How do you ensure your designs are sustainable and resilient?

1 Define your goals and criteria

Before you start designing, you need to have a clear vision of what you want to achieve and how you will measure your success. Define your goals and criteria based on the needs and expectations of your stakeholders, the context and constraints of your project, and the principles and values of sustainable design. For example, you might want to consider the social, environmental, and economic aspects of your design, as well as its functionality, aesthetics, and durability.

2 Use a design framework

A design framework can help you structure and guide your design process and ensure that you consider all the relevant factors and perspectives. There are many design frameworks that incorporate sustainability and resilience, such as the circular design framework, the biomimicry design framework, or the regenerative design framework. Choose a framework that suits your project and apply its methods and tools to explore, ideate, prototype, test, and iterate your design.

3 Evaluate your design

Evaluating your design is a crucial step to assess its performance and impact, as well as to identify areas for improvement. You can use various methods and tools to evaluate your design, such as life cycle assessment, carbon footprint analysis, social return on investment, or resilience indicators. These methods and tools can help you quantify and compare the environmental, social, and economic benefits and costs of your design, as well as its ability to adapt and recover from disruptions.

4 Communicate your design

Communicating your design is important to share your vision and value proposition, as well as to solicit feedback and collaboration. You can use different formats and channels to communicate your design, such as reports, presentations, infographics, videos, or websites. Make sure you use clear and compelling language and visuals, and highlight the sustainability and resilience aspects of your design. For example, you can use stories, testimonials, or case studies to illustrate how your design solves a problem, meets a need, or creates a positive change.

5 Learn and improve

Sustainable and resilient design is not a one-time event, but a continuous process of learning and improvement. You need to monitor and review your design regularly, and be ready to adapt and evolve it according to changing needs, expectations, and conditions. You can use feedback loops, surveys, analytics, or audits to collect and analyze data and insights on your design performance and impact, and use them to inform your future decisions and actions.

6 Here’s what else to consider

This is a space to share examples, stories, or insights that don’t fit into any of the previous sections. What else would you like to add?