Can design change the world

For all but a few eco savvy cosumers, price, functionality, convenience and aesthetics going to be the deciding factors. But products can change: how are they made, what they are made of and what happens to them once their immediate usefulness has expired. The best people able to make these types of changes are not consumers but designers.
Environmental intervention begins at a product's conception. The challenges are the costs, clients demands, short schedules, and environmental issues.

"We design products so that people are using the safest materials possible when making them, but also designing them so that when the product is through its first iteration of utility, it can be deconstructed and the materials reused." (James Ewell)

When showing people how design changes their own life, they are more likely to accept that design has the potential to change small problems in the world. Designers worked out some approaches and methodologies, through decades of practice, that are pretty good at reinventing things and solving problems. Maybe these methods can be applied...

Design is the art of planning (Paula Scher).