BoostChat at Designboost 2007 "Sustainable design".

The Designboost BoostChat (formerly known as workshops) are by invitation only. They can be regarded as internal meetings in an external form. Every participant will be given the opportunity to to discuss, vent, ponder, think and reflect over a number of questions that concerns sustainable design.

In total approximate hundred persons were invited. The group always concists of representatives from the industry and schools in combination from an international selection of top designers, architects, futurists, trend analysts, anthropologists etc.

The BoostChat took place at the two top floors (53rd and 54th) of the Turning Torso building by Santiago Calatrava. In total there were 29 BoostChat with unique themes and unique combination of Boosters. For a complete list of Boosters please click here.

Below are all the questions that were discussed in the BoostChat which all concerned the DesignBoost 2007 main theme: "Sustainable design":

1. How can we make (better) systems for recycling concerning everything from consumer electronics to furniture?
2. How can companies in different business areas collaborate through common platforms (which could be a designer or a material) and out of that get sustainable co-ordination advantages?
3. How can we extend the definition of sustainable design beyond products and materials, i.e. how do we innovate in the social realm to sustain each other, relationships, social networks, our world?
4. Every time you spend money, you’re casting a vote for the kind of world you want. How can the consumers best use it power to take active part in the development of a sustainable future?
5. How can we create a formula that will guarantee that most design processes ends up into sustainable iconic products?
6. "Conspicuous consumption" rules and consumers demand lower and lower prices with unsustainable and unethical production as a result. How can we make people by less but better products?
7. How can companies in general use sustainable design in a much better way as a competitive advantage?
8. How can money be reshuffled from unsustainable advertising to sustainable design?
9. How can we use the idea of ReMix (instead of ReCycle and ReUse) to create sustainable design?
10. Our consumption of electronic goods is chasing of. A mobile phone has a life-span shorter than a year. How can we, without being retrogressive, create long lasting consumer electronics?
11. Sustainable design should be for the many people rather than for the worlds selected few. How can sustainable design be inclusive rather than the exclusive?
12. What is the responsibility of a designer? Should he/she be expert of sustainable development or expert on working with experts of sustainable development?
13. How can we use design to create a sustainable society?
14. Most of the trash come from products which are continuously evolving like consumer electronics. How can technological maturity contribute to creating long-lasting products?
15. We throw away products without a second thought even when they are still functioning. How can we best create affection and attachment to a product and create “love” objects that lasts a lifetime?
16. How can we reclaim time and balance work/life to be able to make conscious choices?
17. The globalisation is smoothing out the local uniqueness. How can we sustain cultural heritage and use the knowledge and authenticity from handicraft in a global industrial context?
18. How can topics of sustainable design attract a younger generation.
19. How can we create criteria for sustainable storytelling
20. How can we focus on key issues and needs and look into existing conditions and possibilities when it comes to product development rather than creating a catalogue of “green” products without meaning?
21. How can companies create better artifacts based on user experience?
22. How can we better link consumer/citizen's emotional power to sustainability?
23. What can companies learn from the formula “form follows function” in a contemporary context?
24. How can companies create a global multi-culture platform for sustainable design?
25. How can designers, both tactically and strategically, be better involved in companies that today relay their development on technocrats and/or engineers?
26. How can we prevent sustaining the unsustainable?
27. How can we market sustainable design in a credible way (without making it into a “green gimmick”)?
28. How can we define sustainable design?
29. How can we create luxury products that evoke our desires at the same time as they are responsible and sustainable?