Designing for people, planet and prosperity

A new report from the High Value Manufacturing Catapult has called for an innovative approach to product design that thoroughly integrates the three pillars of sustainability: planet, people, and profit.

Sustainable by design examines key concepts for the development and piloting of a design framework that can bring a new generation of sustainable materials, products, and services to market.

The report maps out a Design for Sustainability and Circularity Framework, driven by a cultural shift to view industrial systems as embedded in the Earth System – the physical, chemical, biological, and natural processes that regulate the state of Earth, including its atmosphere, hydrosphere, biosphere, and geosphere.

In the report foreword, Professor Christopher Dungey, Chief Technology Officer at HVM Catapult, says sustainability must be placed at the heart of decision making.

He said: “We require a system that encourages the adoption of green products and services, and regulations that promote and prioritise corporate social responsibility. By aligning market incentives with sustainable practices, it is possible to create a way forward that supports both prosperity and planetary health.

“Sustainable by design is right that design is a key tool, and thorough reflection and consideration of the framework will enable significantly better through-life sustainability decision making; but it must be powered by a mindset shift driven by businesses, shareholders, investors, and customers.”

We require a system that encourages the adoption of green products and services, and regulations that promote and prioritise corporate social responsibility.

The 2025 Paris Agreement set a global warming threshold to limit the average surface temperature of the Earth to 1.5°C above pre-industrial levels. However, global temperature rise is expected to overshoot 1.5°C well before 2035 at current rates of progress and be close to 3°C by 2100.

In 2009, the Planetary Boundaries Framework defined the environmental limits beyond which human activities could lead to irreversible and abrupt environmental changes, identifying that six of the nine boundaries have been transgressed. In manufacturing, 80% of the environmental and social impacts of new materials, products and supply chains are locked in by decisions made during the design phase.

The Sustainable by design report says that knowledge of the nine planetary boundaries must be incorporated into the design phase which will open the door to designing materials, products, supply chains and business models that operate within the Earth’s ecological ceiling.

The five key concepts for framework are:

1. Ecological ceiling derived from the Planetary Boundaries Framework
2. Social foundations derived from the Sustainable Development Goals
3. Circular economy principles to enable regenerative supply chains
4. Human centred design to ensure value creation, adoption, use and impact
5. Techno-economic analysis based on all three pillars of sustainability.

Read and download the Sustainable by design report, here.