Jasper Startup, February 2007 In recent years many strategies for implementing sustainable design have been proposed. The process of applying and testing these strategies has been slow as they fundamentally challenge many aspects of industrial production, consumer culture and social structure. Many businesses have been slow to adopt new ways of working, as have individuals, who seem reluctant to adapt their behaviour. However, the economics of the issue have shifted, and companies are seeing the commercial advantage of sustainable design and how it can gain an advantage for them in the marketplace. The most significant strategy for consumer products is to reduce their consumption, as this reduces waste and negates the need to solve the problems of reusing or recycling products. Product strategies for reducing consumption focus on designing products that last either through being adaptable/upgradeable or by creating perceived value as a quality for the consumer, creating an emotional connection. In a sense designers are being asked to tempt us while easing the guilty conscience of some people created from our unnecessary consumption. There is a fundamental contradiction here but consuming more sustainable products and less unsustainable products is an important step in the right direction. It does not challenge our need to consume but it may buy some time in which to adapt our needs. A world without desire, aspiration or dreams is not an attractive prospect, and material things are intrinsic to these emotions. Ultimately we need to dematerialize our objects of affection, this however will be a long process. This raises the question of how do we make the disposable irreplaceable? (few people throw away their favourite spoon). Or the fashionable impervious to fashion? (no brand is a brand). If less is more, material is being asked to engender a nonmaterial set of values. Fundamentally a new approach to the specification and use of materials is needed, one which prioritizes basic needs rather than aesthetics, cost or fitness for purpose. Eventually virgin plastic will only be used for the manufacture of such things as medical equipment and high- end engineering applications. As materials are on the whole finite, recycling is inevitable. Cradle to cradle strategies for the use of materials will drive the paradigm of industrial production. If we look at the design of mass-market electrical goods the manufacturing model is of continuous replacement through obsolescence. If better and faster are always the objective a lot will be left behind, possibly to be revalued for it’s retro identity but more likely to add to the mountain of waste. As electrical products are expensive and complex to recycle it has to be better not to make the waste in the first place. The challenge for product design is to develop a visual identity for a new paradigm of industrial production. This paradigm being about constant upgrading and part replacement in a product. Repair, service and adaptation being a principal part of a manufacturers service. In affect a lasting partnership between manufacturer and user. http://www.startupdesign.co.uk/