Be Seen, Be Green:
the benefits for sustainable design practices
Christopher Pett
Pli Design Ltd
University of the Arts London
London College of Communication
Wednesday 6 May 2009
Thursday, 7 May 2009

Pli Design Ltd
• Pli was founded in 2003
• centre of excellence in sustainable product development
• focus on furniture design & production
• using sustainable natural fibres and recycled plastics
• launched the Reee chair in September 2008
• finalist, Grand Designs Awards 2009
• aim to share and develop sustainable design thinking
Thursday, 7 May 2009

eco-aware design
What influence do you have as a designer?
on manufacturers
on clients
on customers
How will you use your influence?
Thursday, 7 May 2009

conversation with our customers
We work at the margin: competing on price, quality, durability, availability, design
and finally on sustainability.
We give incentives to help people make rational choices to buy eco-aware
products.
But the incentives aren’t all environmental: price, quality, design are available to
all our competitors. We have just one point of difference.
The principle we work to:
connected value
(if you don’t go all the way to your goal, all the time and effort you invest along the
way is lost).
e.g. BREEAM, LEED, ISO14001
Thursday, 7 May 2009

what’s our problem?
• natural resource constraints
• waste
• energy cost
• CO2 generation
• regulations
• customer expectations
• design challenges: cradle to cradle, process design
Thursday, 7 May 2009

what’s our solution?
• reduce
• reuse
• recycle
• redesign
• collaborate
Thursday, 7 May 2009

Sustainable design books
Thursday, 7 May 2009

Sustainable design books
Thursday, 7 May 2009

web sites for sharing information
Thursday, 7 May 2009

web sites for sharing information
Thursday, 7 May 2009

web sites for sharing information
Thursday, 7 May 2009

web sites for sharing information
Thursday, 7 May 2009

web sites for sharing information
Thursday, 7 May 2009

web sites for sharing information
Thursday, 7 May 2009

web sites for sharing information
Thursday, 7 May 2009

web sites for sharing information
Thursday, 7 May 2009

web sites for sharing information
Thursday, 7 May 2009

storytelling in design
Thursday, 7 May 2009

storytelling in design
© Sixixis
Thursday, 7 May 2009

storytelling in design
© Cohda
Thursday, 7 May 2009

storytelling in design
© Ryan Frank
Thursday, 7 May 2009

storytelling in design
© Osian Batyka-Williams
Thursday, 7 May 2009

storytelling in design
© Sixixis
Thursday, 7 May 2009

storytelling in design
© Pli Design Ltd
Thursday, 7 May 2009

storytelling in design
© formway
Thursday, 7 May 2009

storytelling in design
© Zoe Murphy
Thursday, 7 May 2009

thanks for listening
Christopher Pett
Pli Design Ltd
telephone 020 8670 6857
email christopher@plidesign.co.uk
www.plidesign.co.uk
Thursday, 7 May 2009