2.8.1Environmental issues

Introduction

Designers have an ever-increasing responsibility to design products that have minimal environmental impact. They not only have to consider how to conserve materials, but also how to conserve energy during product manufacture.

Sustainable development has three strands:

Economic

Social

Environmental

Designs of the future must consider all three strands when designing and manufacturing products. The three strands are interlinked and involve decisions about material choice (cost, use, end of product life recycling), processing implications (energy use, pollution), and manufacturing (energy use and working conditions).

The starting point for many environmental decisions is the Six R’s of sustainability from Unit 1.11.

Reduce

Cut down the amount of material and energy used to make and package the product.

Example: use a refillable water bottle rather than single use.

Reuse

At the end of the product’s life, reuse the product for the same or another purpose.

Example: refilling a jar of coffee from a refill pack.

Recycle

Convert waste products into new materials for new products. Example: used aluminium cans recycled into material to make new products

Recycling works in one of three ways:

Primary recycling:

the use of functioning second-hand products such as those found in charity shops. This could also be considered reuse.

Secondary recycling:

at the end of a products life, the materials are recycled to make different products. Boat sails can be recycled to make shopping bags and polymer bottles made into plant pots. Could also be considered upcycling.

Tertiary recycling:

this is completely breaking down a product and reformulating via a chemical process. Vending machine cups can be turned into pencils and plastic bottles can be shred and spun into fibres to make fleece textile clothing.

Repair

When a product or component fails, fix it rather than throwing it away. Example:

repairing a puncture on a bike tyre rather than throwing it away.

Refuse

Exercise consumer choice as to whether to buy a product or not. Example: only

buying A+++ rated appliances.

Rethink

Rethink the way products are designed and manufactured so that they carry out the same function, but more efficiently.

Can you think of examples of products that exemplify each of these approaches?

Can you think of products that could be improved by taking a more environmental approach to their design?

Using sustainable materials and components

The use of sustainable materials and components is an essential objective for any designer. The use of finite resources such as oil and metal ores cannot continue because there are not enough resources to meet future demand. Trees also need to be replanted to help clean CO2 from the air and provide Oxygen as well as other benefits to the environment.

What other benefits do you think these may be?

Many companies will consider their carbon footprint and the subsequent impact on the environment. The carbon footprint is the total amount of CO2 released into the atmosphere as a result of the activities of the company.

Primary carbon footprint

measures direct emissions of CO2 from the burning of fossil fuels, including transport. Around 2.3kg of carbon is emitted for every one litre of petrol used.

Secondary carbon footprint

measures indirect CO2 from the products we use. The production of five polymer bags produces about 1kg of CO2.

Green design

Eco design improvements to a phone

The following is just a small list of improvements that can be made to mobile phones in order to reduce their impact on the environment;

use recycled materials for the casing
use recycled copper for the components
refuse to use aluminium in the casing as its expensive to produce
make the phone smaller to reduce materials needed
reduce the number of components needed (touch screens do this)
rethink energy and provide human or solar power to charge
use recycled materials in the packaging
chargers that switch off when the battery is charged to reduce consumption
rethink classic styling so the phone does not ‘date’ too quickly
downloadable upgrades to ensure new features. Refuse to upgrade the handset
rethink interchangeable casings to keep the phone attractive to the consumer
make the phone repairable
optimise the phone for ‘end of life’ so it can be dismantled easily for recycling.

Green Design Products

Examples of green design products include clothing made from organically grown and naturally coloured cotton, coffee machines with reusable filters, sandals made from recycled denim, folding bicycles to encourage commuters to conserve fuel, condensing gas boilers (around 90% efficient), pencils made from recycled cups, biodegradable carrier bags. The list is endless.

Manufacturers, retailers and consumers are becoming increasingly concerned with the impact that the products they make or use have on the environment. For the manufacturer, laws may govern these decisions but for the consumer it is often an increasing awareness of the damage to the environment and a desire to improve the world.

Designers ultimately create the products that will be manufactured, and consumers can only buy products that are available. There is a great deal of responsibility when designing to ensure products will meet current standards, appeal to consumers and help the environment while also being functional and attractive.

Green Design is an approach to design that will reduce the impact on the environment. It focuses on one or two areas such as conserving materials through recycling or the energy when using those products.
Ecodesign is an approach that goes further than green design. It seeks to reduce the impact of a product throughout its whole life cycle from material extraction to final disposal. See also Life Cycle Assessment.
Sustainable Design is where the main function of a product is analysed and a more environmentally sound method of performing the same function is sought. This may also have wider socio-economic benefits such as safety for workers producing the product, fair trade schemes etc.
Sustainable Innovation is a radical approach that goes beyond sustainable design to look for new ways of doing things using a mix of products and services. For example, instead of using a washing machine, a community based laundry service could be implemented at the same time as recycling your waste. Biodiesel powered vehicles would collect, then possibly return your clothes along with your weekly groceries.

