The Colours of Sustainability: how materials CMF Design can guide sustainable perceptions and behaviours

The growing interest in sustainable production is a trend driven by increased awareness of the need for a change in today's way of designing, producing, consuming, and living. Thanks to renovated attention, different materials have been developed from a sustainable perspective, from natural to recycled, compostable and recyclable resources. The material’s origin, intrinsic qualities and the processes used often give them unique sensory attributes but with aesthetic identities not always coherent about their sustainability implications. In designing their functional, sensory, and aesthetic characteristics, sustainable products and materials must find their own identity according to their potential life cycle. As a multidisciplinary mediator, the designer can evaluate materials and product optimal life cycle, set functional and aesthetical criteria, select materials and suppliers, optimize processes, and keep attention to design materials aspects as a means of communication. CMF design can support aesthetic-sensorial thinking to model sustainable products in the materials and design sector. Colour represents a key element: together with material and finish can lead to defining the aesthetic and sensory qualities supporting a sustainable identity, perceptions, and behaviours. This paper will explore CMF as a tool for "materials design" with a close look at the colour and how it can drive sustainable perception in today's heterogeneous and complex emerging materials context. Boundaries and guidelines for the use of colour will be applied according to materials’ life cycle (source, processes, user and context, end of life) to generate greater awareness for designers wishing to select, design or apply sustainable materials in design projects.