Danish Students Say Design Drives Sustainable Behavior

http://greeninc.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/12/17/for-danish-design-students-eco-function-follows/?scp=1&sq=design%20sustainable&st=cse

COPENHAGEN — As negotiators gather in Copenhagen to mull the future of the planet, a Danish design school is mounting the argument that, as it relates to reducing the environmental impact of consumption, function follows form.

On the fourth floor of a shopping center in central Copenhagen, amid a forest of small (and sustainably grown Christmas trees), the Kolding School of Design have put on display a variety of products that students have developed to show off the notion that eco-friendly does not have to be ugly.

Slick, modernistic bicycles made of recyclable components; efficient motor scooters molded in space-age motif; high-fashion shoes using recycled rubber and even wood; and elegant evening dresses made from sustainable silk (the silkworm is not destroyed in the process) and sasawashi — an eco-friendly Japanese paper — are among the items on display at the show, called the e-Collection.

“What drives people is their desire, and we don’t believe in telling people what to do or not to do,” said Elsebeth Gerner Nielsen, the school’s chancellor, during a tour of the exhibition. “But if we can talk to their heart, and present some beautiful and well designed products we can get a lot further when it comes to changing consumer habits in favor of the environment.”

Ms. Gerner Nielsen said that the school has also been received support from well-known companies like the French carmaker Peugeot, the Norwegian oil giant Statoil and clothing designers like Ralph Lauren, Donna Karan, Gary Harvey and Givenchy, who helped create some of the sustainable gowns on display.

“Our aim is to communicate sustainable design in a high end way,” she said. “You can’t tell that our designs are sustainable, and that is the way we want it.”

Jesper Steensberg, a bicycle enthusiast and Copenhagen resident who was visiting the exhibition with his wife, seemed to apprehend that philosophy.

“It has to be nice and unusual if you are going to change people’s habits,” he said, “so I think they have a good point.”