Sustainability Development The Engineering Context

Published Date: 02 Nov 2017

In a world with limited resources and serious environmental impacts, we have to deal

with probably over 100,000 commercial materials on the market with respect to the great amount of variants. Extraction, refinement, product use stage, transport, deposition or recycling are examples of complex areas, which can give

different types of impacts on the environment [13].

The threat of global warming is among the most important of all modern environmental problems. The problems that cause global warming include  overpopulation, ozone depletion, deforestation, garbage dumping, over consumption and many others.  One of the largest factors contributing to global warming is the general problem of overpopulation and has many effects on the environment [5].

The greater number of people consume more items which take more energy to make, they drive more cars, and create larger amounts of garbage.  These factors all increase the global warming problem. Many different gases can increase the earth temperature.  The number of different products and human activities that contribute to global warming are so numerous that finding solutions to the problem is very difficult. Though having an atmosphere is important, the greenhouse effect may be making it excessively thick.  The levels of gases covering the Earth have soared with industrialization, and developed countries now produce about 75% of greenhouse gases [5].

Because these gases are produced by so many important and common processes, limiting their production to prevent global warming will be difficult.  As population increases and Third World countries begin to use greater amounts of energy, the problem may expand rather than contract. The dumping of waste and over fishing to the oceans, threat to polar regions from unregulated development, loss of habitats and species, reducing biological diversity, excessive use of non-renewable resources through wasteful or inefficient exploitation. In this I want to address the how Design For Environment through practices helps to reduce the material and use of energy for a product, minimising emissions, dispersion and creation of toxics and creation of toxics during the lifetime of the product, maximising the amount of recyclable materials and useful life of the product, investigate and minimise the environmental impact throughout the life cycle of the product and how company have accepted this challenges and change its way of designing, manufacturing processes, material selection, packaging etc for the betterment of the environment .

(Source: Green Products by Design: Choices for a. Cleaner Environment. Sep 1992)

Issues

Product design and processes decisions have impacts on the environment at each stage of the product life cycle, from extraction of raw materials to final disposal (shown in the above figure) Ideally, one would like design decisions to take account of both the "downstream" impacts (product use and disposal) as well as the "upstream" impacts (materials extraction, processing, and manufacturing).The most publicly visible environmental impacts associated with products are the "downstream" impacts, particularly municipal solid waste (MSW) [1].

Environmental impacts occur at all stages of a product’s life cycle. Design can be employed to reduce these impacts by changing the amount and type of materials used in the product, by creating more efficient manufacturing operations, by reducing the energy and materials consumed during use, and by improving recovery of energy and materials during waste management[1].

U.K household and commercial establishments generate enough waste everyday to fill Trafalgar Square, this would fill lake Windermere in one year. Every year the average British family throws away 6 trees worth of paper and also 0.6 tonnes of waste through dustbin. Industry and commerce generates about 3.6tonnes on it behalf. Agriculture, mining, quarrying, construction a further 15tonnes. Total Waste generated is approximately 434 mt/year [23].

The Environment Protection Authority (EPA) is as an economically-driven, system-wide and integrated approach to the reduction and elimination of all waste streams associated with the design, manufacture, use and/or disposal of products and materials [3]. The Environment Protection Authority (EPA) came into existence on 1 January 1972 an operates under Environment Protection Act 1986[18]. Fundamental to EPA is the recognition that pollution, irrespective of its type and form, is waste. It's says that firms can minimize waste by changing the way new products are designed. Those firms which include environmental issues in the design process have the opportunity to reduce disposal costs and permit requirements, avoid environmental fines, better utilize raw materials, boost profits, discover new business opportunities, rejuvenate employee morale, and improve the state of the environment.

Ideally, the most appropriate place for considering EPA issues is in the

design phase since the amount of waste generated is a direct consequence of

decisions made during product design. As it is generally used, the term "Design For Environment'' (DFE) or eco-design is a component of EPA and involves making environmental considerations an integral part in the design of a product.

Designing for the Environment is the basic concept of product and sustainable design that prevents pollution and risk to the environment and people through any operations associated with product or service manufacture/production. There are three main concepts to be considered under the term DFE [21].

Design for environmental processing and manufacturing which aim to ensure that raw material extraction, production and any substances used in these are of minimal impact to the environment or the people working in these processes and include such things as reducing waste, air pollution and energy costs.

Design for environmental packaging which includes such activities as re-using shipping packaging, using recycled and/or recyclable packaging and the removal of any unnecessary product packaging .

Design for disposal or re-use which is a very important consideration as the end of life of a product has a massive impact due to the possible existence of hazardous materials or chemicals and as such by considering the end of life of a product at the design stage these hazards can be removed leading to minimal environmental impact, easier disassembly and increased reuse of the material, reducing costs.

