Okala Practitioner is a guidebook of practical methods for designing low‐impacting products and services. It was created to meet the needs of busy practicing designers and students in all design disciplines. The guide offers fresh insights and strategies developed over a decade of collaborative research.
Okala Practitioner was developed by professors Philip White, Louise St. Pierre and Steve Belletire, the team that created, Okala; Learning Ecological Design. That design guide influenced ecological design curriculum in schools around the world. This new guide is suited to industrial design, engineering, architecture, graphic, interior and apparel design, and business professionals, while retaining insightful relevance for students.
Okala Practitioner is organized for quick access to essential information during day‐to‐day decisionmaking. Clearly marked supplemental information explains the foundations of the practice, state of the planet, and the breadth of actions that designers can take to protect our global ecology.
It provides explicit strategies and impact measurement methods that design teams can immediately use. It gives case studies from a business perspective of product systems that have been successfully designed for low environmental impacts.
The science behind the Okala Impact Factors 2014 is robust and state‐of‐the‐art, based on the newest methods from the US EPA and the National Institute of Standards and Technology. It covers more than 500 materials and processes (from 300 in 2009), including additional architectural components, softgoods, electronics, and landfill values, enabling the impact modeling of most product systems over their entire life cycles.
Okala was initiated by the partnership between the Industrial Designers Society of America (IDSA) and the United States Environmental Protection Agency (US EPA). The partnership focused on educating industrial designers and design students about reducing environmental impacts of products and systems.
by The Living Principles Team on Thursday, August 15, 2013 in FeaturesTools
The guide offers useful and detailed design advice in chapters covering broad topics:
ECODESIGN STRATEGIES
1. Product System Life Cycle
2. Ecodesign Strategy Wheel
3. Ecodesign Ideologies
4. Emerging Strategies
5. Design for Recycling
CREATING BUSINESS OPPORTUNITIES
6. Green Marketing
7. Ecodesign in the Development Process
8. Meeting Stakeholder Needs
ECOLOGICAL DESIGN KNOWLEDGE
9. Process Tree
10. Measuring Environmental Performance
11. Okala Impact Factors 2014
12. Using Impact Factors
13. Environmental Impacts
14. Science in LCA
15. Understanding Toxicity
BIOTIC AND SOCIAL IMPERATIVES
16. Ecology for Designers
17. Evolution of the Biosphere
18. Our Stressed Biosphere
19. Challenging Our Beliefs
20. Achieving Social Equity
Okala Practitioner: Integrating Ecological Design is available through Amazon.com.
Further information can be found at www.okala.net.
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The Living Principles for Design framework aims to clarify the multiple,
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everyday design and business practice. Drawing from decades of collective
wisdom, theory and results, the framework weaves environmental, social,
economic and cultural sustainability into an actionable, integrated approach
that can be consistently communicated to designers, business leaders,
educators, and the public.
Originally conceived through AIGA, and presented by Mohawk Fine Papers,
The Living Principles are endorsed by many global organizations, including
the Cumulus, Design Ignites Change, Design Management Institute (DMI),
GDC Ontario, Industrial Designers Society of America (IDSA), o2 Global
Network, Organic Exchange, The Society of Graphic Designers of Canada,
and Winterhouse Institute.
