What challenges face green product design?
The number one is communication. I think most product designers really outsource their marketing, copy, branding and packaging. They design a product and then they shot gun it out to thirty people and you have just too many voices which creates noise and clutter. What the product designer really needs to do is not only be a product designer, but also be able to communicate what his product does for the consumer. And being a product designer in the green space, you know what I've learned is that communicating green is you have to be very specific about your impact. Generalities do not work for the green people. A perfect example, is when we started renting boxes, we had customers that would say "What's your carbon offset? What's your carbon footprint? How much energy is used to produce this box"? You'd better have those answers. If you design a product and you're going to design a green product, you're also going to need to be open and transparent in your work. If you're not transparent and if you're not going to share the impact in specifics, you're going to get crucified. Don't show up.
