Idemat 4+

Idemat is an essential and must-have tool for designers caring about the impact of their designs regarding material choice and related processes.

Sustainable design plays an increasingly important role in society and product design. However, designers often struggle with choosing the right materials, think the process
 is too time consuming or lack the necessary support and inspiration to perform the task ahead. To address these challenges, Delft University of Technology initiated a MSc graduation project, which involved design firms, design professionals and design students - seeking an answer to the question: "How can we empower designers to create more sustainable products?"

The Idemat app provides the answer. By bridging the gap between existing environmental knowledge and design practice, it brings life cycle assessment closer to the start of the design process – an area where more significant environmental gains can be realized. Integrating and building on the foundations of the existing IDEMATapp database by Delft University of Technology (available at www.ecocostsvalue.com), this app features an extensive collection of environmental impact data regarding materials and processes, which allows for the assessment of the eco-burden of products based on two distinct single indicators: eco-costs and carbon footprint.

A clear navigational structure functions as a guiding hand. Predefined end-of-life scenarios are automatically applied to subsequent steps, greatly simplifying the selection process. The over 480 materials and processes are divided in distinct categories, allowing for fast look-up and comparison. Visual rankings and detail screens help the user to understand and act on the presented data, and share options allow for interesting finds to be shared to others.

The means is in your hands, now it's up to you to act on it!