Green Product Design

RPI’s Eco-Ed Research Group

What Is It?

The intention of sustainable design is to "eliminate negative environmental impact completely through skillful, sensitive design". Manifestations of sustainable design require no non-renewable resources, impact the environment minimally, and relate people with the natural environment.

Beyond the "elimination of negative environmental impact", sustainable design must create projects that are meaningful innovations that can shift behavior. A dynamic balance between economy and society, intended to generate long-term relationships between user and object/service and finally to be respectful and mindful of the environmental and social differences.

Why?

• America’s waste industry successfully manages 243 million

tons of household and other municipal solid waste annually

(U.S. EPA, “Municipal Solid Waste Generation, Recycling

and Disposal in the United States: Facts and Figures for

2009”

• If we put all of the solid waste collected in the U.S. in a line

of average garbage trucks, that line of trucks could cross

the country, extending from New York City to Los Angeles,

more than 100 times

Goals

• Use of Low-Impact Materials

• Energy Efficiency

• Quality and Durability

• Design for Reuse and Recycling

• Renewability

Product Life Cycle

Materials

• Use materials that avoid toxic emissions

• Use materials that improve indoor air quality and

contribute to a healthy environment. 

• Use products made with salvaged or recycled content

• Use products that conserve natural resources

• Use materials that conserve energy and water 

Materials

Environmental effects of recycling[15]

Material Energy savings Air pollution savings

Aluminium 95%[2][7] 95%[2][16]

Cardboard 24%  —

Glass 5-30% 20%

Paper 40%[7] 73%

Plastics 70%[7]  —

Steel 60%[4]  —

ExamplesDyson Air Blade- Reduces energy

ExamplesCFL’s

Ecovative Case Study

Ecovative uses nature to replace unsustainable plastics, foams and other harmful materials with natural composites. Using natural principles and radical new technologies, we are growing the future of high performance, affordable, and environmentally sensible materials.

How It worksWe actually grow packaging using mycelium, a fungal network of threadlike cells. This mycelium grows around agricultural by-products like buckwheat husks, oat hulls, or cotton burrs to any shape we make. In 5 – 7 days, in the dark, with no watering, and no petrochemical inputs, the mycelium envelops the by-products, binding them into a strong and beautiful packaging part. Inside every cubic inch of the packaging, there’s a matrix of 8 miles of tiny mycelial fibers! At the end of the process, we treat the packaging with heat to stop the growth so there will never be any spores.

Examples

Sustainability

By using mycelium and agricultural by-products, we utilize materials that are environmentally low-impact, 100 percent biodegradable and renewable, and are part of a healthy ecosystem. Unlike other bio-plastics, our technology isn’t based on turning food or fuel crops into materials; we’re only using inedible crop waste to grow our products. The final biodegradable materials we produce have a variety of end-of-life options, including home composting. From the materials we choose to the way it is produced, we ensure our materials are part of a truly sustainable future.