Organisational requirements for achieving Environmentally Conscious Design

Abstract

This paper presents a model representing the requirements for achieving Environmentally Conscious Design, describing the different stages that organisations pass through, from minimum to maximum achievement. Research has found that when basing work purely on design theory it is easy to become channelled into thinking that the optimum representation of theenvironmentallyconscious design process must be represented in the form of another classical design model, with inputs and outputs acting at various stages of the design process. However from detailed study into two organisations and interview of up to twenty other organisations, it has been found that the actual `doing’ of environmentally conscious design is just a small, albeit important part of a larger framework of motivators and actuators of Environmentally Conscious Design (ECD). This has formed the basis of a survey in the electrical/electronics industry sector which illustrates the different approaches and successes in achieving ECD. By analysing the comments and experiences of designers and design teams involved in environmentally conscious design it is has been possible to construct a framework of factors affecting ECD. This framework has facilitated the development of a model illustrating the way in which organisations need to change if they are to achieve optimum ECD.