Did you know that the topic of sustainability has its origins in the forestry industry? For the first time at the beginning of the 18th century, forestry principles of action were formulated to fulfil and maintain the ecological, economic and social functions of a forest. This happened at a time when the rampant demand for wood was causing forest stocks to shrink worldwide, thus leading to a rethink. What was laid down in various principles of action at that time still applies today: future viability through sustainability.  

Tomorrow’s problems catch up with us yesterday. We can all see live that the whole world is changing completely within a few weeks. What seemed like a gloomy fiction is reality from one day to the next, and that across regional and national borders worldwide.

The question is rather: How do we actually want to live tomorrow? 

So we know the problems, the term climate change is now several decades old, yet basically nothing has changed, why? We describe this dilemma as the Eco-Bermuda Triangle. Our ability to think in context seems lost, we are simply overwhelmed and trapped in old patterns. To achieve a better and more sustainable future, we need to start overcoming our problem of imagining the future and designing and working out our future ourselves – we need to innovate, without pause.

What does this mean for designing the future? We need design as a competence, in other words, to design with new values. Sustainability must be internalised, cycles are a must. In addition, we need to see innovation as a strategy and a necessity – to learn, to change and to dare something new.

GENERATIONDESIGN stands for shaping the future (design) with a focus on sustainability (generations) – we create future.

We live this philosophy at our location in the ELBA Zukunftswerk – formerly the well-known ELBA binders were manufactured here, today a modern location for many start-ups and companies.

This is also the case for the young Wuppertal start-up Local Life, which specialises in the sale of regional food and is thus committed to sustainability. With our expertise in business consulting, we support the young Wuppertal company in an advisory capacity.

Further competences can be found across our portfolio, for example, a few years ago we built a complete virtual and interactive showroom for the medical company QIAGEN GmbH to support digital product communication.

For Kostal Industrie Elektrik GmbH, we created the product design of the PLENTICORE Plus photovoltaic inverter as well as the associated RedDot Award-winning KOSTAL Solar App, which allows professional monitoring of one’s own photovoltaic or storage system conveniently while on the move.

We have the knowledge, the expertise and the ability to advise and design sustainably. Do you have the courage and the consistency to develop your business in all facets in this direction? We are looking forward to this task and will always question ourselves in this respect. Our active networking and cooperation with partners such as Effizienz Agentur NRW, as well as our excellent consulting tool, the GD Innovation Roadmap, stand for sustainable and innovative consulting and design across all areas. We know the ways of implementation and can apply and implement them.

Experience with us the shaping of the future, the advantages and the added value for your company and for a common sustainable future.

Holger Bramsiepe
Managing Partner

hb@generationdesign.de