© Loughborough University, 2004

Designers have a great opportunity...

The design stages of product development have a direct influence over about 70% of the final product – this brings with it responsibility…

Designers play an important role because they are the industry’s connection with the marketplace, interacting between people and products

© Loughborough University, 2004

"There are few professions more harmful than industrial design, but only a very few… by creating whole new species of permanent

garbage to clutter up the landscape, and by choosing materials and processes that pollute the air we breath, designers have become a dangerous breed… In this age of mass production when everything

must be planned and designed, design has become the most powerful tool with which man shapes his tools and environments

(and, by extension, society and himself). This demands high social and moral responsibility from the designer.”

(Victor Papanek, 1985)

© Loughborough University, 2004

• The Brundtland Report known for its popularisation of the concept of sustainable development made recommendations for a new approach to design and production, setting out terms for:– 'a production system that respects... the ecological base' and, – 'a technological system that searches continuously for new

solutions'.

Why focus on design?

© Loughborough University, 2004

Why focus on design?

• Environmental impact occurs at every stage of the life cycle• Different products have different impacts at different stages…

– E.g. furniture = raw materials– E.g. household appliances = use; energy consumption

• Impacts are often ‘locked in’ at the design stage when decisions about materials, function, performance, energy source, aesthetic, purpose etc. are made

• Only careful consideration at these early stages can make sure that negative effects excluded and positive features are included.

• Trying to retro fit solutions is often very costly – involving additional equipment, rather than solving the problem from first principles.

© Loughborough University, 2004

• Design can influence the decisions people make about what they buy and why. These decisions reflect peoples' perceptions of lifestyle and their associated status in the world.

• Lifestyle is about identity choices: about how individuals wish to be, and be seen by others. Often this is expressed through what is consumed from the material, aesthetic and symbolic perspective.

• Lifestyles are patterns of actions that differentiate between people. They map onto conventional social categories of class, income, age, gender and ethnicity and also transcend them.

• Sustainable Design can help people question what it is they are trying to gain through the purchasing decisions that they make.

The Role of Designers

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Product Life Cycle

© Loughborough University, 2004

Good design will ensure that…

• a product contains a rationalised number of materials and components

• consumer health and safety issues are considered• a product functions appropriately and effectively and

communicates this function clearly• a product is ‘styled’ appropriately• a product is ergonomically correct• environmental legislation requirements are addressed

© Loughborough University, 2004

Ecodesign looks further...… it includes all elements of good design but goes further to consider a range of different principles:

• Materials amount and type (appropriateness)

• Energy source and requirements

• Length of life

• Waste issues

• End of life issues

• Packaging issues