Reported by Debbie Deland, President of Net Impact Orlando
‘The Designers Accord’ is a creative approach to accelerating sustainability and a role model for other job disciplines or industries. So what is ‘The Designers Accord’? It asks designers worldwide (new product developers, architects, interior designers) to commit to 5 sustainability principles for themselves and their businesses. It is about addressing sustainability on every project with every client. Designing sustainability into a new building, a new product/service, etc. is the best way to achieve sustainable results.
Designing sustainability into a project could include (very much the approach defined in “Cradle to Cradle” :
- Assessment, recommendation, and selection of renewable resources used to create the end product and/or ends up being in the end product, e.g., new building, new product/service
- Minimizes the water and energy used to create the end product and to operate the end product with a focus to use renewable energy whenever possible
- Zero Waste approach during the development and testing, and for the life of the product including:
- Easy disassembly
- Easy sorting
- Recyclable, refurbishable, biodegradable end of useful life handling
- End product provides and is supported to provide high energy efficiency (preferably 100% renewable energy) and high water conservation in life cycle operation.
- Assures that fair labor practices are adhered to by all suppliers in development and then provision of the new product or service.
- Etc.
Since its inception in 2007, ‘The Designers Accord’ is already over 100,000 commitment strong with significant corporate backing and commitment. It is important to note that there were two other reasons (and probably more) for initiating ‘The Designers Accord’, in addition to accelerating world sustainability progress, i.e., to level the playing field and to inspire and support broad collaboration.
Designers proposing and urging sustainable solutions could be disadvantaged in the market by those with no focus on sustainability. The idea is to create peer pressure and customer power that if you or your firm has not made sustainability commitments, then you are not a reputable designer or design firm. In the past, designers worked sustainability, if and only if their client asked for a green building or solution. ‘The Designers Accord’ turns that on its ear by requiring designers to take the responsibility to propose sustainable solutions and urge their acceptance whether the client wants to build a green building or not, for example.
As a very new non-profit, they are now working on developing their infrastructure and a way to make broad collaboration possible. We are on such a learning curve on sustainability that this collaboration is critical to getting the best of what we know and have proven in relation to sustainability to the forefront as quickly as possible.
Even with moderate success, ‘The Designers Accord’ will make a significant contribution to future sustainability, perhaps as much as public policy, which may take forever to get at the scale we need it. I wonder what other job disciplines could follow ‘The Designers Accord’ lead. My vote would be for at least Project Managers worldwide to establish ‘The Project Managers Accord’. It would have as much or more impact as ‘The Designers Accord’ due to their job function, their leadership and professional skills, the sheer number of them, their involvement in all kinds of projects, and being involved in projects from inception to close or hand-off to operation.
‘The Designers Accord’ description and principles per their Web site (www.thedesignersaccord.org) are:
“The Designers Accord is a global coalition of designers, educators, and corporate leaders, working together to create positive environmental and social impact.
The Designers Accord is made up of over 170,000 members of the creative community, representing 100 countries, and each design discipline. Adopters of the Designers Accord commit to five guidelines that provide collective and individual ways to take action. Becoming a member of the Designers Accord provides access to a community of peers that shares methodologies, resources, and experiences around environmental and social issues in design.
Our mission is to catalyze innovation throughout the creative community by collectively building our intelligence around issues of climate change and humanity, and tackling those challenges with optimism and creativity.
The unifying philosophy of the Designers Accord is open source. We advocate inverting the traditional model of competition, and encourage sharing best practices so we can innovate more efficiently and quickly.
- We ask all adopters to engage in conversation about social and environmental impact with every client and customer, and integrate sustainable alternatives in their work.
- We will create a real-world and online network to enable conversation about opportunities and challenges in creating sustainable products, services, and businesses.
Adopters agree to carry out 5 Guidelines:
- Publicly declare participation in the Designers Accord.
- Initiate a dialogue about environmental and social impact and sustainable alternatives with each and every client. Rework client contracts to favor environmentally and socially responsible design and work processes. Provide strategic and material alternatives for sustainable design.
- Undertake a program to educate your teams about sustainability and sustainable design.
- Consider your ethical footprint. Begin by measuring the carbon/greenhouse gas footprint of your firm, and pledge to reduce your footprint annually.
- Advance the understanding of environmental and social issues from a design perspective by actively contributing to the communal knowledge base for sustainable design.”
Debbie Deland, PMP, Six Sigma Black Belt
Sustainability Expert, Systems Thinking Practitioner
President, Greater Orlando Net Impact Professional Chapter
Green Leader Panel Member
Tags: Sustainability, Sustainable Design, The Designers Accord
