Okala Practitioner supports working designers and students with practical methods for designing products, services and systems with low impacts to ecological health and human health. Developed over a decade by ID Professors Philip White, IDSA, Louise St. Pierre and Steve Belletire, IDSA, Okala Practitioner was distributed to IDSA professional members with the 2013 summer INNOVATION magazine. The tools and information in the guide, which have been significantly expanded and revised from previous Okala guides, support informed dialogue and responsible decisions with clients, supervisors and design team members.
Systemic tools such as the Ecodesign Strategy Wheel and life cycle assessment (LCA) help designers see a more complete view to steer their work toward more ecologically responsible behaviors and designs. Okala Impact Factors are a designer-friendly form of LCA developed with robust North American science. They enable quick “back of an envelope” decision making, so that an understanding of ecological impacts can be factored into design decisions early in the concept phase.
Okala Impact Factors have been calculated for an expansive range of materials and processes that enable modeling of environmental performance over the entire life cycle. Core methods are indicated clearly for designers with limited time. Okala Practitioner also is distributed through amazon.com and part of the sales revenues support IDSA’s Ecodesign Special Interest Section.