There is a great deal of talk about sustainable design. But despite the fact that we all agree on the need to consume fewer resources, reduce pollution and avoid exploiting workers, when it comes to putting words into action certain difficulties arise. Above all, economic ones. So while awaiting the perfect balance between economics and ecology, a concrete step has been made in the form of an initiative launched by the Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum in New York and the ecology association The Nature Conservancy. Our decisions as consumers echo around the world yet there are few products that sustain the people that create them and the economy of the places where they are produced.

With the declaration, “We use natural materials, sustainable processes and support the development of local economies,” the two institutions have involved around ten international designers, commissioning each to come up with a product. Operating in different realities – from the plains of Idaho to the coast of Australia and the forests of Yunnan in China – Yves Béhar, Stephen Burks, Hella Jongerius, Maya Lin, Christien Meindertsma, Isaac Mizrahi, Abbott Miller, Ted Muehling, Kate Spade and Ezri Tarazi worked with local artisans, using local resources and following the entire process, from the transformation of the raw materials (cocoa beans, latex, wool, wood, cotton and bamboo) to the design of the objects. Until 4 January 2010, the museum will be showing the results of their work in an exhibition curated by Miller and Ellen Lupton.

Californian designer Yves Béhar for example, moved to Costa Rica, where, working alongside women in a cooperative that produces chocolate, he developed packaging for raw cacao, the basic ingredient of a hot drink that is popular with the locals, and a special grater that brings out the flavour and appearance. Stephen Burks meanwhile left New York to travel to the rainforests of Gondwana in Australia. Here he created a totem using salvaged materials, that the local populations can use in the packaging of a line of natural cosmetic products.

Dutch designer Hella Jongerius was also involved in the project. Her destination was the Mexican peninsula of the Yucatan, where she was able to study the process of obtaining latex and explore some of its more unusual potential. The result? Over twenty vases and plates with a highly particular style. The ten artists selected also included some emerging ones, such as Christien Meindertsma, a textile designer originally from Utrecht and graduate of the Design Academy at Eindhoven. Meindertsma worked at a sustainable ranch in Idaho on the making of a large-scale rug made from micro-components, each the product of a single sheep shearing. Other established names included jewellery designer New York Ted Muehling, who transformed vegetal ivory of the Micronesia and black pearls from the Ocean into a collection of necklaces and bracelets. Israeli designer Ezri Tarazi, meanwhile, came up with a series of components that connect bamboo stems, gathered in the province of the Yunnan, to create a domestic forest.

“Our goal with the exhibition”, explained the president of The Nature Conservancy, Mark Tercek, “is to connect audiences to the natural world by exploring the story of place through innovative design. The exhibition challenges us to think about the products we use—where they come from, how they are made and what the impacts are on our planet and on local communities.”