Clean technology seeks to reduce waste/pollution from production processes through radical or incremental development of a production system.

Clean technology is found in a broad range of industries, including water, energy, manufacturing, advanced materials and transportation. As our Earth’s resources are slowly depleted, demand for energy worldwide should be on every designer’s mind when generating products, systems and services. The convergence of environmental, technological, economic and social factors will produce more energy-efficient technologies that will be less reliant on obsolete, polluting technologies.

• Drivers for cleaning up manufacturing: promoting positive impacts; ensuring neutral impact or

minimizing negative impacts through conserving natural resources; reducing pollution and use of

energy; reducing wastage of energy and resources

• International legislation and targets for reducing pollution and waste

• End-of-pipe technologies

• Incremental and radical solutions

• System level solutions

• The role of legislation to provide the impetus for manufacturers to clean up manufacturing processes

• Advantages and disadvantages of incremental and radical solutions

• How manufacturers react to legislation

• How legislation can be monitoring and policing

As a designer you need to understand that the legislation for reducing pollution often focuses on the output and, therefore, end of- pipe technologies. By implementing ideas from the circular economy, pollution is negated and waste eliminated.