Environmental Issues

The environmental impact of packaging

Packaging is an important aspect of any product design. One of the most commonly used packaging items is the carrier bag. Once free and readily given away, a charge of 5 pence was introduced to deter shoppers from asking for them and to adopt the reusable bags which costs only 10 pence and can carry much more than two disposable carrier bags.

Stores now offer a range of colourful ‘bags for life’ that can be reused and will be replace free of charge once they eventually wear out.

Use of the 5p bags dropped by over 70% and in January 2020, Thailand became one of the first countries to ban plastic bags outright in major supermarkets.

Case Study 1

Nintendo is a company that is increasingly green in terms of packaging. They use at least 80% recycled paper in shipping packaging and no longer use styrofoam. Instructions are printed on recycled paper and they no longer use plastic gamepak covers.

Furthermore, their Labo range, extends the play features of their products with accessories made from recycled cardboard!

The environmental impact of packaging

Packaging remains necessary to protect and store consumer items but there are still ways of being environmentally friendly with the design of the packaging. When shipping a large fragile product like a TV, there are few alternatives that will provide sufficient protection, but what if the box could be reused.

In 2020, Samsung launched a global design competition with a $20000 prize for innovative designs that reuse the boxes their (increasingly large) TV’s are packed in.

Green design

Green Design Packaging

Due to EU directives much design has gone into reducing packaging materials and packaging waste.

Most phone manufacturers have replaced Polystyrene inserts with moulded cardboard, and Sennheiser give consumers a choice of buying headphones in plain eco-friendly packaging. Duracell now supply batteries in simple recycled card boxes rather than blister packs.

A recent development in packaging is the use of inflatable LDPE ‘cushions’ which are easily deflated ready for recycling.

Conservation of energy

Alternative energy sources (renewable)

the major advantage of renewable energy is that is it sustainable and should never run out.
renewable energy facilitates less maintenance than traditional generators
fuel derived form natural resources reduces operational costs
little or no waste, such as CO2, is produced meaning minimal environment impact.
social and economic benefits; a renewable energy project can bring benefits through
employments and use of local services to an area.

Disadvantages

it can be difficult to generate large quantities of electricity
renewable energy relies on the weather
renewable energy cannot be stored in large quantities for later use
renewable energy is currently more expensive than traditional fossil fuels

Conservation of resources

The Rebound Effect

This is a phenomenon that describes how society reacts to improvements in the environmental performance of products. For example as cars become more fuel efficient and cheaper to run, more people will use them. There is a pattern of consumers trading up to larger cars as a result which essentially negates any gains to the environment.

Therefore even though products are becoming greener, their increased use can potentially cancel out any environmental benefits.

Sustainable design

We are currently consuming the earths resources at an alarming rate. Oil and metal ores are slowly running out especially as the former is also a key source of fuel. Only timber can be replaced but not quickly enough to meet the current rate of consumption. Converting raw materials, manufacturing products then using them consumes a huge amount of energy. This in turn creates CO2 emissions which add to pollution and global warming. The Earth’s climate and weather is being affected as a result. Additionally, consumer waste is being sent to landfill which causes further environmental hazards.

Many consumers are already recycling packaging waste and making responsible decisions about the products they buy, and the energy consumed in using those products as well as their impact on the environment. It is therefore the responsibility of designers and manufacturers to develop products that use materials responsibly and give the consumer the opportunity to contribute to helping the environment by using fewer materials and components, consume less energy or recover and reuse materials after disposal.

Product miles

are the total lifetime distance that a product is transported from its place of production to the place of use by the consumer. It is a concept widely used in the food industry (food miles) where there is a market push by consumers for locally sourced and produced foods.

A typical product might travel as follows:

raw material source to processing plant
processed material to manufacturing facility
manufacturing facility to distribution hub
distribution hub to retail outlet
retail outlet to user’s home
from home to recycling centre

Circular Economy

The world has finite resources of oil, natural gas and metals, but the current ‘throwaway’ culture and cycle of raw material extraction, processing, use and disposal is not a sustainable approach.

A circular economy aims to use materials in a way that ensures a continual cycle of reuse and remanufacture without utilising wasteful resources or having products end their life in landfill.

A circular economy is a ‘cradle to cradle’ approach in a product life cycle, rather than the traditional ‘cradle to grave’ approach.

A circular economy considers two ‘nutrients’ for continual product disassembly and reuse:

Biological nutrients: organic non-toxic materials that can be simply composted and safely re-enter the ecosystem such as products made from wood that can naturally biodegrade.

Technical nutrients: man-made materials designed to be used repeatedly at the same initial high quality with minimal energy and no adverse effects. Examples include cars and washing machines designed to be more easily disassembled at the end of their working life.

