Sustainable Design

Understanding and Developing "Green" Products (BUS 183)
Stanford Continuing Studies

Mark Martin: 

• Class Web Site

Overview

This course explores what it means for a product or design to be green or sustainable. It will be useful for anyone who wants to develop environmentally friendly products, or even for those who wish to make purchasing decisions based on sustainability. 

We will touch upon the technical issues that affect sustainability—such as energy use, natural resource depletion, and air and water quality—and consider each part of the supply chain (manufacturing, distribution, use, reuse, recycling, disposal, and so on) that figures into the overall determination of how environmentally friendly a product is.

After a careful review of the technology, we will turn our focus to the business issues around sustainability. We will look at the business models that can reduce environmental impacts, the costs and benefits of being green, the “Tragedy of the Commons” issue and potential solutions (e.g., the carbon tax), greenwashing, and other topics. Finally, we will do case studies of current companies and products and see how they are approaching these new business concerns.

Mark Martin
President and Founder, Design4X

Mark Martin leads a company that develops online design and manufacturing courses for engineers, and open educational resources for K-12 and informal learners. He received a PhD in mechanical engineering from Stanford and an MBA from MIT's Sloan School. He has toured more than 100 manufacturing facilities around the world, and has worked with numerous companies including Toshiba, Hewlett-Packard, Agilent, and GE to help improve their design and manufacturing processes.