Auburn Sustainable Designers Organization: Sharing

"Products cannot be designed in isolation if they are going to be truly sustainable. The typical product design and development process is fragmented and incoherent, and it is this lack of integration that has led to many of the poor standards of design that currently prevail. Designers and businesses who want to raise design standards to a respectable level are increasingly talking about designing sustainable products, but what is often overlooked is the fact that products do not exist in isolation, and so a product designed in isolation is unlikely to ever be sustainable. If sustainable product design is going to have maximum impact, then the process should begin with developing a sustainable business system. Products can then be designed as necessary to fit into this sustainable system."

http://www.espdesign.org/sustainable-design-guide/design-strategies/design-business-system/

Service substitution: shifting the mode of consumption from personal ownership of products to provision of services which provide similar functions, e.g., from a private automobile to a carsharing service. Such a system promotes minimal resource use per unit of consumption (e.g., per trip driven).

Example companies:

http://www.xerox.com/

What were doing to prevent and manage waste:

-Recycling: Through the Xerox Green World Alliance®, our customers are encouraged to return toner cartridges and containers for recycling. More than 2.2 million cartridges and containers are returned every year. We process for reuse 1.3 million pounds of post-consumer waste toner.

-Cartridge-Free Technologies: Our proprietary solid ink color printing technology uses compact, “cartridge-free” ink sticks with no plastic casings, reducing print related waste by up to 90% vs comparable color laser printers.

-Product Takeback: In the 1990s, Xerox pioneered remanufacturing for office equipment

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http://www.zipcar.com/is-it/greenbenefits

Imagine a world with one million fewer cars on the road. We do. Every day we are working towards a place with less dependence on personally-owned vehicles. Why? Because it matters. Less cars on the road means less congestion, less pollution, less dependence on oil, and cleaner, fresher air to breathe. Some folks don't believe it's possible for car sharing to have such a huge impact.

-Each and every Zipcar takes 15-20 personally-owned vehicles off the road. Multiply that by the more than 8000 cars in our fleet and you've got a really big number.

-10% of the population is expected to adopt car sharing as their primary mode of transportation. Break it down and you have millions of people saving billions of gallons of gas and oil. Factor in the savings and you've got an economic revolution.

-After joining Zipcar, 90% of our members drove 5,500 miles or less per year. That adds up to more than 32 million gallons of crude oil left in the ground—or 219 gallons saved per Zipste

-Zipcar members save more than $500 (vs. car ownership). What would you do with an extra $500 a month? Many Zipsters put it back into their communities by buying local and sustainable products.

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Shareing goes beyond just products.. Creative people have begun sharing space.

A hackerspace or hackspace (also referred to as a hacklab, makerspace or creative space) is a location where people with common interests, usually in computers, technology, science or digital or electronic art can meet, socialise and/or collaborate. A hackerspace can be viewed as an open community labs incorporating elements of machine shops, workshops and/or studios where hackers can come together to share resources and knowledge to build and make things.

Thousands around the globe are registered.

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Lucky Duck Toy Box provides a wide assortment of toys for kids aged newborn through five years old. Parents or grandparents simply choose a subscription plan—ranging from CAD 24 to CAD 69 per month for 3 to 12 toys—and pick out which toys they’d like to start with. Lucky Duck then delivers those within days. A month later, customers login once more to choose their next set; when their delivery date arrives, Lucky Duck swaps the old ones for the new ones. For businesses, Lucky Duck Toy Box offers a like-minded solution to the problem of old, dirty, worn out toys in waiting rooms. Instead, it delivers a fresh assortment of sanitized playthings to keep businesses’ youngest customers safe and entertained. All toys are lead-tested, inspected and cleaned with environmentally friendly products. Weekly and custom delivery plans are also available.

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Rental Products

The Only equipment rental company that uses all sustainable, recyclable products. CrateXpress also purchases Renewable Energy Credits to offset its manufacturing and office energy use.

We are a proud member of the U.S. EPA Green Power Partnership and the USGBC. Ask us about adding LEED Points to your projects