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IDEA Awards: Packaging is the Product, Business Cards are Trash

By GreenerDesign Staff
Published July 21, 2008

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Packaging

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DULLES, Va. -- A lamp with wrapping that becomes the lampshade and a biomass-burning stove that keeps smoke out of homes are just a couple of the winners of the 2008 International Design Excellence Awards (IDEA) that included social responsibility and concern for the environment.

Presented by the Industrial Designers Society of America, the awards cover 17 categories. Aside from the six awards in the ecodesign category, various winners in other areas integrated social responsibility and sustainability into their designs.

Some of this year's ecodesign winners are:

Knoend's Lite2go Lamp, which produces no packaging waste since the outer packaging becomes the lamp shade. The product is made up only of compenents that are recycleable or biodegradable.

Brazilian firm Tátil's Greencard (shown above), business cards made from discarded packaging provided by suppliers and employees.

Cree LED Lighting Solutions' LR6 LED light, designed for use in residential or commercial retrofits and simple enough for consumers to install without the help of an electrician.

Treepac Shipping System, a reusable shipping container.

Chulha low-smoke biomass stove, created by Philips Design for use by people living in rural India. The stove burns biomass fuel more effectively, reducing smoke output and directing smoke out of the household.

Green design wasn't just relegated to the ecodesign section. Winners with the environment and society in mind in the other 16 categories include the Adiri Natural Nurser Baby Bottle, a product free of bisphenol A and phthalates; the Kristall Chandelier, made primarily of recycled aluminum; the One Laptop Per Child project, which provides energy efficient laptops to children around the world; U-Box-It, a recycled-content and recyclable box for hauling away up to 1,000 pounds of construction waste; and a washing machine that minimizes water and electricity use by setting water volume based on load size.

The Industrial Designers Society of America has presented the IDEAs since 1980, and added the ecodesign category in 2006.

Complete details on all winners and past awards are available at the IDEA website and BusinessWeek, sponsor of the awards.