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Sustainable
Design: Best Practices
In 2000 the Design Exchange launched a series of targeted
programming initiatives aimed at the SME (Small and Medium-Sized
Entreprise) sector. The purpose of these programs was to promote
the importance of design a means of adding social, aesthetic
and economic value to Canadian business practices.
Supported in part by the City of Toronto’s Economic
Development office, Design For Your Business programming included
evaluations of design effectiveness within various SMEs, as
well as workshops, seminars and publications. Consultations
with individual businesses were undertaken to assess design
effectiveness with the aim of improving competitiveness and
helping Canadian businesses develop distinctive value propositions
for the products and services.
As an extension of its efforts to promote best practices in
design among SME’s, the Design Exchange is now focusing
on the tremendous importance of sustainability as a differentiator
in which Canadian designers are providing leadership. An extended
network of relationships has been developed with leading-edge
Canadian sustainable design thinkers and practitioners, including
the Design Exchange, the Erivan K. Haub program in Business
and Sustainability at the Schulich School of Canadian Business,
Five Winds International, Pollution Probe, Canadian Business
for Social Responsibility and students from the Schulich School
of Business and Faculty of Environmental Studies at York University.
That innovative research partnership has produced a catalogue
of 10 case studies featuring best practices in the integration
of ‘sustainable design’ by Canadian SMEs.
The 10 case studies in Canadian sustainable design were published
as a special ‘Design for Sustainability Vol. 1’
edition of the design Exchange’s EXCHANGE Magazine in
January 2004. As a sample of some of the important design
innovations being undertaken by Canadian SME’s we present
2 of those case studies as .pdf files below. Also accessible
as a .pdf is the Design for Sustainability Toolkit, an introductory
resource for SMEs produced by Five Winds International, a
sustainable design consulting firm.
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