The Impact of Designed Products on Sustainability

A Report for Unit 3: Managing Design in the Global Society and Economy

MDes Design Management at Ravensbourne College, London, UK.

Author Marcel Mnch Lang Street 9 E1 4JE London Student ID 95828012

Assignment due 30.11.2012 Tutor & Assessor Carrie Huang

Content

London, United Kingdom

Content
Content ...........................................................................................................II Figures and Illustrations ...............................................................................3 Abbreviations .................................................................................................4 1. Environmental Impact of Designed Products ......................................5 2. The Past: Putting on Makeup .................................................................7 3. The Present: Things are Even More Complicated ...............................8 4. The Future: Circles and Loops ........................................................... 11 Bibliography .................................................................................................. V

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Figures and Illustrations

Figures and Illustrations

Fig. 1: Product system from a life-cycle perspective .......................................6 Fig. 2: Life Cycle Analysis for a MacBook .......................................................6 Fig. 3: Recyclable products will still harm the environment if thrown into the wrong bin. ..................................................................................9 Fig. 4: Our buy-recycle-reward scheme and incentives for stakeholders .... 10

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Abbreviations

Abbreviations
DfE EPR EU E-Waste GHG LCA RoHS Design for Environment Extended Producer Responsibility European Union Electronic waste Greenhouse Gas Life Cycle Assessment Restriction of Hazardous Substances; EU Di-

rective on the restriction of the use of certain hazardous substances in electrical and electronic equipment 2002/95/EC

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Environmental Impact of Designed Products

1. Environmental Impact of Designed Products

The question of how to tackle environmental sustainability issues of designed products is a tough one. Hardly any manufactured product meets a strict definition of being environmental friendly. Most products will fail such standards simply due to the fact that in the process of manufacturing and production natural capital is turned into man-made capital. For the most part this is a linear process, which means that only a small amount of extracted resources will be reused, and as a result natural resources diminish. All products take up resources, use energy and produce waste that has to be processed, leaving a footprint. (Stamm, 2008, p. 278) Hence, the footprint of products well extends beyond resource depletion and can be as serious as contributing to global warming, loss of ozone, increased energy use, solid waste and toxic emissions as well as air and water pollution with all consequences for humans beings as well as for flora and fauna. (Lewis and Gertsakis, 2001, p. 101) Based on these insights, Bettina von Stamm states that companies should focus on creating ecologically compatible products that minimise such impacts on the environment by considering all inputs and outputs during the products life cycle. (Stamm, 2008, p. 278) A key tool for designing minimum-impact products is the life-cycle assessment (LCA). The goal of such an assessment is an analysis of the environmental impact of a product for each stage of the products life as shown in figure 1. (Lewis and Gertsakis, 2001, p.42)

Environmental Impact of Designed Products

Fig. 1: Product system from a life-cycle perspective (Lewis and Gertsakis, 2001, p.42) When analysing each stage it becomes evident that every product is different regarding its composition and impact on the environment. Taking into account the energy necessary to power an Apple MacBook for many years, the environmental impact during use almost equals that of production.

Fig. 2: Life Cycle Analysis for a MacBook (Jansson, 2008, www.images.apple.com, p. 1) In contrast, the recyclable packaging we have looked at for our unit practical project only has a very short lifespan in which no additional harm is done. 6

The Past: Putting on Makeup

Furthermore, it is an important insight that no matter at which stage the impact occurs, the design process is ultimately crucial to which materials are selected and how much energy the product will use its life. (Lewis and Gertsakis, 2001, p. 14) John Thackara sums this up, stating that eighty percent of the total environmental impact is locked into a product already at its design stage. (Thackara, 2005, p. 17)

2. The Past: Putting on Makeup

The problem with minimising the environmental impact of products is, that raw materials are comparably cheap, as is the energy input necessary for manufacture of most consumer products. Therefore incentives for business to invest into Design for Environment (DfE) remained weak in the past. Mostly an additive end-of-pipe technology approach seemed sufficient to deal with existing waste and environmental problems, for example later installed filters reduce plant emissions. This approach however leads to additional complexity, material use and simply hides the real problem under a layer of makeup. The reason why this zeitgeist was predominant for a long time, is that the only relevant costs related to environmental impacts occurred during raw material procurement and the process of manufacturing as well as partly for distribution and transportation. In contrast the full costs and the associated rucksack of external effects (such as greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, water, toxicity) and their consequences, were largely borne by the tax payer and society in general. It is only since the sustainability debate became more popular that, in reaction, governments introduced policies and regulations that aimed to reimpose costs and responsibility to the polluter and offender. Extended producer responsibility (EPR), eco-design policies such as RoHS and recycling regulations forced businesses to comply. As a result more life-cycle environmental costs got internalised into the market price. (Lewis and Gertsakis, 2001, p. 24) Furthermore, a change in consumer perception and behaviour fostered by various campaigns from non-profit organisations contributed to higher pres7

The Present: Things are Even More Complicated

sure on businesses towards Design for Environment (DfE). At this moment forward-oriented companies discovered the potential of products that make less impact on the environment. They anticipated these trends towards higher energy prices (peak-oil hypothesis), governmental restrictions and consumer demands for greener products. In consequence, Reduction in environmental impacts became a major driver for innovation of companies in Europe and the US. (Stamm, 2008, p. 276) Nowadays design for environment can in many ways be seen beneficial for long-term business success compared to a shortsighted end-of-pipe approach.

