Abonitalla, Kylie Marie F.

3BSAIS-2

Assignment#4 Questions
4.1. Give an example of a product or service you have encountered that was poorly
designed. Read about more bad designs at the bad designs website
http://www.baddesigns.com. Make a list of the factors that make a design unworkable.

• The laptop that I am using, a SonicMaster has its cooling fan designed and
placed at the upper left corner. As laptops are portable and can be used while
keeping in our laps and this attribute associated with my laptop become very
difficult to bring into practice because the cooling fan at the bottom
continuously heats the surface on which it is kept.

The factors which make a design unworkable

o · Things that don’t work the way you expect

o
o · Different things that are too similar
o
o · Things that are hard to see
o
o · Things that don’t work well together
o
o · Things that get in your way
o
o · Things that are hard to handle

4.2. Access the Environmental Protection Agency at http://www.epa.gov/ to read

about the U.S. government’s commitment to environmental product design. Compare
the U.S. approach to that of other countries.

• Upon checking the site provided above, it contained mostly about the topics
regarding with Covid-19. As what I can see, compare to our country the
Philippines, US is far more advance when it comes to technology, resources,
and problem-solving skills as well as environmental product design. Most of
their companies are utilizing less plastic waste for the betterment of the
environment.
4.3. Search the Internet for two or more companies that publish sustainability reports.
What are the main components of each company’s green initiatives? How do their
approaches differ?

• IKEA - IKEA’s invested in sustainability throughout its entire business

operations, including things customers can readily see and things they can’t. It
starts with their supply chain, where the Swedish furniture-maker has sourced
close to 50 per cent of its wood from sustainable foresters and 100 per cent of
its cotton from farms that meet the Better Cotton standards, which mandate
reduced user of water, energy and chemical fertilizers and pesticides. You can
also see their commitment to sustainability at the store.

• UNILEVER - Unilever has done more than make green investments, it’s made
sustainability part of its corporate identity. The company’s Sustainable Living
Plan sets targets for sourcing, supply chain and production on everything from
energy and water use to treatment of suppliers and communities where they
operate. When it was first adopted in 2010, CEO Paul Polman said he wanted
to double the company’s business while halving its environmental impact in
just 10 years. It’s made amazing strides: three quarters of Unilever’s
nonhazardous waste does not go to landfills and the share of its agricultural
suppliers that use sustainable practices has tripled.

4.4. Link to the International Standards Organization at http://www.iso.org and

explore ISO 14000. What do these standards entail? How were they developed? How
does a company attain ISO 14001 certification? Why would it want to?

• Created in 1996 by the International Organization for Standardization, ISO

14001 standards are part of a family of standards (ISO 14000) designed to
promote and guide an environmental management approach. It is appropriate
for any kind of organization (company, NGOs, union, etc) concerned about
improving its system of production, management, and operations as a way to
better control its environmental impacts. The guidelines of this norm (that
were updated in 2015) can be checked and certified by an approved
organization,

ISO 140001 has 2 main objectives:

➢ To give a standardized and proven framework that can help

organizations to develop an effective environmental management
strategy;
➢ To work as an official recognition and prize for the organizations’
efforts to improve their environmental strategies.

Worldwide, in 2017, more than 362 000 organizations benefited from ISO 14001
certification. Nowadays, this recognition has become important in terms of image and
as a response to the requirements of many contractors who look at this certification a
proof of the environmental concerns of a company. In this way, ISO 14001 standards
are now often an integral part of the Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) strategy
of a large number of companies.