SUSTAINABLE & CIRCULAR DESIGN

PLICO HAS BEEN DESIGNED WITH PEOPLE AND PLANET AT THE CENTER OF DESIGN THINKING — THUS DEVELOPING A COMPREHENSIVE PRODUCT USING 100% SUSTAINABLE, RECYCLABLE & REUSABLE MATERIALS

According to a survey conducted by GreenPrint – Americans are constantly looking for sustainable and environmentally friendly products and are willing to pay a premium for these goods/services. The study found out that nearly two thirds (64 percent) of the Americans are willing to pay extra for sustainable and environmentally friendly products but most of them (74 percent) don’t know the methods/ways of identifying them – which leads to the fact that 78 percent of the people will buy the product that is clearly labelled as sustainable or environmentally friendly.

75 percent of the Millennials are fine with paying more money for products/brands that have sustainable and responsibly sourced products/services, in comparison 63 percent of the generation Z and 64 percent of Generation X are willing to do the same kind of spending followed by 57 percent of Boomers. Furthermore, the study reveals that 77 percent of the Americans care for the environmental impact of the products they buy as well as 76 percent would change their preferred packaged goods brand if they were offsetting carbon footprint while 74 percent would switch gasoline as a fossil fuel option if they had an alternative. (Koch)

And if sectors are compared then food and grocery sector leads the way in terms of showing commitment to environmentally friendly and sustainable products (78 percent) as well as the technology sector is at 74 percent when it comes to commitment and changes in terms of incorporating sustainability and environmental friendliness while the gas stations and convenience are at lowly 51 percent and 54 percent. (Koch)

“75 percent of the Millennials are fine with paying more money for products/brands that have sustainable and responsibly sourced products/services, in comparison 63 percent of the generation Z and 64 percent of Generation X are willing to do the same kind of spending followed by 57 percent of Boomers.”

Circular economy’s aim is altering the current take-make-waste extractive industrial model and work on the how we can design and develop products and services that focuses on the positive planet and society wide planets. It talks about decoupling the current economy and treated it like modular parts where each part is a process of the economy and you try to work on the driving out the dependance and waste put of every process. Through these practices we design and develop products that are developed and made to either be recycled or refurbished or their parts can be processed and converted into other functional products. As we transition towards renewable resources and realize our responsibility on doing our bit for the climate change, circular economy helps us rework on our economy and taking us away from human centered approach but introducing planet centered approach – human and planet needs to sustain each other and taking away our dependance from the resources. (Kunzig)

Circular economy is based on three principles:

1. Design out waste and pollution

2. Keep products and materials in use

3. Regenerate natural systems

“Circular economy is an industrial system that is restorative or regenerative by intention and design. It replaces the end-of-life concept with restoration, shifts towards the use of renewable energy, eliminates the use of toxic chemicals, which impair reuse and return to the biosphere, and aims for the elimination of waste through the superior design of materials, products, systems, and business models. (World Economic Forum)