2.5 Green Design Flashcards
What is green design?
the re-engineering of a design to reduce its environmental impact and increase its sustainability
What are the two strategies for green design?
Incremental changes or radical changes (often have a focus on one or two environmental objectives)
What are examples of incremental changes?
Material: switching to a non-toxic or more sustainable, recyclable, environmentally friendly material for the product
Manufacturing Process: Switching to more sustainable processes that use less energy and generate less waste
Energy: Increasing the energy efficiency of the product; switching to more sustainable, renewable energy sources for manufacturing needs
Engineering: Designing a product to be disassembled easily (design for disassembly); Use of standardized parts across the product line to reduce the need for many different parts to be manufactured
What are examples of radical changes?
Completely changing the manufacturing process
The result is a completely new product or service that meets the needs of the user in a unique way
What is the timescale to implement green design?
Often focuses on incremental changes at a short timescale
What are the two drivers of green design?
Legislation and Consumer pressure
What are the three broad categories for the objectives of green design?
Materials, energy, pollution and waste
What is the material objective for green design?
Increasing the efficient use of material by reducing quantity required
selecting non-toxic material and environmentally friendly materials
minimizing the number of different materials used in a product
labelling materials so they can be easily identified for recycling and disposal
What is the energy objective for green design?
reducing the amount of energy required to manufacture or use a product
switching to sustainable or renewable energy sources
What is the pollution and waste objective for green design?
- Reducing the negative impacts of manufacturing
- considering the end-of-life of the product and designing to maximize sustainability goals
- improving the durability of the product to ensure that it meets the objectives for the planned life of the product
What is the prevention principle?
The avoidance or minimization of waste production
What is the precautionary principle?
The anticipation of potential problems
What factors do designers use to evaluate product sustainability?
Consumption of raw material
Packaging
Toxic chemicals
Energy in production + use
End of life disposal
Atmospheric pollutants
