Design for a Sustainable World

"Current economic models are based on a consumption of resources that will quickly destroy the ecosystems on which services we depend. We must now design circularity in everything we do," demands Prof. Dr. Christa Liedtke, jury member of the German Sustainability Award and Director of the Sustainable Production and Consumption Division at the Wuppertal Institute. Since the industrial revolution, global consumption of resources has increased immensely. There is currently no end in sight. Only a fraction of the resources we use are reused or recycled. Instead, plastic ends up in the ocean, greenhouse gases are released into the atmosphere and fertilisers or municipal waste seep into the soil.

In order to preserve ecosystems, stop global warming and share prosperity with as many people as possible, Christa Liedtke calls for a rethinking the way we design products and services. To do this, the design has to be changed, such as:

• for resource efficiency, producing more with less resources,
• towards circularity to promote the multiple use of high-quality products and materials,
• for social change and equality, promotion of an environmentally friendly, fair and moderate consumption

The complete article "Design for sustainability" by Prof. Dr. Christa Liedtke can be found in English on the website of the United Nations Association of Great Britain and Northern Ireland (UNA-UK) in the following link.