Design in Society

In these current times, it is important to understand that design needs to be carefully thought out and meaningful.  Literally millions of items are being produced everyday and easily more than half are physical items that may or may not be useful to society.  Today I want to highlight not only the need for usable objects, but the importance of the production required when forming the object.  In order to maintain steady production, CO2 is often admitted into the atmosphere.  Data posted by the Union of Concerned Scientists in reference to global warning showed that the United States alone was responsible for 5833 million metric tons of CO2 being released in the year 2008.  This puts the US as the 2nd highest country in terms of CO2 emissions.  Product manufacture, while it is not the sole input to these statistics, still contributes to this issue.
Attempted to rectify some of this problem, US furniture systems manufacturer Haworth announced that it's Zody task chair had earned "Planet Positive" certification.  For several years, the production of the Zody had been examined with the aim of reducing and managing its CO2 emissions as well as the company's other products.  In addition to this, after reducing CO2 emissions as much as practical, clients were to purchase vouchers for 110 percent of the remaining embedded CO2. These certificates were then passed on to product buyer so that the end user could invest in a carbon offset project of their own choosing. The Zody, as seen on the left, may seem like a typical chair, but the though and ingenuity put forth in its creation is highly worth while.  By releasing fewer CO2 emissions, global warming is being actively fought.  It is hopeful that such practices for future design be spread further amongst the world as it is highly beneficial to the present and future.