The OpenEcoGoods Principles

A design earns this if a competent owner — not just the original maker — can take it apart, diagnose a failure, and fix it with common tools.

• Use standard, non-proprietary fasteners (no glued joints where a screw would do)
• Publish an exploded diagram and disassembly sequence with every design
• Design wear parts as separate, swappable components
• Avoid single-use adhesives or welds where a mechanical joint is feasible

Mixed-material composites (plastic bonded to metal, foam laminated to fabric) are cheap to manufacture and nearly impossible to recycle. We default away from them.

• Prefer a single recyclable material per part wherever structurally possible
• When composites are unavoidable, design the joint to be separable at end of life
• Favor recycled feedstock and rapidly-renewable materials (bamboo, cork, reclaimed wood) over virgin extraction
• Every material choice in a design should be justified in its bill of materials

The single biggest lever against consumer-goods waste is a product that simply isn’t thrown away. Longevity beats almost any other optimization.

• Target multi-decade service life as a default design constraint, not an afterthought
• Design for upgrade paths (e.g. swappable modules) instead of full replacement
• Avoid aesthetic choices that are tied to short-lived trends
• Prefer proven, durable techniques over novel ones that haven’t demonstrated longevity

A design that requires a specialized factory on another continent carries transport emissions and centralizes control. We optimize for the opposite.

• Designs should be buildable with tools commonly found in makerspaces and small workshops
• Avoid dependence on proprietary or single-source components where a generic equivalent exists
• Document regional material substitutions so builders aren’t locked into one supply chain
• Prefer processes (CNC, laser cutting, hand tools) that are broadly accessible over industrial-only processes

You can’t improve what isn’t measured, and a community can’t make good tradeoffs without seeing the numbers.

• Every published design includes a complete bill of materials
• Include a rough carbon/impact estimate, even if approximate — and show the method used
• State explicitly what happens to the product at end of life: recycle, compost, return, or reuse
• Update the estimate as the design changes, so it stays trustworthy

Openness is what lets repair, adaptation, and improvement happen without asking permission. It’s a design principle, not just a legal footnote.

• All designs are published under CERN-OHL-S v2 (a copyleft license built for open hardware)
• Source files (CAD, schematics, BOMs) are published in formats that don’t require paid software to open
• Forks and derivatives must remain open under the same terms
• Design history and rationale are kept in version control, not lost in private chats

A product that’s recyclable but poisons the people who make, use, or recycle it isn’t ecological.

• Exclude substances on the EU REACH Substances of Very High Concern list
• Exclude substances on relevant EPA watch lists
• Prefer finishes and coatings with published, verifiable safety data
• Flag any exception explicitly in the design docs, with the reasoning, rather than omitting it