The role of the designer in mitigating environmental impacts: Building a sustainable future

Abstract

This research discusses the ecological crisis and the importance of designers in mitigating environmental effects, highlighting the need to re-evaluate our production methods and systems to help conserve natural resources. Therefore, the main objective of this research is to investigate the role and contribution of design in reducing the environmental effects resulting from the current ecological crisis. To this end, research instruments were used such as the systematic review of academic literature related to sustainable design and bibliometric research with Oasisbr, Scielo and BDTD databases, with a time frame of the years 2020 - 2023. This review will cover studies, relevant theories and practices in the field under study, highlighting the main current trends and challenges. Regarding the results, this research presents some definitions of the main themes covered in the studies, revealing which aspects of the designer's role in mitigating environmental impacts are most discussed in the literature. Finally, it can be concluded that the environmental crisis is a global challenge that requires immediate and effective actions to preserve natural resources, in this sense the role of the designer is crucial in mitigating environmental impacts through innovation in sustainable materials and practices, selection of raw materials, choice of technologies and adoption of new production models, all of these actions have a considerable influence on both the environment and the final cost of the product, highlighting the need for sustainable practices to minimize environmental damage and maintain economic viability.