Sustainable Design Practices

This furniture isn't made with wood, but something you wouldn't expect! And it’s helping to fight deforestation! Indowud from India, have found a way to make everything from doors, decking and furniture using rice! Rice husks, the outer shell left behind after rice is harvested, are turned into strong, versatile boards that are waterproof, flame-resistant, and 100% recyclable. Helping reuse agricultural waste and prevent trees being cut down for wood. First the rice husks are dried and ground into a powder. Natural resins are added, then the mix is heated and pressed into shape. Resulting in a strong moldable material, that can be cut and shaped, just like wood! It’s designed to replace materials like MDF and plywood, which are often full of toxic resins and can't be recycled. Indowud even have a buy-back program to recycle old boards into new ones, creating a more circular system. Would you use furniture made from rice?

🌱 Sustainable UX Toolkits & Resources (https://lnkd.in/eT6ZR3qz), a large (!) repository of toolkits, Figma templates, books, case studies, articles on sustainable UX — throughout the entire product design process. Kindly put together by the SUX - The Sustainable UX Network, via Thorsten Jonas. Sustainable UX Database (Notion) https://lnkd.in/eyZjigBx As designers, we often are left wondering how to integrate sustainable practices into our design work. Most environmental impact happens on our user’s devices, so we can help our users by reducing waste. Typically, when we speak about sustainability, we mean at least 4 facets of it: 🌱 Reducing waste ← In publishing, heavy visuals, animation, PDFs, 🌻 Deleting content ← Un-publishing outdated, misleading content/flows, 🐝 Maximize reusability ← UI components, flows, processes, templates, 🌳 Sustainable defaults ← Help people make more sustainable choices. In practice, we could use simple but impactful design patterns: 1. Always prefer the lightest mode of communication. 2. Aim to reduce session duration instead of increasing it. 3. Encourage the reuse of existing templates and presets. 4. Auto-delete after 365 days what hasn’t been used once. 5. Discourage users from PDF exports in favor of URLs. 6. Always provide audio-only and transcript for videos. 7. Be intentional with default settings for your users. 8. Highlight key insights to create understanding faster. 9. Skip unnecessary pages: drive users to results faster. 10. Show filters/presets in autocomplete, not just keywords. 11. Nudge users to delete old files for 10% off that month. 12. Establish an archiving, deletion and clean-up policies. 13. Encourage and reward users for trying out dark mode. 14. Question font weights, stock photos, parallax, 4K-videos. 15. Question collected data, if it’s used and when it’s deleted. Individual actions can drive changes at scale. But they need a momentum. And momentum often comes through small changes: better defaults, reused filters and templates, reduced time on task. That’s also just good usability — and can have tangible impact for users and businesses at scale. Useful resources: Sustainable UX Toolkits, by yours truly https://lnkd.in/ePya82v3 Designing For Planet Knowledge Hub (Notion) https://lnkd.in/eiHtpkJH Product Design for Sustainability (+ Google Doc template), by Artiom Dashinsky ↳ https://lnkd.in/dDnujb-t ↳ https://lnkd.in/d95FWb4r *HUGE* thanks to Thorsten Jonas, Isabel Pettinato, Christoph Stark, Alice M., Bavo Lodewyckx, Poppe G., Stine Ramsing and all wonderful contributors to the project. Your effort doesn’t go unnoticed! 👏🏼👏🏽👏🏾 #ux #design

