Systemic Design: Beyond Ecodesign

The rapid evolution of the worldwide scenario, the climate change, biodiversity loss, resources depletion and rapid technological and social development call for radical changes. Anthropogenic pressures on the Earth System have reached a scale where an urgent change of route is inescapable. Despite the actual environmental, economic and social crisis calls humanity for radical changes to ensure the survival of the mankind, there are new prospects that encourage “designers" to rethink the entire socio-productive system in a sustainable manner. Therefore the main criteria for the development of eco-efficient products deal with the reduction of inputs such as material consumption and energy, the reduction of toxic and/or harmful resources, the use of biocompatible and local renewable resources, the product life optimisation by means of easy updating and maintenance procedures, a reduced semantic and functional obsolescence, the life extension of materials and the strengthening of the use phase of products. Despite the “eco-friendly” products and services, use far less energy and materials than those of some decades ago, the overall consumption of environmental resources continues to increase. This tells us clearly that even if the existent improvements are increasing, they are not enough: the translation towards sustainability requires a systemic change. It is not a question of doing what we already do better, but of doing different things in innovative and different ways going beyond the mere eco-efficiency. We need to regain the cultural knowledge and experience that allows us to define and design production flows that can traverse different systems in a continuous process that decreases the ecological footprint of products while increasing income throughout the economy. The function of designers consists in trying to re-balance the relation between production, environment and society and in making an effort to start some interventions which maintain the balance of this mutual bond, making it better through a constant multi-disciplinary dialogue.