3. The Present: Things are Even More Complicated

Regardless of new recycling regulations, and their potential to make a huge step towards a more sustainable consumption, recycling today is still at an early stage. With our practical project we decided to improve recycling because we felt that it is not working as it should. Since recyclable products actually are optimised for a minimum of environmental impact, they give an interesting example for the fact that things are very complicated: Our research made evident that even if a designer fully complies with regulations and considers all stages of the products life-cycle, this does not guarantee less of an impact on the environment. This is because the biggest responsibility for recycling still bears with the consumer, not the producer. We found that a few obstacles prevent consumers to dispose products correctly. For example, bins and recyclable products we analysed were a variety of colours, shapes and instructions and lacked universality in the design language. We also acknowledged that recycling was strongly influenced by the user setting. People in urban environments are in a rush and multi-tasking and lack awareness that they put recyclable waste in to wrong bins and would therefore not be fed back into the materials cycle.

The Present: Things are Even More Complicated

Fig. 3: Recyclable products will still harm the environment if thrown into the wrong bin. (Source: Authors own, 2012) We had to solve the contamination of waste streams and came up with a minimal bin re-design and a holistic incentive-scheme involving all stakeholders, in order to increase the recycling success rate dramatically. Our solution included a re-design of recycling bins at busy shopping environments. A barcode-system attached to the new recycling-only-bin would ensure a 100% recycling rate and provide the basis for a buy-recycle-reward scheme that makes recyclable items valuable for users. Furthermore we designed the bins and barcodes in a way that users would benefit from a learning-effect and in addition the responsibility and incentives for a successful disposal would be transferred back to the waste producer. External effects, as explained crucial to environmental impact, would now become relevant to businesses and lessen the burden on society.

The Present: Things are Even More Complicated

Fig. 4: Our buy-recycle-reward scheme and incentives for stakeholders (Source: Authors own, 2012) When reflecting critical on the solutions we developed, one could argue that this system fosters consumption due to the rewarding scheme and therefore increase the overall environmental impact again. Also the use of recent barcode technology could be criticised as a top-down approach, similar to endof-pipe technology. On the other hand it would be interesting to measure the positive outcomes of the embedded learning and spill-over effects of the new bins feedback system as well as the reduced environmental impact due to the increased recycling rate and the inter-connection with public transport system. 10

The Future: Circles and Loops

To put it in a nutshell, design for the environment is even more complicated than looking at each stage of the products life cycle. Our practical project let us experience how manifold the causes of environmental impact of products and consumptions are and how difficult it is to resolve them.

4. The Future: Circles and Loops

In the future other ideas and approaches will extend design for the environment and make it more powerful. Think of technical solutions to recycle plastic and of ways to extract raw materials from complicated waste streams such as electronic waste and cars. Replacing raw materials with completely biodegradable, organic materials might become an option, as shown at a TED talk given by Eben Bayer. (Bayer, 2010, www.ted.com, p.1) Already today we could, as John Thackaras suggests, start to rethink ownership and consumption towards a less-stuff-more-people world (Thackara, 2005, p.6) in which hardware transforms into interconnected, shared, less product-based services and therefore cause less environmental exploitation. A new circular economy could make the existing waste management obsolete. This economy would be based on the principle of designing out waste, rather than letting it emerge and exist. Products would be designed to fully close the cycle and material flows would reflect circular systems and loops instead of linear processes. Circularity would introduces a strict differentiation between consumable and durable components of a product. (Ellen Macarthur Foundation, 2012, www.thecirculareconomy.org, p. 3) Furthermore, bionics will enable us to learn from nature and to develop products made of biological ingredients that are fully degradable. In a circular product world and economy, additional energy needed for manufacturing, use and maintenance would be provided from renewable sources inputs only. Many of these ideas are at early stage and require a change in peoples mindset and behaviour. It seems we cannot leapfrog instantly to this future of loops and circles. We need to go through a process of iteration and adaption first.

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Bibliography
Bayer, E. (2010) Eben Bayer: Are mushrooms the new plastic? [online] TEDGlobal. Available at http://www.ted.com/talks/eben_bayer_are_mushrooms_the_new_plastic.h tml (Accessed 30.11.2012) Ellen Macarthur Foundation. (2012) Towards the Circular Economy. Economic and business rationale for an accelerated transition. [online] Isle of Wight. UK. Available at http://www.thecirculareconomy.org/uploads/files/032012/4f6360009d31c6 098f000006/original/Exec_summary_single.pdf?1331912704 (accessed 29.10.2012) Jansson, S. (2008) MacBook Environmental Report. [online] Cupertino. Apple. Available at http://images.apple.com/my/environment/resources/pdf/MacBookEnvironmental-Report.pdf (Accessed 30.11.2012). Lewis, H. and Gertsakis, J. (2001) Design + environment: A global guide to designing greener goods. Greenleaf. Sheffield. Stamm, B. von (2008) Managing innovation, design and creativity. 2nd ed., John Wiley & Sons. Chichester, UK. Thackara, John. (2005) In the Bubble: Designing in a Complex World. Cambridge, Massachusetts. The MIT Press, USA.