Exercise 6: Starting your own manifesto

• Sustainability is about being environmentally friendly by offering often natural, long-lasting products
• Sustainable product is not only kind to environment, but also often kind to communities who are making the product.
• The sustainable process is transparent as there is nothing to hide and is not harmful (to environment or people)
• As the production process is not as developed as mainstream the initial purchase cost is usually higher.
• The long-term cost of using the product is often lower due to its effectiveness, durability and quality. 

Reflection:

The process of creating this mind map and bullet points felt incredibly easy and quick. I hope I did it right! I knew straight away that the main issue many designers currently face is about sustainability. It must be hard to juggle to project cost against the prices of different solutions – and the sustainable ones being often higher. Yet it is so important that the designers influence the clients, convince them that it is worth if – for the long-term use, their conscience, health and planet. Just realised I should have written ‘healthy’ on my mind map too…