A New Model for Green Design

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Casey envisions an open Web platform where signers of the accord can share information and best practices. Because of the nature of industrial design and the need to protect the intellectual property of clients during the design phase and to some extent even after a product launch, the platform will be less like Linux or other open-source software projects in which all of the code is public and more like an archive of sustainability case studies covering everything from materials sourcing and effective life-cycle analysis methods to issues such as how the firm started the sustainability conversation with its client and what learnings it was able to transfer to other projects. "We are talking about sharing high-level learnings about methodology and process, much as the management consulting industry does," says Ideo's Brown.

"We can share what we discover in a general sense without needing to divulge specifics of client work," adds Grant Kristofek, a sustainability champion at Continuum. Kristofek is aware that his firm's involvement with the accord could alienate some clients who aren't open to discussions of green design, but says that signing was an easy decision. "It's the right thing to do. It makes good business sense. And green design is better design," he says.

A Bottom-Up Approach in the U.S.

It should be noted that the accord isn't binding, so it's relatively easy for companies to sign. There's nothing to stop a firm from formally adopting the accord but failing to live up to its principles. And a client could hire the design company without wanting to hear its sustainable rhetoric.

That said, if successful, the Designers Accord will catalyze the sustainable design movement in the U.S., which, while clearly gaining momentum, still lags behind that of Europe, where stricter government regulations have required companies to focus on environmental issues for some time. But ultimately, the bottom-up movement taking shape in the U.S. may lead to more innovative solutions than Europe's top-down approach, which encourages designers and engineers to focus on meeting specific requirements rather than considering new and different ways of doing things. The kind of change the accord hopes to spark is rarely brought on by regulation. It spreads through communities of people passionate about an idea answering a call to arms.

Jessie Scanlon is the senior writer for Innovation & Design on BusinessWeek.com.