Sustainable Furniture Design

The Green Festival showcasing sustainable furniture design

1. Design to satisfy real needs as opposed to transient, fashionable or market-driven needs.
- Not only are these eco-friendly products attractive and contemporary, but they have been designed in such a way that they have a reduced Carbon Footprint and therefore a lesser affect on the environment, using local manufacturers and assemblers and cutting down on many resources coming into transport of the materials, and in the products themselves.

2. Design to minimise the ecological footprint of the product/material/service product, i.e. reduce resource consumption, including energy and water.
- These furniture designs reduce resource consumption as they reducing deforestation, and using recyclable materials such as household plastic milk jugs (Melt Jugs) and stainless steel. Stainless steel itself is an ideal material to use (particularly in kitchenware) as it is 100% recyclable, sustainable, non-rusting, healthy and hygienic. Especially replanted (by the company) Teak wood is also ideal to use as it of "heirloom quality" and lasts 10-20 years and also has no affect on the rainforest ecosystem.

3. Design to harness solar income (sun, wind, water or sea power) rather than use non
renewable nature capital such as fossil fuels.

4. Design to enable the separation of components of the product/material or service product at the end of life in order to encourage recycling or reuse of materials and/or components.
- As this furniture is made up of environmentally friendly materials, once the product has reached the end of its life, the components can be broken down into individual parts (Teak wood, recyclable plastics and stainless steel) and reused again for other products - therefore encouraging recycling in its consumers.

5. Design to exclude the use of substances toxic or hazardous to human and other forms of life at all stages of the product/material/service product's lifecycle.
- The only materials involved the creating of these products are eco-friendly - all durable, recycled and sustainable, using only particular variations of wood (for example, especially replanted young Teak wood which has not been taken from the rainforest ecosystem) and specific metals and plastics (stainless steel and recyclable plastic)

6. Design to engender maximum benefits to the intended audience and to educate the client and the user and thereby create a more equable future.
- These items of furniture (household and garden chairs, kitchen suits, drawers, cupboards etc) not only come with so many benefits, but they also come with so much information as to how they do benefit consumers. How every material involved in manufacture not only doesn't negatively affect environments such as the rainforests, but if anything, helps rebuild and put a stopper in Carbon use by reducing their own Carbon Footprint and encouraging their consumers to do the same.
One particular stand at the Green Festival showcasing furniture was a Fair-Trade brand, where all the producers, woodworkers and artisans are well-paid and well looked after - again - encouraging consumers to purchase these products and do their part for a low Carbon-using community and world, and also encouraging the public 'ideal' of a smaller Carbon Footprint but not on the quality of the end product.

7. Design to use locally available materials and resources wherever possible (thinking
globally but acting locally).
- These companies showcasing at the Green Festival not only have the idea, but have put the work in. After research in location, it has become apparent that the key is that more local your manufacturers and assemblers are to your company, the better. As you are using less Carbon emissions in transport of your materials (in many companies cases, materials are being shipped from country to country). The tighter the company's business is, the smaller the Carbon Footprint.

8. Design to exclude innovation lethargy by re-examining original assumptions behind existing concepts and products/materials/service products
- The existing concept of greener products is that although it benefits the environment, consumers lose out on quality of the end product. This does not have to be the case, as the companies showcasing at the Green Festival have put in an admirable amount of work in location research, sustainability, recyclable products and design to ensure that not only are the end products of good quality and durable, but are also attractive to a consumer.

9. Design to dematerialise products into services wherever feasible.

10. Design to maximise a product/material/service product's benefits to communities.
- Recycling is always a benefit to communities, and having these furniture products available to consumers can only encourage further recycling in households of simple materials such as paper, cardboard, plastic and metals to create other products akin to these ones in particular.

11. Design to encourage modularity in design to permit sequential purchases, as needs require and funds permit, to facilitate repair/reuse and to improve functionality.

12. Design to foster debate and challenge the status quo surrounding existing
products/materials/ service products.

13. Publish eco-pluralistic designs in the public domain for everyone's benefit, especially those designs that commerce will not manufacture.
- The ideas behind these sustainable and durable products is a transferable concept that can be applied to any area of design in respect to value engineered system/materials, maintenance of products, quality, sustainability, recyclable, and healthy and hygienic material choices.

14. Design to create more sustainable products/materials/service products for a more
sustainable future.
- As previously mentioned, having a eco-friendly end product made in such a way that it has the smallest possible Carbon Footprint in terms of transport, manufacture and production, yet still remains high-quality, is encouragement enough for consumers to follow suit and do what they can to keep the cycle going - to recycle household materials in order to create contemporary, durable furniture; and hopefully do their part to keep their own personal Carbon Footprint down to a minimum.