Sustainable Design, Class 1

First Assignment

1) If you already have an idea in mind to work on during this class, give a description of the problem that you're trying to solve, or the benefit that you're trying to create for your customer. Or if you don't have a specific idea in mind, list an area of interest (for instance, toys), and any detail behind what you want to do in that "space".

(See below) 

 

2) What are the target markets (age, geographic location, income levels, business or personal use?, etc.) that you are designing for?

(See below)

 

3) Based on your current knowledge, how would you go about developing this idea into a product?

(See below)

 

4) What do you most want to learn in this class? 

My main interest in the class is to learn more about the energy and resource inputs needed to make products and then recycle or dispose of them, and what other factors contribute to a product being "bad" or "good". For instance, is using a canvas shopping bag really better than using paper or plastic bags? How much oil, natural gas, water and electricity was used to make them? What are the ramifications of disposal or recycling of these items? I would like to understand this first from the consumer side, so I can make better decisions in what products I buy and use everyday. Then I would like to learn more about ways of making a variety of products greener.

What is “green” or “sustainable” design?

• Continue into the future
• No accumulation
• Up-cycling
• No down-cycling
• Localization
  • Advantages
    • Transport costs
    • Keep money in the community,
    • Better use natural species
    • Reduced choices/complexity
    • Better understanding of effects
    • More community interaction
  • Disadvantages
    • Some things are better grown/produced elsewhere
    • Economies of scale

Definitions

• “Pre-consumer” waste is stuff that fell on the factory floor, like plastic sprues
• “Post-consumer” waste is after the consumer uses it
• “ROHS” Reduction of hazardous substances
• “BOD” biological oxygen depletion

Conditions for Sustainability

• Consider the earth as a closed system with limited inputs
• Solar and renewable fuels are sustainable
• Resource usage must balance to the rate the earth creates them
• Toxic wastes, heavy metals must be eliminated

Neighbor

• Hugo
• Originally from London
• Currently does hard landscaping
• Passionate about building furniture, worked for a circus, travelled a lot
• Taking the class because most buildings are built poorly, like to see sustainable design

Paper or styrofoam?

• Recycle: Paper is biodegradable but has plastic liner, Styrofoam doesn’t decompose and might not be recycle, but it does break down
• Energy: Styrofoam probably uses more energy
• Materials: styrofoam uses less material, paper uses trees
• Off-gassing: Styrofoam emits
• Water: styrofoam needs less water
• Transportation: styrofoam weighs less
• Materials: styrofoam can’t be made from recycled material or renewable materials, paper can
• Habitat: Styrofoam breaks down and is hard to remove, animals can eat the pellets and they are harmful

Lifecycle analysis

• Cycle: Natural resource extraction => Raw materials production => Product manufacturing => Use => End of life
• Inputs: materials and enerygy
• Outputs: materials, soli waste, airborne emissions, waterborne emissions
• Pollution: emissions to air, water, land