Transcript for EO403 - Sustainable Development Categorisation.PDF

Graduate Apprenticeship - Engineering Design and Manufacture Class: EO403 - Design for X Sustainable Development Categorisation In this video, we're going to look at sustainable development categorization. In this area, it is often hard to categorise the concepts and the methods used for sustainable...

Graduate Apprenticeship - Engineering Design and Manufacture Class: EO403 - Design for X Sustainable Development Categorisation In this video, we're going to look at sustainable development categorization. In this area, it is often hard to categorise the concepts and the methods used for sustainable product development, however, there are two main categories. These categories are concerned with life-cycle thinking, which is fundamental to any sort of design for the environment and sustainability. So with these two approaches, it's either about the product itself, or it's about the service and the product. So the first categorization is concepts and methods framed by the idea of the product to meet the user needs or commercial needs, and the second categorization is about concepts and methods which go beyond the product, for example, a service, in order to meet the user and the commercial needs. These approaches very much focused on the life-cycle of the existing product, and they don't change or question the fundamental design of the product or the functionality, but what they focus on mainly are the product supply and the processes that are involved in the production of the product, from everything to the materials, to the distribution, to the packaging it is delivered in, and so on. So looking at the first category of sustainable product development concepts and methods, these are the ones that are directly involved with the product itself, for example, design for the environment, life cycle analysis, looking at the full life of the product, cradle to cradle, looking at the very beginning to the very end and how that might feed into a closed-loop circle, cleaner production, and for design for X's, design for recycling, design for reuse, design for disassembly, and design for durability, all designed for X's that focus on particular aspects to reduce environmental impact. There are several criticisms of category 1 methods. One of these is that more radical thinking is necessary with the redesign of an existing problem because sustainability is complex and systematic. It is often argued that an eco-product is good, but what exactly does this mean? And quite often, companies are developing eco-products which aren't necessarily reducing environmental impact. The key thing related to category 1 methods is the questioning of an actual need for the product, and is there a possibility of using a service or a utility instead. This leads us to category 2 approaches, which focus not on the product, but on the life-cycle of the utility. These approaches question whether we need a product, and they often question the fundamental design of the existing product. The solution is, more often than not, a conceptualization of a utility as a service and/or a system, and these category 2 approaches often extend to focus on product consumption. Here are some examples of category 2 concepts and methods, Product Service Systems, commonly known as PSS. These are business models, and they provide a cohesive delivery of products and services. Page 1/2 Sustainable consumption, and this is the study of the resource and energy use of a product. There is also the concept of factor x, or as we commonly know it, factor 4. It visualises a quadruple increase in resource efficiency using existing methodologies whilst avoiding any negative impact on the overall quality of life. Dematerialisation, this is one you may have heard of before. And it literally means the use of less materials to create products. Another category 2 concept is service design, and this is a process in which the designer focuses on creating optimal service experiences. Service design can often include the use of customer journey maps, it can include a story about different customer's intention of use with a particular product, and so on. These are just a few of the concepts and methods that have been developed over recent years in order to address sustainable development. So the options are open for a sustainable approach for product developers, looking at a category 1 or a category 2 approach, developing an existing product, or looking at providing a service or a system. Page 2/2