Consumption

It is important for a designer to consider consumption as it is the consumption of products which ultimately dictates their environmental impact. As designers it is necessary to be aware of concepts such as: 

Consumtion is natural - is it? This has not always been the case, it is a relatively recent phenomenon.

Filling Gaps - perhaps developed societies have too much free time and use consumption to fill it?

Slow Consumption - Tim Cooper is an advocate of slow consumption - see Theories section on Product Longevity which is related. Essentially, he advocates that we need to slow down our rate of consumption, in other words not buying so many products and not replacing products so quickly. He suggests some ways product designers can encourage this...

Living with Less - can we design products which encourage developed societies to live with less products? - see Theories section on Products to Services.