Students' Frequently Asked Questions

Obviously, you are all keen now and want to do a placement or get a job with a design firm that will let you do this type of stuff.

The bad news is that there are only two sustainable design consultancies per se:

O2 France based in Paris

McDonough Braungart Design Chemistry based in Virginia, USA

Most mainstream design firms have an idea about SD, but no-one formally employed to look at it. You might try approaching them with an offer to set up a sustainable design unit for them and then if it works, hiring you permanently. This really is the most likely route for you.

Another route is to approach firms known for both design and sustainability and find out about doing a similar thing there. For example, these firms have someone who is a sustainable design coordinator:

nokia
philips
nike
electrolux
ikea

and many other firms may need one sooner than they think ...

These roles are more about being the glue and the coordination of these issues, rather than actually doing much design.

My viewpoint is that facilitation and communication and educator skills are what's needed here -- give any designer a good brief and some data backup re: legislation, disassembly etc. and they will come up with good solutions. What's missing right now are people who can create the context for that sort of work to happen -- this means convincing marketing and finance departments that SD is the way to go.

If you want to change the world, then consider this type of approach of influencing and educationg and facilitating other designers. If you just want to design a few sustainable products, then there aren't many people to do it for -- other than your own business.

Good luck!