Green and Eco Design

The Three Environmental Categories

• Eco design and green design both address the three environmental categories.
• These categories are:
  • Materials
  • Energy
  • Pollution/Waste

Materials

• Increasing efficient material and resource use.
• Ensuring that packaging and instructions encourage efficient and environmentally friendly use (this could be considered to be in the waste/pollution category as well).
• Minimizing the number of different materials used in a product.
• Labelling of materials so they can be identified for recycling.

Energy

• Increasing energy efficiency in the life cycle:
  • Using excess production heat to heat the building or work floor.
  • Redesigning processes/materials so they require less energy demanding treatments
    • For example switch from fresh aluminum to recycled aluminum means a huge impact on energy use
• Using renewable energy to power (all) stages of the LC:
  • Assuring only solar energy was used in the production stage.
  • Only electric vehicles are used for distribution
    • (redesigning to decrease total product weight could means a huge reduction of fuel use in distribution)

Pollution/Waste

• Minimizing damage or pollution from the chosen materials.
• Reducing or negating noise or smell pollution.
• Reducing any long-term harm caused by use of the product to a minimum.
• Consider the effects of the disposal at the product’s end of life.
• Ensuring that the planned life of the product is most appropriate in environmental terms and that the product functions efficiently for its full life.
• Taking full account of the effects of the end disposal of the product.

Green Design

• Designing in a way that takes into account the environmental impact of the product throughout its life cycle.
• Focuses on one or two of the three environmental categories: materials, energy and pollution/waste.

• Green design integrates environmental considerations into the design of a product without compromising its integrity.
• The starting point for many green products is to improve an existing product by redesigning aspects of it to address environmental objectives.
• The iterative development of these products can be incremental or radical depending on how effectively new technologies can address the environmental objectives.
• When newer technologies are developed, the product can re-enter the development phase for further improvement.
• The purpose of green design is to ensure a sustainable future for all.

Green Design Considerations

• When evaluating a product, the designer must consider different green approaches to design, such as:
  • Raw materials used
  • Packaging
  • Incorporation of toxic chemicals
  • Energy in production and use
  • End-of-life disposal issues
  • Production methods and/or atmospheric pollutants.

Green Design Tools

• The Prevention Principle
  • The avoidance or minimization of producing waste in relation to the production, use and disposal of a product.
• The Precautionary Principle
• The anticipation of potential problems in relation to the environmental impact of the production, use and disposal of a product.

Implementation of Green Design

• Timescale: Relatively short (2 to 5 years)
  • Due to a few incremental and/or (small) radical changes on one or two of the three environmental categories.
  • Therefore relatively easy to implement and cost-effective.

Eco Design

• A design strategy that focuses on all three broad environmental categories: materials, energy and pollution/waste.

• The smart phone is an innovative example of converging technologies that combines multiple technologies into one space-saving device.
  • The resultant reduction of materials, and energy used in production and distribution has environmental benefits.
  • Its method of manufacture and assembly is still problematic however in environmental term

Eco Design Considerations

• Consideration of the environmental impact of any product, service or system during its life cycle should be instigated at the earliest stage of design and continue through to disposal.
• Designers should have a firm understanding of their responsibility to reduce the ecological impact on the planet.
• Eco-design concepts currently have a great influence on many aspects of design.

Eco Design Tools

Cradle to Grave and Cradle to Cradle

• Eco-design considers the design of a product throughout its life cycle (from cradle to grave) using life cycle analysis (LCA).
• When evaluating a product, the designer must consider the two philosophies related to eco-design:
  • Cradle to grave design
    • Cradle to Grave design considers the environmental effects of a product all of the way from manufacture to use to disposal.
  • Cradle to cradle design
    • A design philosophy that aims to eliminate waste from the production, use and disposal of a product.
    • It focuses on products which are made to be made again.

Life Cycle Assessment

• Life Cycle Assessment can be used to determine the impact on the environment a product has throughout its five life cycle stages.

