2.6 Eco-design
Essential Idea
Eco-design considers the design of a product throughout its life cycle (from cradle to grave) using lifecycle analysis.
Nature and Aims of Design
Nature of Design
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. (1.16)
Aims of Design
Aim 3: 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.
Guidance
As a student of Design Technology, you should:
Understand how designers can use LCA to assess and balance environmental impact over a product’s life cycle
Identify the benefits of organizing the life cycle stages and the environmental considerations
Create and analyse an environmental impact assessment matrix in which elements differ in importance according to the particular design context
Compare LCA data sets and use them to evaluate design decisions
Use LCA data to communicate with clients/outside agencies
Understand how LCA can be used to identify potential conflicts between clients/outside agencies, which need to be resolved through prioritization
Consider complexity, time and expense of LCA
Use checklists to guide the design team during a product’s design development stages
Understand how “design for the environment” software is used to assist designers in the assessment of environmental implications and particular facets of a design
List and describe the advantages and disadvantages of converging technologies
Concepts and principles
Green Design and Eco-design: What's the difference?
The terms Green Design and Eco-Design have different characteristics, particularly with regard to the timescale and complexity. Timescale refers to the length of time it takes to implant a design change. Long and short timescales are relative and typically determined by the complexity of the technological change being implemented. Incremental solutions, because of their simpler and smaller nature, are implemented on relatively short timescales. Radical solutions, because of their complexity are typically implemented on longer timescales.
Green-Design
Focus is on the re-engineering of a design to reduce it's environmental impact and increase its sustainability. Green design focuses on making changes that are typically incremental in nature: switching to a recyclable material, reducing energy in manufacturing or use, increasing durability of the product. Green Design typically focuses on one or two environmental objectives, such as switching to sustainable materials or reducing energy usage.
Short timescale
Incremental changes (small changes over time)
Low risk
Eco-Design
It is a more complex approach to sustainability. Think "ecology": The design fits into a system. Cradle-to-Cradle design (C2C), Circular Economies, etc. are examples of eco-design. For designers, eco-design is more than just using green materials--it considers the entire lifecycle of the product and its impacts.
Long timescale
Great complexity
High risk
Life Cycle Analysis
Life Cycle Analysis is a tool for analyzing the environmental impact of a design of the course of its manufacture, use and disposal. It is used to help designers and manufactures to understand the impact of their designs and identify opportunities to innovate a product.
Cradle to Cradle Design
Cradle to Cradle (C2C) design is an approach to design that seeks to consider and design for the entire lifecycle of a product. It applies design strategies that minimize the environmental impact of a design from its manufacture to end of life. At its best, it is a design that allows for the expired product to "re-enter" as a new product. Think "ecosystem" in that nothing is wasted, and that when products reach their end-of-life they are reconstituted into new forms, much like in a natural ecosystem.
Circular Economy
Acting on analysis: What can designers do with this information?
Life-Cycle Analysis (LCA) is a tool used to assess the environmental impact of a design. Sometimes called cradle-to-grave analysis, these analyses look at all stages of a product's life:
extraction of raw materials
processing of materials
manufacture of the product
distribution of the product
use of the product by the user
repair and maintenance of the product during its usable life
recycling and disposal of the product at the end of its usable life
Designers use LCA to gain insight into the environmental impact of their design. Through conducting an LCA, designers can:
identify the relevant energy inputs (embodied energy) that go into the making, use, and disposal of the product
identify relevant material inputs that go into the manufacture and use of the product (raw materials, consumable materials used in the use of the product -- coffee filters used in a coffee machine, for example)
identify release of chemicals and harmful substances released into the environment (CO2 emissions, Greenhouse gases, etc.)
evaluate the impact of their design on the environment
The information in an LCA can be used by designers to identify areas for innovation that improve the overall environmental impact of a product.
Take, for example, the LCA of a coffee maker. Using the Ecolizer database, the design is assessed as follows:
From the analysis, we can see that 86% of the impact comes from the use of the design. Looking more carefully, we see that use has been broken down into two components:
The electricity used to heat the coffee pot, and
the use of disposable coffee filters:
This information can then be used by designers to improve the design in an innovative manner. For example, the use of a reusable coffee filter would greatly reduce the impact of the disposable ones. In addition, the designer could examine alternative ways to improve the heat efficiency of the design - perhaps including insulative materials in the coffee pot could reduce heat loss and keep the coffee warmer for longer periods.
Ecolizer
Ecolizer is an open LCA database sponsored by the Belgium Government
Designers can register for free and access the database to create LCAs of their designs
The example we look at here comes from their opensource database.
Ecolizer gives a score based on ReCiPe
You can learn more about the science and protocol of using ReCiPe here
Essentially, the lower the value, the less impact your design has.
Circular Economy: Rethinking our future
This short video introduces some of the challenges and problems we face, and how a Circular Economy can help improve our future.
Video 1:
Tim Brown, CEO of design firm IDEO, explains the circular economy and why designers need to get involved.
Video 2:
Designer Karoline Kirchhübel explains how to identify 'circular opportunities'.
Video 3:
When designing for the circular economy, we need to get comfortable with the idea of zooming in and out, and thinking about the systems that a product is a part of.
