Sustainable design, eco friendly design, “green” designs are words all too prevalent - as they should be. Design has acquired a conscience and no longer are designers perceived as diva “hippy” creative types, for now they are doing their all to change the planet, to better it, to enhance its lifetime and for that matter ours! Perhaps the word hippy has a rather misconceiving connotation to it - when one thinks hippy they think of anti-establishment types. For example look at the definition of hippy and it is a person especially of the late 1960’s who rejected established institutions and values and sought spontaneity, direct personal relations expressing love, and expanded consciousness, often expressed externally in the wearing of casual clothing and of beads, headbands, used garments etc. Personally I am a bit bemused that a dictionary can be so banal in its meaning, surely it’s an antiquated idea; that was a period that has now flowed over to a very incorrect or vacuous meaning - and can the external of clothes really do enough to describe the internal?Do you love the earth, do you care what happens to matter around you, do you accept that you are not the ultimate being - ask these simple questions, ask if you do care about releasing toxins, of waste - and if you answer yes, it simple - you too are a hippy, in the now sense, in the sense of conscience.so we come to the original topic of sustainable design, are we all doing our bit, are we all watching the carbon footprint in our products we manufacture, purchase and sell. It is not necessarily all about recycling (not to say do not recycle) but it is also about buying a product that you will want to keep - forever, that does not need to be recycled. It is about using clever materials, about following nature and understanding nature and from there design based and following the most beautiful and most complex but yet simple design of all… the natural world!