Sustainable Design

Sustainable design can be challenging; knowing when to start, what to take into account and how to evaluate it. We can help clients to implement sustainable design processes at any stage of a project and advise on the most appropriate use of sustainable design. We offer a number of services for creating and implementing sustainable product design, including:

*Sustainable Design Strategies
*Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) Services
*Materials & Processes Research
*Supplier Sustainability Audits

We are undertaking a number of initiatives in the field of sustainable design. Life Cycle Analysis (LCA) allow us to estimate the carbon footprint and embodied energy of any product. We use the LCA to provide a simple way to calculate the environmental impact of a product from the cradle to the grave.

Design strategies

Every project is different and will require different approaches to sustainable design for it to successfully consider environmental, social and economic factors. Design strategies that we use at Soma include:

*Biomimcry
*Dematerialisation
*Design for disassembly
*Design for disposal
*Design for longevity
*Design for modularity
*Design for repair and ease of maintenance
*Design for reuse
*Designing in sustainable behaviour
*Use of recycled / recyclable / biodegradable / low embodied energy materials

Materials & Manufacturing Research

At Soma materials and manufacturing processes have been a core in the new product development, we have the in-house technical expertise required to research, test and review materials and manufacturing processes associated with sustainable design.

We can analyse the trade-offs and suggest the most effective materials or manufacturing processes to use. We constantly monitor new technologies so that when they become available we can integrate them into future design projects.