‘Sustainability, a wider perspective’, insights from business, brand and design.
More sustainable perspectives! We Are Perspective and the dutch Design Management Netwerk (DMN) organized a lecture evening in the Graphic Design Museum, exploring different approaches to sustainability.
The discussion focused on the value of sustainability for business, brand, design and development. Presenters from Steelcase, Nyenrode Business University and We Are Perspective approached the subject from different angles and looked to answer:
Why is it relevant for business?
How do brands embed sustainability successfully?
What is needed in the innovation and design process?
Some key learning’s from the speakers:
Nyenrode:
• Duurzame technieken zijn er volop, maar ze worden alleen toegepast als ze tegenmoet komen aan de belangen van eindgebruikers.
• Voor het bedrijfsleven biedt duurzaamheid business kansen. Specifiek: de bouwsector zal moeten veranderen.
• Labels en rekenmodellen zijn nuttig, maar niet ‘heilig’.
We Are Perspective:
• Approach innovation from an eco-efffective perspective
• ‘Good Design’ requires a holistic approach: balance brand, user benefits & product aspects
• Connect sustainability to common sense innovation: user needs, more profit, more growth, control over materials & total quality
Steelcase:
• Define a clear mission statement and embed sustainability into your business
• Experts/Partners active involvement. Create a leading community
• ‘Every journey starts with a first step’ (Gandhi)
Speakers:
Birgit Dulski - Nyenrode Bussiness University.
Birgit Dulski MSc was born and raised in Berlin. She studied architecture and urban planning at the University of Kaiserslautern (D), the Hamburg-Harburg University of Technology (D) and the Delft University of Technology (NL).She actively participating in the development of sustainable building by publications in reputable journals.
Birgit previously worked at BOOM-Maastricht, office for environmental research and architectural design. Today Birgit works for the Center for Sustainability of the Nyenrode Business University as a senior researcher and combines this function with a career as senior consultant at the Dutch Institute for Building Biology and Ecology (NIBE).
Reinier Halbertsma - We Are Perspective, brand driven and sustainable design.
Reinier Halbertsma studied industrial design at Carleton University in Canada, and is a Cradle to Cradle accredited designer. As a Sr. Designer at We Are Perspective in Amsterdam he aims to bring sustainability to mainstream products by creating winning strategies, concepts and designs. He sees sustainability as the key to unlocking new innovation - by designing the system behind products and creating a total product experience. Sustainability is common sense he thinks, there is so much to be gained by looking holistically at how to most (eco) effectively deliver a business’s value proposition.
Serena Borghero - Steelcase, Office furniture.
Serena Borghero, born in Milano, Italy, studied Business Administration at the Bocconi University in Milano and at the UCL in Brussels. She started working in Marketing at Heineken and since 2006 is responsible for Marketing and Sustainability of Steelcase Benelux. Her expertise focuses on workplace knowledge and on CSR applied to work space. Serena enjoys to share experiences and to stimulate the debate around CSR by regularly participating in congresses and workshops, as she sees the current economic downturn as a unique chance for
long-term sustainable growth.
For more information about DMN, please contact them at: info@dmnetwerk.nl