Clearly by designing for environmental concerns at an early stage can help to lower the negative impact that products have on the environment and also reduce costs and increase efficiencies by reusing, reducing, production and packaging materials and removing hazardous materials that may be inherently costly to start with. By Design For Environment strategies a company can act to enhance its environmental efforts at the most important and impacting stage as "at least 80% of the quantities and costs of materials and utilities required to manufacture electrical and electronic products are locked in at the design stage" [14]

Design for Environment (DFE) optimizes the relationship and interaction of the economic system and the environmental system, and strives to produce a sustainable development and enterprise integration. The driving force behind DFE includes customers, international agencies, and governmental agencies, who are all stake holders in the environmental well being. In DFE, there are a number of enablers for decision making, examples of which include end-of-life strategies and Life Cycle Assessment (LCA). With the development of DFE, sophisticated design support methodologies and tools are necessary for the early stage of design regarding the environmental impact, working as guidance to the design engineers [4].

A Design for Environment methodology

(figure source: [8, p 325])

The Design For Environment structured methodology shown in the above figure is an improved version of the systematic approach to DFE (1998). This approach to DFE is a conceptual approach during an early product design phase for integrating environmental concerns. in essence it is a process of abstraction modelling, manipulation and evaluation. This approach is intended to provide an organised process that would help designers to identify and understand environmental requirement, how it is best to satisfy the requirements and how will the improvement options can be measured in the design process [8] [9].

DFE Methods

Design and manufacturing tend to have iterative interaction during early

stages of product development. The design engineer study's the problems

in the production line and consider all achievable opportunities to reduce production

timing or cost. The traditional product life cycle analysis is expanded to include Design For Environment (DFE) considerations of materials elimination or substitution, process optimization, product reuse and energy reduction. DFE gives guidelines for the design engineer to examine the environmental criteria of a product over its entire life cycle. As a result, waste is reduced, material and energy consumption are optimized and an output waste stream process can become the raw material for another process. This modern design practice will suggest alternative production approaches that would lead to restructuring of the processes. This approach depends on an understanding of all the objectives of the design, encompassing the analysis of the industrial ecosystem [19].

DFE process diagram

(source: [19, p 54] )

The diagram presented in Figure shows the steps taken during the DFE

process. First, the design engineer develops a preliminary assessment for

product requirements, cost and risk. During the second step, the environmental

impact of the product life cycle must be evaluated against other alternatives for

reducing, recycling or eliminating product wastes during manufacturing.

Consideration are also be given to work conditions, customer needs and resource conservation[19].

The conservation of natural resources starts at the very beginning by substituting, as much as possible, raw material suppliers with recycling suppliers. A complete product life cycle should be considered when designing a product. Product life cycle can be defined as ``need recognition, design development, production, distribution, use and disposal'' and where within each aspect several conditions are optimized for resource conservation and pollution reduction [20]. Life cycle assessment is an useful tool for understanding the impact of the environment [19]. A product is evaluated and considered step by step from cradle to grave, where cost, impact, expected lifetime etc can be evaluated in an easy way. A simple way to account for an environmentally friendly production is to give every product an environmental load. This can be done with for example the Environmental Load Unit (ELU) index/kg or unit. ELU is a sum of the environmental load for a product with respect to production, transports, material etc. during the whole lifetime of a certain project. However there is no way that it is 100 % accurate when it is compared with different production, recycling methods or breaking down. for e.g. it is not easy to compare glass bottles or paper packs e.g. milk to say what is the most environmentally friendly or sustainable material for milk transportation the usage of the paper pack is done only once and then normally burnt. The glass bottle is used many times, but the transportation to different customers and the influence on environment from the cleaning process which need water and detergent are weight and estimated.

Alternatives for design can go far to improve the DFE process. Research on the material can consider reusability and recyclability, manufacturing energy requirements, long-term impact on the environment, and capability for easy

assembly and disassembly. Principles of Design For Assembly (DFA) and Design For Disassembly (DFD) are used to optimize to the production line or improve the product recycle at the end of its life cycle.

During the final analysis, the environmental impacts of each alternative design

should be included as part of the process selection.

The next step is the optimization of manufacturing time, amount of material

used, waste disposal or treatment and process maintainability. These

parameters should be considered without the expense of work condition, product quality and safety and. Finally, the product will be distributed, used and at the end of its life cycle will be recycled or Disposed off [20].

Sustainable strategies for design

There are many new concepts have been created to fulfil modern product development as well as environmentally friendly production like Design For Environment (DFE). DFE can be regarded as a broad and general concept for the promotion of a sustainable design. The concepts below are typically not standardised, but they are helpful in promoting emphasises in a certain sustainable

direction. Some examples of common strategies in order to reach a sustainable design are [13].

Eco-design: which is also known as Design For the Environment (DFE).

Design For Disassembly (DFDA): A product should be easy to disassemble with, e.g., mechanical locks, snap fits, etc. in order to recycle the materials.

Design For Recycling (DFR): It focuses on maximum recyclability and a high content of recycled material in the product. Different materials should not be mixed with each other if not necessary and different parts should be labelled so it can help in easy materials separation.

Design For Disposability: Assures that non-recyclable parts or materials can be disposed in an ecological way.

Design For Reusability: Focuses on possible re-use of different components in a product. The re-used parts could be freshened up and reused.

Design For Substance Reduction: Undesirable substances,

which are used during the products life cycle, should

be minimised.

