Every year, Electrolux Design Lab invites industrial design students to present innovative ideas for appliances of the future. This global competition attracts creative and lateral approaches to design challenges and has drawn thousands of entries since its inception in 2003. A prerequisite for any concept considered for progression, is an adherence to sustainable principles.

Previous finalists have included a portable solar cooker charged by its spray-on solar cells, a clothes washer where natural soap nuts replace detergents and a cooker that creates the night’s salmon dinner from a packet of genetically engineered muscle cells, oxygen, and nutrients.

The popularity of Electrolux Design Lab stems from a potential internship and learning opportunities awarded its finalists. For Electrolux, its dialogue and ideas are a springboard to thinking beyond current solutions to addressing challenges consumers face tomorrow.

In the short term, future generations of appliances will appear much the same as those found in our kitchens and laundry rooms today, however more intuitive, more energy-efficient and material-homogenous. Beyond individual appliances, we are thinking of the sustainable home, which is an integrated network where the waste from one product rejuvenates the function of another. The leftovers from yesterday’s dinner composts into fuel for the gas stove, water for the washing machine is heated by the district heating system, and heat output from refrigerators and other electrical goods is captured and piped to a place where it keeps occupants warm on a chilly night. In mega-cities where space is tight, we see how individual needs can be served by shared appliances, like on-demand laundry services and compartment freezers for apartment buildings—resource savers that consume a fraction of the energy of today’s solutions.

At Electrolux, we see sustainable design’s future as a culmination of the visual and interactive experience one enjoys when using a product, whilst simultaneously allowing us to make a change for the better. In the age of the conversation, designers are now better placed than ever to take this forward in tandem with consumers.
One particular conversation is also to be had with the suppliers of raw materials. Our foremost challenge in a world where population and economies are growing exponentially is to continually reduce the impacts of our products while guiding the consumer on how to make further sustainability choices.

In a push to Electrolux suppliers, we have highlighted the shortage of quality recycled plastic that can be used to manufacture products, whilst concurrently showing our concern with the amount of plastic that pollutes the environment. This is illustrated by our Vac from the Sea campaign which has seen Electrolux use plastic waste in the production of vacuum cleaners. Surely there is a permanent bridge that can be built to banish such discrepancies. Watch the Vac from Sea Video at Despoke TV