Green Design (Sustainable Design, Eco-Design, or Design for the Environment) is product design intended to, in short, reduce the use of non-renewable resources, minimize environmental impact, and connect people with their environment.
Although designers had long considered industrial design's potentially harmful consequences, only in the 1980s did the design world begin to commonly discuss the term ¨green design.¨ The 1970s had marked the need for sustainable development in E. F. Schumacher in his book Small is Beautiful(1973) and the establishment of one of the first environmentally conscious enterprises - Anita Roddick's Body Shop - in 1976. The literature expanded in the 1980s and the Design Centre in London hosted the pioneering Green Designer exhibition in 1986.
During the ¨ethical 90s¨ and onward major European companies like Philips and Zansussi and American ones like IBM made efforts to make their production more eco-friendly. Through clever design and recycling such companies seek to develop more sustainable, cleaner products and processes.