• Pre-production
  • The obtaining of natural resources:
    • Resource extraction
    • Transformation
  • It can be very polluting (i.e. strip mining) or have a smaller effect on the environment (i.e. shaft mining).
  • Also includes transporting the raw materials necessary to processing industries.
• Production
  • The processing of the resources to make the product
    • Creating
    • Assembling
    • Packaging
  • Production can be damaging to environment (i.e. large factory emissions) or have a small impact (i.e. hand crafted toys).
  • 3d printed products can be less invasive than traditional manufacturing techniques, because of simpler tooling.
• Distribution
  • Includes taking the product from the factory to the warehouse, form the warehouse to the store and the packaging of the product.
    • Storing
    • Moving
    • Shipment packaging
  • It could have a large impact (i.e. a product that is shipped by plane in a Styrofoam box), or a very low impact (i.e. made and sold locally, with biodegradable box or no packaging at all).
• Utilization
  • The product's use and the effect it has on the environment.
    • Using
    • Repairing
    • Refurbishing
    • Re-using
  • A diesel generator, for example, will pollute air and make noise pollution while a solar panel will make next to none.
• Disposal
  • Depends on both the product and the method of disposal.
    • End-of-life
    • Product/energy recovery
  • Recycling one aluminum creates less environmental issues than throwing one away. Take-back policies can be effective for this.
  • Biodegradable objects can be reused, recycled, or left to be broken down and add nutrients to the soil, depending on the object..
  • Paper is best recycled because of the chemicals used to make it and the logging of forests to obtain the pulp, while a banana peel is completely useless for anything but compost.

• The roles and responsibilities of the designer, manufacturer and user at each stage of the product life cycle can be explored through LCA.
  • LCA identifies conflicts that have to be resolved through prioritization.
  • It is not widely used in practice because it is difficult, costly and time-consuming.
  • The complex nature of LCA means that it is not possible for a lone designer to undertake it and a team with different specialisms is required.

• The majority of eco-designs are not based on LCA but on less detailed qualitative assessments of likely impacts of a product over its life cycle.
• The simplest example is the use of a checklist to guide the design team during a product’s design development stages.
• For example:
  • Minimize the use of packaging
  • Optimize energy efficiency in use
  • Design for disassembly
  • Minimize parts/components/materials
  • Use recyclable materials.

Environmental Impact Assessment Matrix

• A matrix that anticipates the potential problems in relation to the environmental impact of the production, use and disposal of a product.

• Designers can also use the Environmental Impact Assessment Matrix to assess the environmental impact of a product.
• They can be more complex than LCA, focusing on one particular stage of LCA at a time and breaking processes down into individual steps, often focusing on an output in terms of resources used, wasted and by-products generated and released.

Implementation of Eco Design

• Timescale: Relatively long (5-10 years)
• Due to several incremental and/or radical changes on all three of the environmental categories
• More comprehensive approach than green design. Therefore more complex and difficult.

UNEP Eco Design Manual

• UNEP is an acronym for the UN Environment Program.
• The UN released a manual on Eco design in 1996. The major considerations of the United Nations Environmental Program Manual on Eco-design are:
  • Reduce the creation and use of toxic materials.
  • Increase recyclability.
  • Reduce energy consumption.
  • Increase use of renewable resources.
  • Increase product durability – reducing planned obsolescence.
  • Reduce material requirements for products and services
• The emphasis of the guidelines will vary depending on the type of product to be designed and the target market.

Converging Technologies

• Converging technologies is the synergetic merging of nanotechnology, biotechnology, information technologies, communication technologies and cognitive science.

• An example of converging technology is the smartphone.
• Consider the smart phone as a converging technology in terms of:
  • The materials required to create it.
  • Its energy consumption.
  • Disassembly.
  • Recyclability .
  • The portability of the devices it incorporates.
  • Functionality: telephone. texting, apps, MP3 Player, video and still camera, phone book, etc.

Advantages of Converging Technologies

• A single device with multiple functions.
• Eliminates the need to buy multiple devices.
• Miniaturization of products increase portability.
• Reduce the need for materials.
• Reduces cost and environmental impact.

Disadvantages of Converging Technologies

• If one technology fails it could lead to the other contacted tech to fail as well.
• Increased functionality of a device may lead to inefficient use.
• The converged tech may not work as well as on its own.
  • For example a proper DVD player compared to a DVD player in a games console.