Imagine a world where product designers and manufacturing engineers sit together during pre-product planning stages and brainstorm ideas not only for their immediate product consumption but also taking into account the complete product lifecycle (post-use of the product) into account.
Imagine the discussions with ancillary industries that are or would be interested in the by-products of these manufacturing processes.
The above are no longer imaginary, great companies are engaging in these processes and initiatives today, spurring new eco-friendly careers in the process.
Today, sustainable product designers consider the environmental impacts of graphic design products (such as eliminating or minimizing raw materials usage, printed materials, packaging., transportation of products and disposal/recycling post-consumer use).
This is something that many of us do almost subconsciously when we work on art projects and cut up different shapes from a sheet of construction paper to maximize the number of shapes that can be produced. Think of it as taking this to a larger scale.