How to design responsibly in industry 5.0
The design world is shifting—again. With the rise of Industry 5.0, we are moving beyond smart automation and digital efficiency to something more profound: a humanity-centered, sustainability-driven future. Coined as the fifth industrial revolution, it is a new phase that combines creativity with advanced technology to improve efficiency, sustainability, and productivity. This new era challenges designers, architects, and innovators to rethink the way we create spaces, products, and experiences.
Sustainability is thrown around as a theme, concept, or mission, but beyond buzzwords, Sustainability is layered. So often it is reduced to a checklist—using eco-friendly materials, eliminating plastic, or reducing carbon footprints. While these are important, they only scratch the surface. Sustainability, as everyone is realizing now, is no longer an option and no longer just about reducing waste; it’s about designing systems that regenerate, restore, and rethink our relationship and interaction with the environment.
For years, sustainability has been boxed into superficial actions—replacing plastics, choosing eco-friendly materials, or reducing energy consumption. While these are contributory to being truly circular, they are only the first few steps in a long, winding staircase. True sustainable design goes deeper, towards an approach that incorporates circularity, transparency, and longevity, ensuring that what we create today does not burden the planet and the people of tomorrow.
Reports from WGSN’s Sustainability Bulletin highlight a necessary shift: businesses and designers must move toward zero-waste models, regenerative ecosystems, and product life cycles that extend far beyond a single-use phase or against the traditional take-make-waste system. The challenge we collectively face now is: How do we integrate these principles into the way we design our built environments, interiors, and material selections? Are the considerations we have still valid, or would they require expansion? Perhaps, designing experiences and interactions should be the primary focus in order for circularity to be ingrained in our behavior.
What it means when we go circular
One of the key tenets of Industry 5.0 is circularity—a design methodology that ensures materials, products, and spaces remain useful for as long as possible before being repurposed or naturally decomposed. Industry 5.0 is human-centric. If its predecessor is focused on technologies, innovations, and automation, now we find ourselves in an era that demands consciousness in everything we do.
Radical transparency
More than ever, consumers are now experiencing the impact of climate change and are becoming increasingly aware of greenwashing, where companies make misleading environmental claims without concrete proof. This has influenced a behavior towards brands that are more critical of what they see at face value. According to the WGSN Sustainability Toolkit, designers and businesses must embrace radical transparency to meet the needs of demanding consumers to ensure that sustainability claims are backed by measurable action and verifiable certifications.
For industry professionals in the built environment, this means choosing materials with legitimate sustainability certifications like Cradle to Cradle, FSC, or GreenGuard; providing clients with environmental impact reports from construction to disposal; and educating consumers about the importance of circularity and ethical sourcing, and perhaps the negative impact of deciding against it.
Designing products and spaces that last
The future of design must go beyond aesthetics and into functional longevity, which can mean a lot of things. But for the Philippines, we can take small steps or big leaps in the following areas:
1. As an agricultural country, we can prioritize biodegradable and recyclable materials, such as hempcrete, mycelium, bio-based plastics, or pulp and paper-based packaging materials like Pinyapel.
2. We can create modular interiors and adaptable spaces that evolve with time rather than requiring constant renovations;
3. We can utilize waste from compostable textiles and low-impact finishes that break down naturally without releasing harmful chemicals
A great real-world example of such application is IKEA’s flagship store in Vienna, which maximizes sustainability through solar panels, pedestrian accessibility, and over 160 climbing plants that reduce urban heat. But the question remains: Can Philippine commercial developments adopt similar forward-thinking solutions?
(To be continued)
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Carla Mae Leonor is a Design & Innovation Strategist, Sustainability Advocate, and Entrepreneur committed to shaping the future of the Philippine creative industry. She serves as the Chief of the Design Services Division at the Design Center of the Philippines, the Director for Public Relations and Communications of the Philippine Institute of Interior Designers, and the Co-Founder of Bughaw Creative Collective. With a deep focus on innovation, sustainability, and industry growth, she bridges the gap between government and the private sector, empowering designers, entrepreneurs, and industries to thrive in an ever-evolving landscape.
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