A green product landscape

Successful product designs traditionally are a marriage of function with a pleasing style or character, but in the past two decades or so a third element has occupied the minds of responsible designers: the environmental sustainability of a finished product design.
After all, if one of a product designer’s loftier goals is making the world a better place, he or she would not be happy with a product design that was in any way harmful to the environment. There are many examples of top designers creating products with eco-friendliness as a high priority.
Veteran Italian product designers Alberto Meda and Paolo Rizzatto, for example, had the environment in mind when designing the new Otto Watt task light for leading lighting company Luceplan.
The new Otto Watt (“eight watt” in Italian) light uses a new generation low power consumption LED (light emitting diode) bulb that is equal to the brightness of a 35 watt halogen bulb. The task lamp is an all-aluminum construction that is easily recyclable at its end of use. The Otto Watt diffuser is a ribbed design that dissipates heat to extend the life of the LED and also reduce the burn risk to a user.
Energy-efficient LED lighting is also put to good use in a modern Italian lighting classic. The Tolomeo family of lighting, introduced in 1986 by the manufacturer Artemide, now includes a desktop task light featuring an LED light source.
The original Tolomeo, designed by Michele De Lucchi and Giancarlo Fassina, is a past winner of the prestigious Compasso d’Oro Italian design prize. The new sustainably designed Tolomeo task lamp is available in both a regular 50 inch height, as well as a smaller 40 inch version. The aluminum lamp is also available in black, white, or polished aluminum finishes.
Toronto-based office furniture specialist Teknion teamed with New York designer Carl Gustav Magnusson in 2010 and the collaboration resulted in the award-winning Conflux LED lamp, available in desk, task, floor, and under cabinet models.
The new Conflux lamp produces a warm, natural light and the design includes passive infrared technology to control energy-saving shutdowns when not in use. The Teknion product is also the first LED lamp with a USB port. The Conflux features a slender, anodized aluminum design.
Work chair designs were one of the first furniture categories to feature environmental sustainability. A recent example is the Diffrient World task chair, a 99 per cent recyclable design made by New York office furniture company Humanscale.
The American task chair is made of one third recycled content and fewer parts overall for a reduced carbon footprint. Designed by the respected Niels Diffrient, the eco-friendly chair is also friendly to users with a supportive mesh seat and back and intuitive adjustments.
Another sustainably designed office chair is Herman Miller’s Mirra chair, a German studio design that meets independent guidelines for safe indoor air quality certification and has also been endorsed by leading American “green” architect William McDonough.
The American-made work chair is manufactured with green energy sources and Mirra’s distinctive moulded polymer back can be recycled up to 25 times.
Closer to home, furniture design brothers Jason and Lars Dressler focus exclusively on limited run, eco-friendly furniture sourced from salvaged materials. The Brothers Dressler’s recent School chair, for example, resulted from a find in a local second-hand shop. The brothers refurbished used school assembly chairs by re-upholstering seats with recycled fabrics and by also reinforcing the original tubular steel legs with recycled wood braces.
From small scale projects by the Brothers Dressler to major product releases by internationally renowned manufacturers, sustainable designs have become a priority to many and a benefit to all.