Sustainability consideration in the Australian International Design Awards

Abstract

This paper investigates the engagement (or lack thereof) of manufacturing, engineering and product design industries towards sustainability. This was achieved by completing a content analysis of the award winners in the Australian International Design Awards (AIDA) against an independent set of Design for Sustainability (DfS) criteria estab-lished by the authors. Particular focus was given to the 2010 recipients of the Austra-lian International Design Award™ and the Australian International Design Mark™ and the claims made in their product descriptions and key features and benefits state-ments. The paper reflects on the criteria used by the AIDA to assess the awards, elaborates on the positive elements of sustainable design presented, and suggests di-rections that the industry may utilise in order to strengthen its capacity to achieve sus-tainable outcomes.