What do companies mean when they create eco-friendly products? There’s a big difference between making small changes to a product, and then marketing it as green, and creating truly sustainable offerings.
Poland Spring’s Eco-Shaped bottle uses less plastic than any other water bottle. But the packaging is still plastic, and bottled water is a product that still produces excessive amounts of waste. So ultimately, this effort by Poland Spring rides the line of greenwashing.
True sustainable design is a product, manufacturing proccess, or business model, that creates minimal waste — whatever it produces for consumption, it takes back and reuses.
Sustainability = business and industry that mimics the cycle of life.
Some are calling this the next industrial revolution . Rather than the cradle to grave processes that dominated the 20th century, where corporations viewed nature as a limitless resource, cradle to cradle design requires a complete rethinking.
Tomorrow’s businesses will be based on timeless models like photosynthesis and the carbon cycle…
You have to consider, however, that we can only influence not change people’s behaviors. And there are conditions for which bottled water is the best design solution.
Total Experience Design considers a wide variety of scenarios and conditions, not just the ‘ultimate’ ones. :)
Paula, tx for the comment — as always, so glad you’re reading. Interesting you mentioned people’s behaviors with bottled water. It’s possible that as the whole “green” trend grows, consumers will crave products that are sustainable. And maybe they’ll buy more brita filters than poland spring? What will Poland do then?
They’ll need to develop alternate business and service models. Like maybe they’ll get into the water filtration business. They already do home delivery… what opportunities are there around that area? As you point out — this is a complex situation. Some companies will struggle.
[...] processes as cyclical. User research feeds design prototyping, which feeds user research. And with sustainable design, cradle to cradle creation is all about industry that mimics the cycle of life — a cyclical, universal [...]
[...] annoyingdesign.org Tags: bottled water, Businessweek, greenwash, Kim Jeffery, LinkedIn, Nestle, Poland Spring, [...]
This is a good thread and I’d like to add that weather we like it or not the way to influence people’s behaviors is through the economy and marketing. This is something, as a designer, I have struggled with but am beginning to see the value in. When people are presented with compelling opportunities, which, after all, is what we have before us, they are likely to invest. If such proposals contain the triple bottom line (people, planet, profit) than all win. If true cradle to cradle design merges with effective marketing, education and financial backing then our culture will make necessary shifts.
Josh, couldn’t say it better myself. Thanks for the comment. An ROI that shows the business case for green, and really great branding…. Terracycle is my favorite example: http://ecopreneurist.com/2008/08/21/how-to-recycle-the-unrecyclable-terracycle-shows-the-way/