbert-Hodge

    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.

    Helena Norbert-Hodge (born 1946), pioneer of the local economy movement, founder of "Local Futures"
  • Heinrich Böll

    You 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.

    Heinrich Böll (1917 - 1985), German writer - winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1972
  • Prabhjot Singh

    We spend a lot time designing the bridge, but not enough time thinking about the people who are crossing it.

    Prabhjot Singh (born 1982), Previous Director of Systems Design at the Earth Institute
  • Albert Einstein 2

    We can’t solve problems by using the same kind of thinking we used when we created them.

    Albert Einstein (1879 - 1955), German-born theoretical physicist
  • Klaus Krippendorf

    Most 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.

    Klaus Krippendorf (born 1932) German-born American Emeritus Professor of Communication. The Annenberg School for Communication, University of Pennsylvania
  • Ivan Chermayeff

    Design 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.

    Ivan Chermayeff (1932 - 2017), American graphic designer
  • Otl Aicher

    The quality of the designs is the quality of the world.

    Otl Aicher (1922 - 1991), German graphic designer and typographer.
  • Linus Pauling

    The best way to have a good idea is to have a lot of ideas.

    Linus Pauling (1901 - 1994), American Chemist and who recieved two unshared Nobel Prizes — for Chemistry (1954) and for Peace (1962).
  • Japanese proverb

    Vision without action is a daydream. Action without vision is a nightmare.

    Japanese proverb
  • Peter Senge

    Today's problems come from yesterday's "solutions."

    Peter Senge (born 1947), American systems scientist, from his book: "The Fifth Discipline: The Art & Practice of the Learning Organization"
  • Pete Seeger

    If it can't be reduced
    Reused, repaired
    Rebuilt, refurbished, refinished, resold, recycled or composted
    Then it should be
    Restricted, redesigned
    Or removed
    From production

    Pete Seeger (1919 - 2014) American environmental / anti-war / civil rights activist, singer, guitarist, songwriter
  • Mark Shayler

    Designers are excellent problem solvers, but we’re giving them the wrong problems to solve.

    Mark Shayler, ecodesigner and founder of the environmental consultancy Tickety Boo
  • Mollie Beatie

    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.

    Mollie Beatie (1947 - 1996), former director of the United States Fish and Wildlife Service.
  • Henrik Tikkanen

    Because we dont think about future generations, they will never forget us.

    Henrik Tikkanen (1924 - 1984), Finnish-Swedish writer and artist
  • Mahatma Gandhi

    If it took Britain the exploitation of half the globe to be what it is today, how many globes will it take India?

    Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi (1869 - 1948); cited in "The Real Circular Economy"
  • Oren Harari

    Electric light did not come about from the continuous improvement of candles.

    Oren Harari (1949 - 2010) was an American business professor
  • Ralph Thurm

    There 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.

    Ralph Thurm from Reporting 3.0
  • Kenneth E. Boulding

    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.

    Kenneth E. Boulding (1910 - 1993), English-born American economist, philosopher and system scientist.
  • Sir Peter Blake

    New technology is common, new thinking is rare.

    Sir Peter Blake (1932 - ), British pop artist
  • Albert Einstein 3

    I’m more interested in the future than in the past, because the future is where I intend to live.

    Albert Einstein (1879 - 1955), German-born theoretical physicist
  • Roberto Unger

    At every level the greatest obstacle to transforming the world is that we lack the clarity and imagination to conceive that it could be different

    Roberto Mangabeira Unger (born 1947) - renowned political and social theorist who has also served as Brazil’s Minister of Strategic Affairs
  • Albert Camus

    Real generosity toward the future lies in giving all to the present.

    Albert Camus (1913 - 1960), French philosopher and writer
  • Simon Sinek

    Profit isn't a purpose, it's a result. To have purpose means the things we do are of real value to others.

    Simon Sinek (*1973), British-American author and inspirational speaker
  • Winfried Wolf

    We don't want little biscuits. We want the whole bakery.

    Winfried Wolf, born 1949, former German politician, as guest speaker during a “Friday For Future” school strike in March 2019 in Düsseldorf, Germany
  • Guatamo Buddha

    Just as a bee in a flower
    harming neither hue nor scent
    gathers nectar, flies away,
    so in towns a Wise One fares.

    Guatamo Buddha, Dhammapada
  • Paul-Jacques Grillo

    Wenever design loses contact with the public, it is on the losing end.

    Paul-Jacques Grillo​ (1908 - 1990), French architect, from: What is design? (1960)
  • Frans Timmermans

    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.

    Frans Timmermans​ (born 1961), Dutch politician, from: Opening speech as First Vice-President at the Circular Economy Conference, Brussels​ (June 2015)
  • Yoda

    You must unlearn what you have learnt.

    Yoda, Star Wars character
  • Pablo Picasso

    Everything you can imagine is real.

    Pablo Picasso (1881 - 1973), Spanish innovative artist
  • Maja Göpel

    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.

    Maja Göpel, Secretary-General of the German Advisory Council on Global Change, from: "The Great Mindshift"
  • Victor Lebow

    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.

    Victor Lebow, economist and retail analyst, from: "Price Competition in 1955"
  • Kate Burningham

    Design 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.

    Kate Burningham, Senior Lecturer in the Department of Sociology and Centre for Environmental Strategy at the University of Surrey, UK
  • Bridget Snaith

    There is a fear among some clients that sustainable solutions may not be accepted by the public…. Change has to be attractive and culturally appropriate.

    Bridget Snaith - Landscape architect, urban designer, social researcher and educator, senior lecturer at University of East London
  • Alice Walker

    Activism is the rent I pay for living on this planet.

    Alice Walker (born 1944), American writer, poet and activist
  • Douglas Adams

    A 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 writer
  • Douglas Adams 2

    The 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.

    Douglas Adams (1952 - 2001), British writer
  • Kate Raworth

    Instead 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.

    Kate Raworth (born 1970), English economist, from: Doughnut Economics: Seven Ways to Think Like a 21st-Century Economist
  • Zig Ziglar

    When you change your thinking, you change actions, when you change your action you change your future.

    Zig Ziglar (1926 - 2012), one of the world's most popular and motivational speakers, American
  • Herbert Simon

    Everyone designs who devises courses of action aimed at changing existing situations into preferred ones.

    Herbert Simon (1916 - 2001), American economist, recipient of the 1978 Nobel Memorial Prize in economics, devised the terms “bounded rationality” and “satisficing
  • Simon Sinek2

    Our 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 speaker
  • Simon Sinek 3

    There are only two ways to influence human behavior: you can manipulate it or you can inspire it.

    Simon Sinek (*1973), British-American author and inspirational speaker
  • Pablo Picasso2

    Inspiration exists, but it has to find you working.

    Pablo Picasso (1881 - 1973), Spanish innovative artist
  • Aras Baskauskas

    What are we trying to sustain — the fires, the tornadoes, the mass extinction? We don’t need to be sustainable, we need to be regenerative.

    Aras Baskauskas, CEO of Los Angeles based label Christy Dawn
  • Robert Swan

    The greatest threat to our planet is the belief that someone else will save it.

    Robert Swan (born 1956), British polar explorer