My sister in law has spent the past ~15 years as a LEED architect and recently started her own consulting firm for sustainable building materials. If her business is any indication, what AVClub mentions is going to be very true - you’ll only find large companies with incredible amount of cash to burn or a deep social good in their charter to invest in this kind of work.
Green “Design” for ID is hard, because usually the truthful answer to sustainability is “Stop making so much shit” and “make shit that lasts forever”, neither which is sustainable for capitalism. Buildings which are multi-million dollar investments and stand to generate revenue for decades to come are better able to justify investments in sustainability and green materials, also because it often comes with a financial tax incentive (again, capitalism at work).
You’ll see Nike projects where they’ll make a shoe out of recycled bamboo, but those are small scale examples. You can see companies like Tom’s by comparison who realize they’re being wasteful, but at least put their money towards a good purpose by donating shoes 1:1 for what they sell.
You can also find material suppliers, such as Dupont or Eastman who will invest money into creating and researching more sustainable plastics and materials, but even those often find little usage because their material properties are often compromised compared to virgin or petroleum based products.
Most designers are limited to executing sustainable practices in what they design. Optimizing products for disassembly, following regulatory guidances on safe materials, avoiding design decisions that make a product completely un-recyclable like over-molding, etc.
If you wanted to try to find a new space for this, I think you would have to spend a lot of time looking at the entire product lifecycle and try to see areas where you can make a difference that not only impacts the earth but comes with the corporate ROI that would make these decisions a no-brainer for a company to implement. Sadly in our space, that’s much easier said than done.