2.

5 - Green Design

Strategies for green design (incremental and radical)

Green design refers to the development of products to have a reduced impact on the environment.

Reasons for green design:

● Reduce greenhouse gas emissions
● Reduce waste going into ground fill
● Promote recycling/biodegradability
● Save on energy
● Save cost in long term
● Use of “take back” legislation
● Consumer pressure (buyers selecting eco-friendly goods)

Green legislation
● Sustainable products provide social and economic benefits
● protecting public health, welfare and the environment throughout their life cycle
● Life-cycle: extraction of material to final disposal of product

Most strategies for green design involve focusing on one or two environmental objectives when designing
or redesigning a product, for example, the use of recyclable materials.

Timescale to implement green design

● Targets need to include a specific time dimension

● Short-term goal: any goal with a timeframe of less than 10 years
● Long-term goal: any goal with a timeframe of around 20 - 30 years

Governments pursuing green growth strategies aim to achieve sustained economic growth
alongside broader environmental and social objectives.
● They focus on leveraging the synergies between these 3 dimensions, while managing the
trade-offs

Drivers for green design (consumer pressure and legislation)

The public have become aware of environmental issues through media focus.

Issues include:
● Chernobyl (1986), Nuclear accident
● Acid rain in Northern European forests
● Destructive effect of chlorofluorocarbons on the ozone layer

Increased public awareness has put pressure on corporations and governments through
purchasing power and voting power.
Real-life example: CFCs
● Used to be the ideal and highly effective refrigerants during their time
● Were non-flammable, non-corrosive, non-toxic, and odorless
● Widely used consumer products during the 1970s and 1980s, such as refrigerators, cleansing
products, and propellants (all contained CFCs)
● It was then discovered that CFCs are very destructive to the Ozone layer

→ 1987: International treaty: the Montreal Protocol

● called for reducing CFC use by 50% by 2000
● As a result companies replaced the CFCs with HCFCs, which were considerably less damaging
to the Ozone
● By 2020, HCFCs are also to be phased out by this Montreal Protocol. HFCs are organic
compounds that contain hydrogen, carbon and fluorine.

Most legislation for minimizing or reducing environmental impact of products is based on a green design
approach.
● Drivers for green design include consumer pressure and legislation, however there are others
too.
● Environmental legislation has encouraged the design of greener products that tackle specific
environmental issues, e.g. attempting to eliminate the use of certain materials or energy
efficiency.

● Incremental changes to a design and as such is relatively easy to implement, e.g. legislation
relating to the use of catalytic converters for cars.
● The timescale for implementing green design is relatively short (typically 2–5 years) and therefore
cost-effective.

Design objectives for green products

“We still have the opportunity to change our unsustainable habits, but we can no longer afford to take our
current consumption patterns for granted” (Ehrenfeld, 2008)

The need for a radical change of society towards sustainability.

There are 3 broad environmental categories, which the design objectives relate on:
1) Materials
2) Energy
3) Pollution/ waste

These objectives include:

● reducing to a minimum any long-term harm caused by use of the product
● increasing efficiency in the use of materials, energy and other resources;
● minimizing damage or pollution from the chosen materials
● taking full account of the effects of the end disposal of the product
● minimizing nuisances such as noise or smell
● ensuring that the packaging and instructions encourage efficient and environmentally friendly use
● minimizing the number of different materials used in a product
● labelling of materials so they can be identified for recycling.
Design stage of Green Design
When evaluating product sustainability, a designer needs consider:

• raw materials used

• packaging
• incorporation of toxic chemicals
• energy in production and use
• end-of-life disposal issues
• production methods
• atmospheric pollutants.

The environmental impact of the production, use and disposal of a product can be modified by the
designer through careful consideration at the design stage.

Strategies for designing green products

Strategies include:
● Minimising the number of components
● Using standard components
● Designing parts for ease of fabrication
● Designing components that are multifunctional or for multi-use
● Using standard sub-assemblies
● Minimizing handling

Design for materials

Designing in relation to materials during processing.
● Considers the availability of materials locally which can affect choice of manufacturing process or
design of the product.

Design for process

Designing to enable the product to be manufactured using a specific manufacturing process, e.g. injection
moulding.
● Affecting the choice of material or design of the product.

Design for assembly

Designing taking account of assembly at various levels, e.g. component to component, component into
sub-assemblies and sub-assemblies into complete products.
● Simply put, it's an approach to designing products with ease of manufacture in mind.
● If a product contains fewer parts it will take less time to assemble, also reducing manufacturing
costs
Design for manufacture
Designing designs specifically for optimum use of existing manufacturing capability.

Design for materials + Design for process + Design for assembly = Design for manufacture (DFM)

The prevention principle

The avoidance or minimization of waste production.

The precautionary principle

The anticipation of potential problems.

GUIDANCE:

● How strategies for green design often involve a focus on one or two environmental objectives when designing or
redesigning products
● How green legislation encourages incremental rather than radical changes
● How environmental legislation has encouraged the design of products that tackle specific environmental issues
● How design objectives for green products address three broad environmental categories— materials, energy and
pollution/waste
● Evaluating products in terms of: consumption of raw materials; packaging; incorporation of toxic chemicals; energy in
production and use; end-of-life disposal; production methods; and atmospheric pollutants