The whole world is talking about environmental sustainability, and doing so in a really crosscutting way: “the exhibition organised by the Consulate General of Italy in Miami, curated by Luisa Bocchietto, held in Miami, discussed the green world on the occasion of Sustainability - People, Planet, Prosperity, devoted to the awareness of beauty and knowhow, with respect for the environment and the circular economy. The exhibition displays iconic objects of Italian design, which represent a perfect combination of beauty, functionality and environmental sustainability. It brings to Miami innovative products, designed and manufactured in keeping with the criteria of recycling materials and energy saving”… (read more in the January/February issue of Interni)

Weighing up one’s choices in environmental, productive and social terms is vitally important when it comes to sustainability: “firms integrated into the value chain are more open to green transition and to ensuring the wellbeing of their employees. They have a powerful inbuilt connection with their home territory and are used to pulling together as a team. Two factors that make them more likely to make choices informed by respect for the environment and employee wellbeing. On balance, therefore, firms that form part of a chain are also those that are the most sustainable in the spirit of the UN 2030 Agenda. […] Their ability to network with the territory and collaborate along the entire value chain, from creation to distribution, is seen as a major competitive asset in which sustainable choices are an integral factor. As Patrizia Pinelli explains, when it comes to the environment: ’a crucial element is the ability to create value from waste and from the multifunctional properties of a product on a crosscutting level.’” … (read more in Il Sole 24 Ore)

The exhibition Waste Age: What Can Design Do? at London’s Design Museum takes an even more swingeing approach to the subject: “the exhibition lays out how humanity got to this point—an era in which phony rocks made of pressed together junk routinely wash up on our beaches—via the past century’s worst excesses (takeaway cups, disposable cutlery, cigarette butts, and planned obsolescence) as well as the groundbreaking advances (syringes, keyboards, wipeable surfaces, and underground pipes) that have made plastic practically indispensable. It then presents possible solutions including the work of the ingenious designers who have turned their back on creating pretty commodities to tackle the problems their industry has been complicit in generating”...(read more in Metropolis)

Lastly, 9 projects selected by Stir World as 2021 drew to a close are perfect examples of just how, “with bright colours, creative forms, rethought solutions, enhanced materiality, and recycled or upcycled materials, product and industrial designers from the world over are leaning increasingly into change, for the better. STIR rounds up the top products of 2021 that embody emotion, innovation and ergonomic design; are outlined by sustainable measures, and most of all, champion functionality and reflect global needs and trends”... (read more in Stir World)

Photo courtesy by Claudia Zalla, discover here her portfolio.