The Good Design Award, one of the four greatest design awards in the world, aims at enriching lives and society through design. This year, the best designs out of 5,835 entries were selected by over 70 professionals serving as jury members. The Good Design Award winners were announced on 20 October, with O’right winning the Best 100 and Gold Award. The zero carbon brand from Taiwan also become one of the only five entries worldwide to be named a finalist for the Good Design Grand Award as “the best sustainability-oriented organizational adaptation to climate change.”
O’right—The best sustainability-oriented organizational adaptation to climate change
Last year, O’right won the Good Design Gold Award for its O’right Toothpaste N° Zero, a groundbreaking design that revolutionized century-old toothpaste formulas. This year, the company was recognized for its green operations management and sustainability governance.
Kaie Murakami, one of the Focused Issues Directors and a jury member of the Good Design Award, commented: “Sustainability efforts in the beauty industry have always been fraught with contradictions. Ideally, a brand’s products should be organic, recyclable, plastic-free, and carbon-neutral, but even if all of these are achieved, the challenges are endless. Creating new business without being bound by conventional business practices and familiar price ranges requires a great deal of management effort on the part of manufacturers. Over the past 20 years, O’right has been making progress day by day, accumulating achievements toward a certain vision through various efforts, and has achieved a balance with business. The company’s efforts to “design the company” for the future will inspire not only the patrons of its products, but also small and medium-sized businesses around the world.”
Building a sustainability-oriented business paradigm in response to climate change
Having dedicated 15 years to continuously building a sustainability-oriented business paradigm in response to climate change, O’right strives to switch from a technical to a biological mindset and from a linear to a circular economy. This year, the pioneering brand unveiled the ±R Plan, an innovative circular design that comprises of products and services that see things from the perspectives of consumers and nature. ±R Plan breaks through the technical cycle-based barriers of Reuse, Refill Reduce and takes things to the next level by exploring the biological concept of Respond, Revive, Respect. Building a vision for zero carbon consumption, ±R Plan has been conceived to enhance respect for nature and lessen the burden on human health and the environment. To O’right, sustainability is more than a corporate responsibility; it offers new opportunities, builds competitive advantage and is crucial for business survival.
“We aspire to be great instead of big,” O’right Chairman Steven Ko has often said. Last year, O’right took the Japanese design sector by storm with a revolutionary toothpaste design, the same year during which it became the world’s first zero carbon beauty company. O’right continues make its green impact felt by proving that achieving zero carbon is possible for small and medium-sized enterprises.
