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4 Tuesdays on Eco-design
France
The ‘4 Tuesdays on Eco-design’ are four-day seminars which aim to raise awareness of eco-design amongst designers and project managers, introducing them to eco-design and the main tools for eco-designing products. This programme started in 2005, was repeated in 2006 and will run again in 2007.
The main objective of each seminar is to stimulate and help the development of eco-designed products by designers. Seminars are targeted mainly at designers, but are also attended by product development managers from local companies. The seminars are organised by a project manager from the Design Centre Rhone-Alps, working with a PhD student in eco-design.
The development took 20 days, and has a budget of 15000 euros, sponsored by the regional government and the French Ministry of Industry. For each seminar, there is a budget of 12000 euros, which is covered by the registration fee (500–700 euros per participant, for the four days). Updating and organising each seminar takes 9-10 days. The seminars form part of the eco-design activities of the Design Centre Rhone-Alps – eco-design being one of the strategic themes of the Design Centre. They are considered to be an important part of the Design Centre’s work, as they educate designers to undertake eco-design approach to their projects.
Each seminar is split into several modules, with a total of 10 different instructors (including specialists in eco-design and marketing, engineers, life-cycle analysis specialists) responsible for each module. The themes of the 4 days are as follows:
Day 1: Eco-design and company strategies, facts to integrate from the start of the analysis / Definition and principles, context (impact, market, etc)
Day 2: Eco-design, the new questions and the new opportunities to innovate / Design for disassembly, design for recycling, eco-material selector
Day 3: Evaluation of the environmental impacts from the very beginning of a project / Tools
Day 4: From legal obligation to the communication opportunities / Testimonies
The first two seminars, held in 2005 and 2006, were attended by 56 delegates, including 15 design businesses (industrial design) and 35 companies, people from public institutions and teachers. The seminars allow designers and those involved in product development to discover and learn more about eco-design, tools required, specific vocabulary and methods, giving them the necessary knowledge to start eco-designing products. An evaluation is carried out at the end of each seminar, related to the instructors and the themes they cover, the booklets and information distributed and the organisation of the four days.
Results achieved include new competencies in the region (eco-designers) and the creation of an eco-design club. More eco-design projects are under way and a collective project, ‘Cradle to Cradle’, is now starting up. Key factors which contribute to the success of this programme include a pragmatic approach and practice, specialised instructors, and operational positioning. One difficulty that the Design Centre highlights is that of finding appropriate examples of eco-design projects and testimonies from companies but the more designers participate in the seminars, the more eco-design projects are undertaken with companies in the region.
For further information about this programme please contact Franck Bercegeay at the Design Centre Rhone-Alps: bercegeay@centredudesign.fr
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© Design Wales 2007
