As designers become more aware of the impact of climate change over the years, we begin to see numerous approaches toward sustainable designs. However, with the growing depletion of natural resources, designers like BU begin to question the real meaning of sustainability.

Found in 2013, BU has a mission of creating products of a happy and healthy lifestyle while remaining well designed and sustainable. With the recent Kickstarter success of their innovative water bottle called BU Water, the brand’s social mission is closer to being realised than ever.

Taking advantage of bamboo’s qualities: its abundance and durability, the designers invented a filtering mechanism by turning the stalk into charcoal and placing it inside a kiln. This porous core is then placed within a flask-like glass encasing, acting as a sponge to capture microscopic particles while allowing clean water to pass through. Its recyclability is another amazing aspect to this product. Once used, the bamboo charcoal can be crushed and blended with soil to become fertilisers in gardens. The recurring product consumption is no longer the bottle, but the organic core that’s both simple and natural.

As a designer myself, I come to appreciate the bottle’s minimal appearance, but that’s only the minor reason. The real sustainability in this design lies in its outlook because it teaches consumers a way of minimal lifestyle — one that does not need materialistic means to inspire creative thinking. With products like BU Water, we can see that sustainability is not about saving money, but it’s about tweaking our current living style into one that is much more efficient and simple.