E Media's Global Zero: Design for Environment in a Small Firm

Shape, Inc. is the last remaining videocassette manufacturer in the United States. It successfully competes against foreign suppliers with a nearly 50-fold labor-cost advantage using a combination of automation and innovative design. One of its products, the Global Zero (G0) videocassette, exemplifies many of the precepts outlined by sustainable design. Developed over a period of three years by the design firm E Media and coming into production in January 1993, the Global Zero offers an alternative that is cost-effective to manufacture, offers consumer advantages, is 100-percent recyclable, and has the potential for a closed-loop material usage cycle.