A new website introducing the field of ecodesign has been completed, which enables to test potential sustainability of your enterprise

The new website www.ringdisain.ee available in Estonian and English languages has been completed in result of cooperation between the Estonian Design Centre, Tallinn Centre of Stockholm Environment Institute and the Estonian Association for Environmental Management (EKJA), which provides information related to ecodesign, recent news of the field, contact data of Estonian circular economy and ecodesign experts, and inspiring examples. The website also includes ecodesign audit questionnaire, after filling of which enterprises can get feedback about their readiness to implement ecodesign, as well as guidelines, which tools should be used for making their operation and product development more sustainable.

Harri Moora (Head of the Environmental Management Programme and Senior Expert of Tallinn Centre of Stockholm Environment Institute and member of the Management Board of EKJA) says that skill to use new strategies and solutions of ecodesign is central for the development of new environmentally sustainable products and services: ‘‘Interest of Estonian companies in resource efficiency and sustainable product development has sharply increased. This has partly been caused by regulative pressure from the European Union, while enterprises have also understood that the market has started to prefer environmentally sustainable products and services as well, therefore it is not possible to be economically sustainable in longer perspective, if no systematic attention is paid on these issues.‘‘

‘‘At the same time, the experience from our cooperation with businesses shows that here the enterprises need support and counselling – for the development of primary design capability and strategic and organizational readiness, as well as for conducting already more specific ecodesign projects. For that purpose, we have developed suitable services, which help the enterprises to prepare the necessary assessments and ecodesign solutions. By now, already dozens of enterprises in Estonia have assessed their ecodesign capability with the Ecodesign Audit, and constantly more enterprises are also interested in the Ecodesign Sprint training, in order to develop specific product and service solutions in cooperation with experts‘‘, he encourages.

The current linear economic model with excessive consumption and production is clearly becoming depleted, and the European Green Deal is paving the way for new carbon-neutral and sustainable business models and products. However, the enterprises themselves must be ready to follow the changing time and requirements. As clear and suitable indicators are available today for assessing the efficiency of product development and design management of an enterprise, no enterprise must be alone in this process, but can involve circular economy and ecodesign experts, who help to achieve the suitable ecodesign mission together with designers. The objective of the new website is to provide the contacts and guidelines needed for that purpose.

Ecodesign is a design process, the objective of which is to create innovative and sustainable solutions for products and services, with emphasis on reasonable consumption of natural resources, minimizing waste and creating new innovative business models, which help to ensure sustainability of products and services, and longevity of their use. No materials are wasted, but resources and materials are recycled as long as possible, thereby producing higher value. Products are designed
and used with the aim to enable long-term use, reuse and repair of products, their components and materials. The objective is to minimize the need for new raw materials coming from the nature and to ensure that the substances returning to the nature would not cause any inappropriate side effects.

www.ringdisain.ee website welcomes any news and good examples of implementation of ecodesign to the address: kerli@disainikeskus.ee

The questionnaire/tool available on the website has been developed within the framework of the project ’’EcoDesign Circle‘‘ of SEI Tallinn and Design Europe Finland. Website and the questionnaire form was provided by the design office DUX.