We've got a post-script from last month's Designers Accord Town Hall Meeting at Design Concepts in Madison. Thanks to Dave Barnard for his thoughts and Dave, Sandy Rogers, and Scott Woods for their photos.

Casual, collegial, and you might even say noisy (in a good way), Design Concepts hosted Madison, Wisconsin's first Town Hall on November 12. Held in our "Open Space," there was non-stop yakking from 6 'til well past 9, and we enjoyed some great local wines (yes, Wisco wines) beers, wraps, and cheese.

We had a great turn out, including our friendly competitors in product design Brooks Stevens, Bit7, Intense Engineering, Inspire, and BestAbode; graphic design firms Gage Mitchell and Swink; marketing firm Heibing; local behemoths GE Medical and FISKARS; and a smattering of MIAD and MATC students. Presenters were Jim Armstrong of Good for Business, Dan Lipscomb of FISKARS, and Design Concepts' own Mark Cors.

The majority of our guests were still in the "pre-Accord" state (presenting an opportunity for proselytizing), so Design Concept's Rachel DeSmidt kicked things off with a thorough introduction to the Designers Accord.

Mark Cors described Design Concepts' sustainability efforts so far. Design Concepts has established an ever-expanding Ethernet "green library" of relevant articles and information for use by its project teams. More recently, Mark and Rachel have focused on spearheading the institutionalization of Design for Disassembly as a consistent component of our design methodology. The take-away: disassembly is a necessary precursor to recycling, and designing to facilitate disassembly is both relatively easy to implement and sell to a client. The Design Concepts DFD Guidelines were given to the attendees, and are available for download.

Jim Armstrong of the Madison-based marketing and communications design firm Good for Business, spoke passionately and persuasively about alternative business paradigms. Long-time members of Business for Social Responsibility, Jim's firm engages in non-traditional marketing, representing clients who want to work with a conscience. A selection from Jim's remarks:

Branding: Jim argues that kids never say they want to grow up to build a brand! Branding, he says, is "marketing wash." Brands are detached—a way of not dealing with the hard stuff. What people generally think of as the "hard" stuff—numbers, revenues, dividends, quarterly reports—is actually the easy stuff. Easy compared to the "soft" stuff—like purpose, cause, values, and ethics.

Purpose of Business: Businesses, Jim says, aren't brands to be built, but causes to be believed in. Not to be confused with a mission statement, and not a vision statement, Jim's definition of a business cause is "what you answer when you're in the shower and you ask yourself 'What the hell am I doing this for?'"

On sustainability and trust: Jim also persuasively argues that sustainability is now a cost of doing business—the idea that you must make a business case for sustainability is completely backwards. Instead, we're at the point where you must make a sustainability case for business. Growth in nominally "green" product launches is immense and happening at the most basic level—water filtration devices, diapers, solvents, toilet tissue. These products generally have higher price points but sales are up in spite of the recession. It's giant numbers, major corporations. Why? And what is driving the urge among consumers? And who is a "sustainable shopper" supposed to believe when there are 298 environmental certifications for brands? Jim's point is that consumers are dying for the truth and for products and companies they can trust.

Dan Lipscomb, Industrial Designer for FISKARS (now in its 360th year—every company should be as long-lived and trusted), wrapped up the presentation portion of the evening with some very positive examples of the many sustainable attributes of FISKARS products.

Dan discussed their products' life-time guarantees and take-back programs. In addition to the well-known long-service life and repair-ability that is designed into FISKARS products, their impact may go beyond any lifecycle analysis, to include how the products encourage greener and more healthy living among consumers (FISKARS products are people-powered, after all). Dan also showcased some new Fiskars products using sustainable and recycled materials.

It took some doing, but the group conversation was eventually tamped down, and guests were asked to select one of 4 break-out sessions intended to address particularly nettlesome issues:

1. Best ways to persuade decision-makers to pursue sustainable design efforts 2. Are we remiss in our duties as consultants if we do not engage our clients in a discussion of sustainability? 3. Reconciling personal ethics with professional realities 4. Best ways to encourage others (to get sustainable)

One consistent aspect to all the conversations was recognition of the ongoing need for education (even though its been going on forever), and how the concepts that comprise sustainability seem to be just beginning to sink in.