A New Model for Green Design

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New Constraints to the User-Centered Approach

And, stresses Chochinov, it makes it part of the conversation early, which is important. For instance, if the project team considers issues of sustainability in the prototyping phase, it might search out greener materials or a more efficient battery. While it's hard to argue with such incremental improvements, the Designers Accord aims for more than, as Casey puts it, "business as usual with better materials." By bringing sustainability into the conversation from the outset, the Accord is intended to spark thinking about new behaviors and new business models. Think ZipCar, a company whose impact depends not on greener cars, but on greener behavior of drivers and more efficient use of resources.

For designers, the Accord brings new layers and constraints to the user-centered approach most of them employ today. "It will be another set of inputs," adds IDEO's Brown. "But we've found that sustainability is highly complementary to our human-centered innovation process." He says it also encourages designers to look beyond the artifact and consider the larger system.

Casey points to the example of a toothbrush that IDEO designed for Oral-B several years ago. "They were very successful measured by the metrics that were paramount at the time—marketplace performance and human-centered design. A+ all around," she says. But the co-molded plastic handles that scored high points for ergonomics don't look so good in terms of materials usage, not to mention all those disposable toothbrushes that end up in landfills.

Redesigning Behavior

How might IDEO approach the project now? "We would probably not look at the toothbrush form factor, but consider redesigning the entire hygiene ritual or bathroom experience," says Casey. "So we'd consider the negative effect of disposable products and the water wasted. We might focus on motivating people to turn off the tap while they're brushing. What if a simple water monitor was in place in all bathroom redesigns—a reader attached to the standard low-flow valve that brushers could "game" against their previous usage or against their partner. If you were to focus on the product itself, I can imagine a toothbrush with disposable heads. Or maybe a toothbrush with an onboard irrigator that would distribute just-in-time hydration through squeezing. At the very basic level, we could consider material alternatives and manufacturing processes. And packaging!"

As Casey freely admits, not every client is going to be open to a radical rethinking of their business. The Oral-B product line manager probably just wants to get a new toothbrush to market pronto. But when design consultancies are brought in by C-level executives to focus on strategic innovation, there is more opportunity to think beyond the product in ways that lead to new business models.

While this more eco-driven approach is significant, it's the second part of the accord that promises to have the biggest impact—on the studios, their clients, and ultimately consumers. Signers of the accord promise to break the traditional secrecy of the industry by sharing what they've learned about sustainable design. "By pooling our resources, this should mitigate the investment" that each firm would need to make in sustainability research and training, says Casey, who says that as a student at Yale she was influenced by research done by her professor Barry Nalebuff into "co-opetition."

Protecting Client Intellectual Property

"This is significant because knowledge remains the biggest obstacle to sustainable design," says Ric Grefe, executive director of the AIGA. "A couple of years ago I might have said that the clients just weren't ready to talk about sustainability. But that's changed dramatically. The challenge now is what happens during any paradigm shift: You need to make this quantum leap in the knowledge base."