Special: World Industrial Design Day with David Kusuma (Part 2)
Here is the second blog of our special episode on World Industrial Design Day with David Kusuma. In this episode, we discuss various topics like Designing with different Dynamics, get answers to the questions raised by our audience, and go through a fun rapid-fire round. David talks about Tupperware working with International space stations building on the mechanism of products for proper functionality in outer space. He shares his journey on this unique collaboration, where he mentions important principles required in the working and designing for space. David explains how Technology and design cover itself in harmony to create indistinctive differences in the developing world. Additionally, he expresses his concern about social responsibility in the consumption of certain products in the digital era.
Rohit Lalwani: Tupperware sent its third launch of research with Nasa and Tech to the International Space Station a few months ago. Do you think this is opening up a new era for Industrial Design altogether?
David: When we engaged in this project, we had a lot to relearn because the physics of how things work on Earth doesn’t work the same way in space. Our project was designed to grow plants in deep-space. Astronauts live in orbit, and their access to fresh food is more critical in the development of this project. We worked closely with the life sciences laboratory of NASA at Kennedy Space Center.
We were invited to Houston to visit the space kitchen at Johnson Space Center, where they cook their package and freeze dry food for flight to the International Space Station. The big design challenge was to control the water in the absence of gravity. On Earth, there is a gravity effect when you water a potted plant, but in space, the water wants to go everywhere. We were working with NASA’s Glenn Research Center. It has NASA’s primary expertise on fluid dynamics in microgravity. We solved this issue by applying three fundamental principles. It was using specialized geometry, manipulation of surface energy, and using capillary forces using unique materials.
The WDO is currently working with the International Space Station to improve the mental health and happiness of people who live in space and tying that into small isolated communities.
As humankind ventures out into deep space, there will be more opportunities for design to develop our quality of life for space travelers.
The Lunar Gateway is the successor to the International Space Station. It’s a mini space station that’s planned to be in lunar orbit to allow both a return of man to the lunar surface as well as to launch into deep space. We will need to learn about the science surrounding space conditions. It is redesigned for the weightlessness of space.
Rohit Lalwani: How the world of Industrial Design and Technology works in Synergy to propagate a habit of responsible consumption in Mass users?
David: I live in a world of Design and Technology. It’s part of our modern-day DNA at Tupperware. We need to look at the objects we design and its environmental impact. We don’t think enough about what will be the environmental impact of our products. As designers and product developers, we need to shift consumer preferences from single-use into hard, durable multi-use packaging.
The other pollution problem of the world is afloat in smart products. Most people change their smartphone every one, two or three years, and most of them end up in the garbage because they’re designed with so-called no user-serviceable parts. If we don’t resolve this issue electronics will soon be known the same way as Plastics. During the COVID-19 pandemic, it has become more common to see gloves and masks on the roadside. In resolving one problem, we’ve created another huge problem. Design and Technology together need to look to the future. How can we design and what technologies can we incorporate? What effects objects that we develop will have on the future health of our planet? We should not forget that we only have one planet and one life, and we should take every opportunity to make our time here count.
Rohit Lalwani: If you were to talk to us about one product or project that Tupperware has done, and that’s closest to the goals of sustainability. What would that be?
David: I want to bring to mind our Wood Plastics. We launched a series of products that use natural wood, but we were not cutting down trees. We were taking wood shavings, wood fibers, discarded wood sawdust from a lumber yard. These would be thrown away, but we took them and compounded them into plastic materials that we could then mold into products, and we launched this new line called Allegra, which was beautiful.
It required a lot of Technology because it is a natural material. The problem with wood fibers is that as it gets weathered, the wood fiber sticks up the standard to the surface of the table. The thing that we had to do was to take the sawdust, incorporate it with a special food-grade coating to protect the fibers before compounding. Then we would upcycle it into these beautiful Tupperware bowls.
We’ve used recycled material that comes back from post-consumer material into a new product line, which we call a recycle line. We’ve made a whole new set of products for holding your paper towels, holding your bottles, or your soaps. We have also incorporated circular polymers in which is plastic is recycled using chemical recycling.
It uses a unique process of Pyrolysis, to break the material back down to its original constituents and then to rebuild the polymer from that. Those are food safe because we are creating a new polymer out of old materials.
We focus extremely hard on food conservation. We want consumers to know that if they use Tupperware products, there’s a net positive benefit where their food will stay fresher for a more extended period. We have several products for fruits and vegetables, cheese products, and bread. We have to develop the science that would allow food to last longer. A lot of people buy their fruits and vegetables from the supermarket. They store them just like any other food, but what they don’t keep in mind is that this food is still alive even in their post-harvest stage. They’re still alive, and they’re still going through a respirator cycle.
They still need to exchange with carbon dioxide and ethylene gas that’s being created on the inside of the container. All of the science boiled down to an opening in the container which by the way was a real game-changer at Tupperware. It was something challenging for our Senior Management to appreciate, but they finally understood. It has now become one of our most significant selling products worldwide, and it’s a product that allows consumers depending on what they are putting in to keep their fruits and vegetables for up to two to four weeks.
If you don’t want to miss out more on Sustainability and Product Innovation head to our WIDD special podcast episode. For more details, do visit the profile.
