Putting Eco-Effectiveness into

Practice

mLAND, S.L.N.E.

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 Five Steps to Eco-Effectiveness

As Albert Einstein observed, if we are to

solve the problems that plague us, our
thinking must evolve beyond the level we
were using when we created those problems
in the first place.

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 Step 1. Get “free of” known culprits

 Beginning to turn away from substances that are widely

recognized as harmful.
 They include such materials as PVC, cadmium, lead and
mercury.
 The decision create products free of harmful substances is in
the designer`s head instead of on the ends of pipes.

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 Step 2. Follow informed personal
preferences

 Find the right things to put together.

 The truth is, we are standing in the middle of an enormous
marketplace filled with ingredients that are largely undefined:
we know little about what they are made of, and how.
 Prefer ecological intelligence. Avoid substances and practices
that are harmful to human and environment health.
 Prefer respect. For those who make the product, for the
communities near where it is made, for those who handle and
transport it, and ultimately for the customer.
 Prefer delight, celebration, and fun. It`s important for
ecologically intelligent products to be at the forefront of human
expression.

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 Step 3. Creating a “passive positive”
list

 The X list. Those that are tetarogenic, mutagenic, carcinogenic,

or otherwise harmful in direct and obvious ways to human and
ecological health.
 The gray list. Problematic substances that are essential for
manufacture, and for which we currently have no viable
substitutes.
 The P list. It includes substances actively defined as healthy
and safe for use, but they aren`t.
 We are simply analyzing or ingredients and making
subsitutions where possible.
 Everyday product used widely in manufacturing has 138 known
or suspected hazardous ingredients. It may stimulate the
development of a new product line that will avoid the problems
associated with the old product.
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 Step 4. Activate the positive list.

 Here`s where redesign begins in earnest, where we stop tryin

to be less bad and start figuring out how to be good.
 In culinary terms, you`re no longer substituting ingredients-
you`ve thrown the recipe out the window and are starting from
scratch, with a basketful of tasty, nutritious ingredients that
you`d love to cook with, and that give you all sorts of
mouthwatering ideas.

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 Step 5. Reinvent.

 Now we are doing more than designing for biological and

technical cycles. We are recasting the design assignment: not
“design a car” but “design a ‘nutrivehicle’”
 Push the design assignment further: “Design a new
transportation infraestructure.” In other words, don`t just
reinvent the recipe, rethink the menu.
 Sound fanciful? Of course. But remenber, the car itself was a
fanciful notion in a world of horse and carriage.

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 Conclusions

 This final step has no absolute end point, and the results may
be an entirely different kind of product than the one you began
to work on.
 It will be an evolution of the product in the sense taht it
addresses the limitations you became aware of as you moved
through the previous steps.
 We begin by applying the active positive list to existing things,
then to things taht are only beginning to be imagined, or have
not yet been conceived. When we optimize, we open our
imaginations to radically new posibilities.
 We ask: What is the customer`s need, how is the culture
evolving, and how can these purposes be met by appealing
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 Five Guiding Principles
There are some things design innnovators and business
leaders can do to help steer the transition at every stage and
improve the odds of success:
 Signal your intention. Commit to a new paradigm, rather than to
an incremental improvemet of the old.
 Restore. Strive for “good growth”, not just economic growth.
 Be ready to innovate further. It is time to keep making what you
are making? Or it is time to create a new niche?
 Understand and prepare for the learning curve. The ability to
adapt and innovate requires a “loose fit”-rom for growing in a
new way.
 Exert intergenerational responsibility. Imagine what a world of
9 prosperity and health in the future will look like, and begin
designing for it right now.
 Encuesta Infonomia sobre ecodiseño

 Más del 40% de las organizaciones aseguran

incorporar criterios ambientales en el diseño de sus
productos, procesos y/o servicios.
 Aparecen nuevos departamentos en las
organizaciones potencialmente asociados al
ecodiseño: diseño, innovación y medio ambiente.
 Las razones principales para no aplicar criterios
sostenibles en las organizaciones van en relación
con la falta de estrategias ambientales o de
ecodiseño.

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 Oportunidad de negocio: “Servicios de
Eco-Effectiveness ”

 Desarrollo de producto eco-

 Desarrollo de estrategia medioambiental.
 Reconceptualizar el diseño.
 Búsqueda de ventajas competitivas.
 Reducción de consumo de materiales.
 Desarrollo de nuevos conceptos
 Optimización del final de vida

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