PALLETS, A LIFE CYCLE ANALYSIS: A STUDY TO DEMONSTRATE THE IMPORTANCE OF DESIGN TO SUSTAINABILITY

Abstract

This article aims to demonstrate the importance of Transversal Design for sustainability, linking different areas of knowledge with relevant issues and complex problems (wicked problems) – such as consume and production system, sustainability, management of people and processes, technology, information overload, relationship man and object, culture, identity, among others – that permeate the current fluid and constantly changing scenario. The resolution of complex and wicked problems should not be understood as a responsibility only of political actors, new networks must be created between individuals, businesses and public authorities associating creativity and entrepreneurship to generate shared values and potential solutions for sustainability. Shared management problems will be discussed through a descriptive methodology case study in two different communities with similar purposes. The communities of Jeceaba and Jardim Canada (Nova Lima, Minas Gerais, Brazil), reusing waste (pallets) discarded from furniture and adornments production, in order to minimize environmental impacts, but one applies the design methodology in the creative process and implementation of parts while the other doesn’t have methodology in respect to local restrictions. The analysis of these studies leads to understanding the importance of design to produce economically efficient, socially just and environmentally sustainable projects.