The importance of a circular economy

As well as creating new opportunities for growth, a more circular economy will:

work against the unsustainable ‘take, make, dispose’ culture
promote and drive greater resource productivity
reduce the use of finite resources
reduce waste
avoid pollution
deliver a more competitive UK economy
help reduce the environmental impact of our product manufacture and consumption in both the UK and global markets

Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) is sometimes referred to as the ‘birth to death’ or ‘cradle to grave’ of a product’s life. It considers where the product comes from (birth/cradle), what it does during its life and what happens when it reaches the end of its useful life (death/grave).

consider the raw materials used in a product, where they come from and how they are processed. All of these have an effect on the environment.
materials have to be processed into products which uses resources and energy.
the products need to be packaged, stored and transported; again all using energy and causing pollution.
during its life it may require fuel, power or consumables; for example a washing machine uses electricity as well as water and detergent which is then put back into the environment as waste.
at the end of its life, a product needs to be removed and disposed of which can have an adverse effect on the environment.
the potential damage to the environment at all stages can be reduced by careful design and planning.

Case Study 2

Environmental impact of consumer electrical goods

If the lifecycle assessment were to be carried out on a TV, it would identify the ‘use’ stage causes the most damage to the environment due to electrical consumption. 80% of the CO2 emissions created in the life cycle of a TV are from this phase.

Such assessments lead to improved Life Cycle Design (LCD) and modern TV’s have certain improvements such as:

combined DVD and digital tuner built in
standby features and automatic brightness adjustment (eco mode).
low energy circuits and components
LCD displays that use less power
replacement of polymers and metals with wood products to aid recycling. Philip Starck was designing MDF TV’s decades ago.

Case Study 3

Technological developments in eco light bulbs

Traditional bulbs used a filament which glowed when heated or ignited but such bulbs

can no longer be sold in the UK and have been replaced by a variety of eco friendly

bulbs such as compact fluorescent light bulbs.

Light Emitting Diodes (LED’s) produce light when electrons pass between two pieces

of semi-conducting materials. They are used in TV’s, car headlights and torches. They

are very robust and long lasting (10,000 hours) while consuming very little power.

Electrodeless Induction Lamps have no electrode or filament to wear down and last

around 20,000 hours. They are the low voltage bulbs that have now replaced

traditional incandescent bulbs.

Case Study 4

The environmental impact of cars

The main materials used in cars are Aluminium, Mild steel, Copper, Glass and Polymers.

Most of these can be recycled to some degree, but he extraction of these materials consumes

large amounts of energy. Production of the cars also uses energy and produces pollutants.

Cars used to run on leaded fuel which is now banned and all modern vehicles run on

unleaded petrol, diesel, gas, electricity or a hybrid of these.

It is during the life of the car that the highest impact on the environment occurs. Petrol and

diesel produce CO2, carbon monoxide, nitrogen oxides and unburned hydrocarbons; all of

which are hazardous to human health. Cars contribute 30% of the total carbon emissions in

the UK.

Approximately 80% of the impact of cars on the environment occurs during the ‘use’ stage

of their lifecycle.

Green or eco design in cars

Over the last decade or so the idea of a practical consumer vehicle that doesn’t run

on fossil fuels (i.e. petrol and diesel) has become a reality, but more than this

designers are conscious of not just reinventing the same old technology. They need to

look at ways to reduce running costs and damage to the environment. These may

include:

lightweight Aluminium engines

improved aerodynamics

polymers to reduce weight

thin section bodies using Aluminium rather than Steel

stop/start technology

electronic engine management systems

asbestos free brakes, recycled textiles, natural fibres in upholstery, water based

paints, coding of parts to aid recycling and digital manuals to avoid the use of

paper just to name a few.

Hybrids Cars

An early development in eco cars was the combination of electrical and fuel powered

vehicles. Toyota was one of the first manufacturers to produce a hybrid car and this

combination allows the engine to use electric power when running at slow speed but at

higher speeds the petrol engine takes over as it needs less fuel to maintain its momentum. It

also charges the battery and ensures that the car does not have to remain plugged in, as is

the case with all electric vehicles.

The petrol engine also allows for features such as air conditioning, stereos and other

features that would drain the battery too quickly. Critics argue that hybrid cars are only

effective at slow speed using the electric engine and that once running on petrol the

increased weight of the battery offers no real advantage over a standard car.

Electric Cars

With advances in battery power and the means to convert electricity into the power

needed to drive a vehicle, full electric cars are now a reality. Furthermore, cars like

the Tesla prove that they can still have performance as well as green credentials even

if the range is limited to under 200 miles.

Hydrogen Fuel Cells

The water powered car remains a dream, but scientists are developing fuel cells that

convert hydrogen and oxygen into water which generates electricity in the process.

Bio Diesel

As sources of natural oil are being depleted we are having to turn to synthetic

sources. One of these is Bio Diesel which is derived from vegetable oil extracted from

rape seed and palm. Diesel made from the plant is ‘carbon neutral’ as the diesel

produces the same amount of CO2 when burned as the plant would absorb when

growing.

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