Actions to Reduce Scope 3 Emissions 🌎 Scope 3 emissions typically account for the largest share of a company's carbon footprint, covering indirect emissions across the entire value chain. Addressing them effectively requires a multifaceted approach that engages suppliers, customers, and other stakeholders. This framework outlines clear actions across key Scope 3 categories, ranging from procurement to investments. Each action is categorized into three progressive levels, encouraging companies to start with quick wins and advance toward deeper integration and systemic change. In purchasing and capital goods, strategies include substituting high-GHG materials and equipment, applying GHG criteria in investment decisions, and engaging suppliers to standardize emissions reporting. These measures aim to embed sustainability criteria across the sourcing process. For energy-related activities and transportation, reducing energy consumption, switching to lower-emission fuels, and electrifying fleets play a critical role. While some listed actions—such as on-site renewable generation—typically fall under Scope 1 or 2, they remain integral to broader decarbonization strategies. Operational waste and product lifecycle emissions require both upstream and downstream interventions. Companies can minimize waste at source, enhance recycling processes, and design for recyclability, ensuring materials remain in circulation and emissions are mitigated across product life cycles. Business travel, employee commuting, and leased assets offer opportunities to reduce emissions through virtual collaboration tools, promotion of public transport, retrofitting for energy efficiency, and improving facility operations—highlighting the value of internal policies and infrastructure upgrades. Downstream logistics and product use demand focused improvements in logistics efficiency and product energy performance. Encouraging efficient product use and adopting low-GHG energy sources can reduce the footprint associated with sold goods and services. Franchise and investment-related emissions emphasize the importance of supporting energy-efficient operations and prioritizing low-carbon investment portfolios. Channeling funding into clean tech and applying rigorous climate criteria to investment decisions are essential for long-term impact. The success of Scope 3 reduction strategies depends not only on technical interventions but also on clear governance and collaboration frameworks. Accurate data collection, traceability, and continuous engagement across the value chain ensure sustained progress. Comprehensive Scope 3 management is vital for achieving credible net-zero targets. This framework provides a roadmap to operationalize reductions, integrating climate action into the heart of corporate strategy and ensuring alignment with global decarbonization goals. #sustainability #sustainable #business #esg #emissions

How might #wind technologies reshape #emissions penalties under International Maritime Organization’s two-tiered pricing framework?🧐 I visited the Berge Olympus when it called Singapore🇸🇬 to learn about its 2023 installation of four Wind Wings #sails. Each sail is about 45 m tall and 25 m wide. Together, they weigh 2000 tons, just 1% of the vessel’s deadweight tonnage. Collapsible on the port side, the sails don’t interfere with cargo loading and unloading operations, which happens from the starboard side.🚢 The sails are deployed 65% of the time; they are collapsed when transiting busy waters or during port approaches. Deployment is fully automated and takes just 1-1.5 hours.🤖 The Berge Olympus runs the Brazil-China🇧🇷🇨🇳 iron ore route, and its passage around the Cape of Good Hope🌍 allows for consistent wind conditions.🌬️ On favourable days, the sails can deliver up to 16% fuel savings, a meaningful figure by any measure.🤩 This visit got me thinking about the role wind technologies play in reducing emissions penalties under the IMO’s newly approved #GFI-linked pricing mechanism. Under this framework, two variables determine emissions and the accompanying penalties: 📍The amount of energy consumed, or the amount of fuel used; 📍The GHG Fuel Intensity of that energy source. Technologies, like advanced hull #coatings and air #lubrication, lower emissions by reducing fuel consumption.📉 But wind and #solar technologies are classified as energy inputs, much like zero-emissions fuels. They therefore affect a vessel’s attained GFI.🧮 This distinction is subtle but important.🙋🏻♀️ Because penalties are assessed when GFI crosses the direct compliance and base thresholds, a small improvement in GFI can result in a big step drop in penalty.💵 In the hypothetical example of a vessel that consumes 5000 tons of HFO per year (GFI of 91 g CO2e/MJ), its GFI sits above both penalty thresholds. So the vessel operator would need to pay both the $100/ton and $380/ton emissions charges. If the vessel is retrofitted with sails that deliver 5% energy savings, its attained GFI drops to 86.5 g CO2e/MJ. With this GFI now below the base target, the ship operator now only pays the $100/ton charge. In this example, a 5% fuel offset has reduced the emissions penalty by 50%.😳😳 Under this IMO framework, wind (and #solar) retrofits not only reduce fuel consumption, they have a disproportionate impact on compliance cost that may become hard to ignore.🤔 Team Global Centre for Maritime Decarbonisation (GCMD) is playing its part. By working with shipowners and operators, we are helping to verify fuel savings,💰 and piloting pay-as-you-save (#PAYS) to help lower #data and #financing barriers that slow adoption.👊🏻 Together, we are stronger; together, we can💪🏻 PS. Thank you, friends at Berge Bulk, especially James Marshall, Paolo Tonon and Michael Blanding, for an up-close tour; photos in comments🫶🏻 International Windship Association

