Sustainable Design

The actual sustainability of a product is already determined in the design phase. Right from the product’s first conceptual design, the selection of materials to be used and how they will be processed is decisive in determining sustainability. These two dimensions determine whether you can have the finished product repaired if a part breaks, and whether you can recycle it in the end.

We at VAUDE are currently revising our design guidelines for all VAUDE products to embed sustainability aspects in product design and to develop a product design style that’s even more emblematic for the VAUDE brand. The guidelines are based on the fundamental idea of the Higg Index, an instrument for the apparel and footwear industry for assessing the sustainability of products. The key messages of our design are:

• Sustainability starts with the first product sketch. The product must be planned from the outset so that you can later repair and / or recycle it. We need to deal with potential conflicts that arise when the demands placed on a product limit its ability to be repaired.
  
• In order to manufacture products that use fewer resources, you first need to reduce the complexity of the product. The materials used should be produced with environmentally and socially responsible methods.
  
• As little "design" as needed: when you cannot take away anything else from the product, you have found its essence – and it is always economical, always sustainable, always high quality; always marketable, always aesthetic.

The VAUDE design guidelines provide designers with a modular system of possibilities. It shouldn’t be taken as a rigid regulative document, but rather as a code of practice that demonstrates the relationship between the outdoors, people and our brand, in order to help spark inspiration for one’s own creativity.

More about it here.