Redesigning for sustainability means systematically identifying and addressing the highest-impact environmental weaknesses in your current product, using the six Environmentally Sustainable criteria of Design Compass as the evaluation framework.
Sustainable redesign is most effective when it is systematic rather than intuitive. This guide shows you how to use Design Compass to identify where your product’s environmental impact is highest, prioritise the most valuable changes, and track your progress across iterations.
Benchmark your current product
Open Benchmark and rate your existing product against all 19 criteria, paying particular attention to the six Environmentally Sustainable segments: Efficiency, Materials, Energy, Longevity, Alternatives, and End of Life. Be honest about the current state, not the intended future state. This is your baseline.
Identify your highest-impact segments
Look at your ratings for the six environmental segments and identify the two or three with the lowest scores. These are the areas where your product has the most significant environmental impact and therefore the greatest opportunity for improvement. For most physical products, Materials, Energy, and End of Life tend to be the highest-impact segments.
Research alternatives for your priority segments
For each priority segment, use Expert Chat to explore the options available. Ask the relevant persona what material substitutions, design changes, or process changes would have the most impact for a product like yours. Use Generate to surface prompts you may not have considered.
Map the changes against cost and feasibility
Not every environmental improvement is equally feasible. List the changes identified for each priority segment and assess each one against: the environmental improvement it delivers, the cost or design complexity it introduces, and the impact on the inner ring criteria, particularly Cost and Longevity. Prioritise changes that deliver significant environmental improvement for acceptable cost and complexity.
Design and document the changes
Implement the prioritised changes in your product design, documenting what was changed and why for each decision. Where changes affect materials or process, update your bill of materials and specifications to reflect the new choices.
Re-benchmark the redesigned product
Open Benchmark and rate the redesigned product against all 19 criteria. Compare the new ratings against your baseline to confirm that the environmental segments have improved and that the inner and outer ring criteria have not materially deteriorated. Save the new evaluation as a new version in Projects.
Repeat for the next priority
Sustainable redesign is iterative. Once you have addressed the first round of priorities, return to your benchmark, identify the next highest-impact segments, and repeat the process. Each iteration moves your product closer to a design that scores well across all three rings.