What’s holding back natural climate solutions? Natural climate solutions (NCS)—from reforestation and agroforestry to wetland restoration—have long been championed as low-cost, high-benefit pathways for reducing greenhouse gases. In theory, they could provide over a third of the climate mitigation needed by 2030 to stay under 2°C of warming. But in practice, progress is stalling. A sweeping new PNAS Nexus study reveals why. Drawing on 352 peer-reviewed papers across 135 countries, researchers led by Hilary Brumberg cataloged 2,480 documented barriers to implementing NCS. The obstacles are not ecological. Rather, they are human: insufficient funding, patchy information, ineffective policies, and public skepticism. The result is a vast “implementation gap” between what is technically possible and what is politically, economically, or socially feasible. The analysis found that “lack of funding” was the most commonly cited constraint globally—identified in nearly half of all countries surveyed. Yet it rarely stood alone. Most regions face a tangle of interconnected hurdles. Constraints from different categories often co-occur, compounding difficulties: poor governance erodes trust; disinterest stems from unclear benefits; technical know-how is stymied by bureaucratic confusion. These patterns vary by region and type of intervention. Reforestation projects, for instance, face particularly high scrutiny over equity concerns—especially in the Global South, where land tenure insecurity and historical injustices run deep. Agroforestry and wetland restoration often struggle with the complexity of design and monitoring. Meanwhile, grassland and peatland pathways remain understudied, despite their importance. The study’s most striking insight may be spatial. Countries within the same UN subregion tend to share a similar profile of constraints—more so than across broader development regions. This geographic clustering suggests an opportunity: Supranational collaboration, if properly resourced and attuned to local context, could address shared challenges more efficiently than isolated national efforts. Crucially, the authors argue that piecemeal fixes will not suffice. Because most countries face an average of seven distinct constraints, many from different domains, effective solutions must be integrated and cross-sectoral. Adaptive management—a flexible, feedback-based approach—could help. By identifying which barriers arise at each stage of an NCS project’s lifecycle, it may be possible to design interventions that are not just technically sound, but socially and politically viable. Natural climate solutions still hold vast potential. But unlocking it will require less focus on where trees grow best—and more on where people can make them thrive. 🔬 Brumberg et al 2025. Global analysis of constraints to natural climate solution implementation. PNAS Nexus. https://lnkd.in/gDmYJEph

🤖 WHEN MACHINES LEARN TO HEAL For decades, we built machines to extract, to dig, to mine, to accelerate. But the first time I saw a robot cleaning the ocean, I felt something I’d never associated with technology before: redemption. It wasn’t designed to win. It was designed to give back. And that’s when I realized — we might be entering an age where machines stop competing with us… and start repairing what we broke. Every great technology forces a deeper question: Does it serve growth, or does it serve life? These new ocean-cleaning systems quietly answer that question: → They detect and collect debris before it reaches coral habitats. → They separate plastics and metals without harming marine life. → They run on renewable energy, working continuously to restore what we’ve damaged. It’s not just innovation. It’s intention — made visible. For most of history, progress meant dominance. We measured success by control — over time, matter, and motion. But this new era of engineering is different. The smartest machines won’t compete — they’ll coexist. The real frontier isn’t power — it’s responsibility. The Solution: Restorative Design Thinking If you’re building, leading, or innovating — this is the mindset shift that matters: ✅ Ask how your product can return value to the world that sustains it. ✅ Measure success by net positive outcomes, not just efficiency. ✅ Build systems that get smarter at healing, not just scaling. Because the true power of technology isn’t in automation — it’s in atonement. If we can build machines that heal our oceans, Maybe we can learn to build systems that heal ourselves too. So here’s what I keep wondering — 👉 Will the future of innovation be defined by how much we create, or by how much we restore? #Innovation #Sustainability #AI #ClimateTech #FutureThinking #Leadership #OceanCleanup

Barcelona is making room for nature by taking asphalt away. Across parts of the city, paved surfaces are being removed and replaced with more permeable ground, vegetation, trees, and spaces designed to handle rainwater naturally. The idea is simple: instead of covering every available surface with concrete and asphalt, give some of that space back to soil and plants. Barcelona’s green-infrastructure plans specifically call for converting impermeable surfaces into permeable ones and increasing the use of continuous tree pits and planted areas. One example is the transformation of Pi i Margall Street into a greener corridor. The project removes asphalt, reduces space for vehicles, expands greenery, and incorporates structural soil and sustainable drainage systems designed to capture and reuse rainwater for trees. That matters because urban soil can become heavily compacted and impermeable, sending much of the rain that falls on streets directly into drains instead of allowing it to benefit trees and vegetation. It is a different way of thinking about city design. Instead of asking where another layer of pavement can be added, Barcelona is asking where pavement can be removed. More soil. More plants. More space for rainwater. Sometimes making a city greener means simply giving the ground a chance to breathe again.🙏🌍🦋💙💚💙💚✨🎇🎇🌱🌱🌱🌳🌿💙💚

