In recent years, the design industry has been facing a great challenge – to make itself more sustainable from both an ecological and economic standpoint. The manufacturing of materials is generally a lengthy and complicated process. Waste products such as packaging are manufactured with recyclability in mind yet they often fail in practical use due to the demanding, time-poor lifestyles many families now live. Household chores have got to be easy! If it’s too hard, we simply don’t take the most sustainable approach even though our best intentions are to take care of the environment.
Sustainability isn’t just about the waste and landfill issues either. The manufacturing industry in many cases use highly concentrated chemicals, huge amounts of water, lengthy processing requirements, and high temperatures. As a result, there’s lots of waste and high consumption of energy. These chemicals can also have a detrimental effect on our health. For example building materials such as carpets can contain Volatile Organic Compounds (VOC’s) which effects those that suffer from allergies or asthma.
Switching to a healthier, more sustainable world requires minimizing the negative impacts on the environment and community. It also involves production processes, which decrease the amounts of water used, eliminates harmful chemicals, and reduce carbon emissions.
Scientific teams have been working on discovering and deploying models and mechanisms found in nature to design new processes, production systems, products, and materials.
Following are six interesting ways research teams are reinventing sustainability by design.
3D Printed Homes
Printing your home instead of building traditionally. 3D printing has revolutionized the design industry. It has been a powerful tool for producing prototypes and conceptual works so designers could refine their designs. The capabilities of 3D printing has expanded rapidly and it now means entire homes can be printed. 3D printed homes have been proven to be a less taxing method on our environment. They are produced faster so energy consumption is down. They are more durable so they require less maintenance. They are more accurate so energy efficiency within the home is high. They produce far less waste and even cost less than conventional building techniques.
New Types of Leather
Leather made from fungi. MycoWorks, a company based in San Francisco, has been working on manufacturing leather from fungi. The process involves custom engineering of mycelium (the vegetative part of a fungus) in laboratory conditions with a carbon-negative process. Fungi can grow fast and are very simple to cultivate. They can also be engineered to adopt leather-like properties.
Leather made from collagen. A number of companies have been taking advantage of the benefits of synthetic biology. New York based Modern Meadow has used it to create a bio alternative to leather and named it Zoa. The material is made from collagen, which is also the principal component in genuine leather. The difference is Zoa is manufactured in a laboratory from yeast-derived collagen. The production of this material eliminates the highly-detrimental impact on the environment: it doesn’t require raising cows or tanning their hides using highly-toxic procedures.
Using Enzymes
Enzymes are catalysts found in the cells of all living organisms. Industry has been using enzymes since the early 1990s to produce various materials deploying much simpler and not so invasive processes, which decrease the water and energy consumption. These processes also reduce the use of chemicals and generate less waste.
Two groups of enzymes are commonly used in the fashion sector: cellulases and laccases to produce stonewashed denim fabrics and clothes. Before, the stonewashed effect was created by pumice stones which caused big damage to both machines and fibres.
Today, enzymes are used to synthesise dyes using ambient processing conditions, like lower temperature and atmospheric pressure. This allows creating a number of different colours by slightly altering the processing conditions and eliminating the use of pre-manufactured fabric dyes.
Living Plants and Animal Waste
Materials made from manure. In sustainable design, nothing is regarded as waste. Inspidere, a company based in the Netherlands, is using a method named Mestic, which utilises cow manure to manufacture cellulose acetate and viscose. The cow manure is processed in laboratory conditions to extract cellulose, which is then further processed to obtain cellulose acetate and viscose, two materials that can be turned into materials useful for the manufacturing industry.
Materials made of grass. Diana Scherer is an artist who created the project Interwoven, which explores the production of fabrics using living plants. She has invented a process which manipulates wheat and oat roots to grow textile materials very similar to lace. The artist buries templates in the soil to manipulates and channel the root system of the plant. The result –intricate structures made with delicate motifs and geometrics when the template is removed from the soil. Experimental techniques like this may lead to the next wave of reinvention so we can all live more sustainable lives by design.