On rooftops in Thailand, clay pots are sometimes embedded upside down within the structure, creating small air pockets that act as natural insulation. Instead of relying on modern cooling systems, this design uses simple materials to manage heat. The trapped air slows down the transfer of heat from the roof into the living space below, keeping indoor areas noticeably cooler during hot days. It reduces the need for fans or air conditioning, especially in regions with intense sunlight. Over time, this technique becomes part of a practical, low-energy approach to building. It shows how traditional methods can work with natural principles using air, clay, and structure to create comfort without added complexity.

Design as Water, treating water as stakeholder in urban projects Reposting a handbook that still stands out: Design as Water by Henning Larsen and Ramboll. It is a practical guide that helps urban teams shift from “manage water” to “design with water”. The core idea is simple but demanding: water is not only a resource or a risk to control. It is a stakeholder with its own logic, needs, and time horizons. The beautifully designed guide combines images and text seamlessly, creating an engaging resource for practitioners seeking transformative approaches. The Urgency is Clear The climate crisis has intensified water volatility dramatically. Since the 2010s, flooding and heavy rainfall frequency has increased by over 50%, with water-related disasters comprising 90% of all natural disasters. By 2050, half the world's population is expected to live in water-stressed areas. Current rigid water systems are poorly equipped to adapt to these changes. The conventional paradigm of controlling water - forcing it within artificial boundaries and treating it as an exploited resource - has reached its limits. Water as Stakeholder This companion, developed through a co-creative process with numerous contributors, challenges professionals to reimagine water not as a resource to manage, but as a vital stakeholder with its own voice and needs. The guide offers practical changes for urban projects: Project Evaluation: Incorporating water impact as screening criteria, asking "What if water was our client?" when challenging project briefs. Team Integration: Appointing water stewards and integrating water experts who understand local water dynamics. Site Understanding: Looking beyond project boundaries to grasp interconnected water systems - watersheds, groundwater, and connections to larger water bodies. Long-term Vision: Designing for water's needs over 10-500 years, anticipating climate impacts whilst restoring historical interventions that constrained flows. Practical Implementation Rather than controlling water, the approach advocates giving water space through natural flows, green infrastructure, and permeable surfaces. The guide embodies water's qualities - connected, responsive, transparent, ever-evolving, playful - suggesting meandering processes rather than linear approaches. For planners, developers, and policymakers, this represents designing resilient urban futures. Water doesn't need humans, but humans cannot survive without water. #watedesign #climateadaptation #urbandesign #spatialplanning #bluegreeninfrastructure #resilience #cities

It’s the slabs, stupid! You don’t need a full carbon assessment to know where to save carbon. If you’re designing a building and want to reduce embodied carbon, start with the slabs (floors). Every time. Looking at projects in our database, the same pattern appears again and again: slabs dominate the embodied carbon for structures. That shouldn’t surprise anyone - this is where most of the mass sits, and creating horizontal space is fundamentally a structural engineering problem. This is why early structural decisions matter far more - and are a lot easier - than late-stage material substitution. This isn’t new. Multiple organisations have demonstrated this consistently across many building types. We just seem very good at forgetting it. The good news is that there are clear, practical levers available to save carbon: 🔹 Challenge the Brief – Manage the performance requirements, loads, deflection, vibration - but keep the ambition. – Manage spans and regularity. Shorter spans and simpler grids are among the biggest carbon levers we have. 🔹 Refine the Design – Use an appropriate analytical model without stacking conservatism on conservatism. – Use the right load combinations and design for high utilisation – remember, 1.0 is the goal! (I’ll accept 0.98). 🔹 Cut the Carbon – Only then look to materials: reclaimed where possible, timber where appropriate. – Push for lower-carbon products. Talk to suppliers, ask questions - many are keen to share what’s coming next. There’s plenty more that could be said, but if you get the slabs right, a large part of the problem is already solved. Image below from Ramboll's global carbon benchmarking database showing a typical breakdown of structural carbon.