Design For Energy Recovery: The design here is made with materials suitable for burning with a minimum of toxic or harmful emissions.

Design For Life Extension: Reduced waste through prolonged life for products is the aim of this strategy. [13]

Labelling of the product for Design For Environment

EPA's mission is the protection of health of the people and the environment. To put its mission into practice EPA labels the products, so that the customer can choose easily the products that are safer for the environment and the people. The design for the environment label on the product gives the customer the confidence that the ingredients have been gone through a vigorous EPA review. It also means that EPA scientists have evaluated all the ingredient of the product satisfies the Design For Environment (DFE) criteria. It conveys the message to the people that using the design for environment labelled products they can protect their families and the environment by making safer chemical choices. In addition to this every product with DFE label has met high standards for performance[6].

(Source :http://www.epa.gov/dfe/images/dfe_look_logo.jpg)

The companies that applies their products for the labelling to Design For Environment (DFE) for review. It is then carefully evaluated the every ingredient against the stringent set of health and environments criteria. This criteria addresses environmental and potential health issues. for e.g. if the ingredient is associated with causing cancer or reproductive harm, and if it accumulates in human tissue or in the environment. The DFE label is only allowed to have on the product, if each ingredient is among the safest in its class. In addition to this the product on the whole must possess the safety criteria and qualify as high performance and is packaged in an environmentally friendly manner. For the customer who want to know what chemicals are in the product they use, so as condition of labelling, all ingredients must be listed either on the product or the manufacturer's website[6].

How DFE label good for the business and economy ?

Apart from implementing labelling program for safer product. DFE not only evaluates products ingredients to ensure its compliance for standard of safer products, but also offers the advice on safer alternatives for the ingredients that do not meet its safety standards. The consultation service, helpful in formulating companies learn about the safer chemistry and how to earn DFE label, which distinguishes their products in the market place. The DFE also encourages research institutions to invest in exploring and making safer chemical alternatives[6].

In the current market customer are more and more focussed on sustainability and want to seek advice on how to buy safer products for their families. The DFE label, backed by the scientific expertise and experience of EPA, provides that assurance many customers they look for [6].

The case studies of the companies who have used Design For Environment strategies in their product and processes in order to provide substantiated improvements considering environmental impacts.

DELL

The environmental opportunities and challenges are considered at every stage of the product life cycle [11]. from design and development, manufacturing and operations, to product usage and recovery. The efforts on continuously improving the environmental performance are guided by governance set and corporate environmental policy. Dell follows the ISO 14001 standard for managing environmental programs throughout the product life cycle. Dell product design for environmental specifications [12]. are in alignment with the life cycle model see fig

( source :[22, p2] )

Dell electronics company achieved the design for environment criteria by adopting the following strategies.

1). Environmentally-responsible materials: Dell are now manufacturing energy efficient laptops and mercury free LED since 2010. The use of lead has already reduced through the transition from CRT to flat panel. G - series monitor free from PVC, BFR, CFR, Arsenic, mercury. These monitors has external chassis made up of more than 25% post consumer recycled materials. Designers are also focussed on dematerialization to make existing product smaller. Dell studio hybrid is about 80% smaller than standard desktops [22].

2). Design for End of life, reuse and recycling: implementing DFE guidelines on products, designers at dell continuously improve design of product to enhance the reuse and refurbishment of components in the computer that are LCD display, motherboard, optical drives and keyboards. by making them modular and providing easy access and assembly [22].

BMW

BMW have used many strategies for the design for environment in the following ways.

Vehicle compatibility with environment by applying the latest advanced technologies to their vehicles to aid safety and reduce exhaust emissions, noise and fuel consumption.

optimising the product design for its future models so that most parts of the vehicle can be recyclable and making use of secondary raw materials which will decrease the overall consumption of resources and energy for the use of material.

BMW groups are committed to development of alternative fuel technology.

The company's also aims to develop transport concepts and technologies that will maintain mobility without affecting the quality of life [16]. Not only is BMW shows more interest in the efficient recycling of its products, but is also developing disassembly methods and technologies which are also environmentally friendly, such as special equipment for the easy removal of fluids[10].

LIFE CHAIR, FORMWAY

Working in collaboration with RMIT in Melbourne, Australia, Form applied eco-design principles to the design of their LIFE Chair.

Life Chair By Formway

(source: http://www.sitbackandrelax.com.au/life-chair-by-formway.html)

The design team aimed to avoid the use of problematic materials such as PVC. The foam that is used for the seat and arms is blown without chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) that can cause damage to the ozone layer. The source used to manufacture the foam is water.

Recycled materials are used for the metal components wherever it is possible. The total recycled content of the chair is 52 percent by weight. The highest recycled content is 100 percent for some of the aluminium components, up to 90 percent for some zinc component and up to 20 percent for ABS, acetal and nylon. Processes that are known to cause higher environmental impact, such as powder coating of metal components are avoided. wherever it is possible the production scrap within the factory for e.g. plastic scrap collected from the injection moulding process is granulated and fed back into the injection moulding machine. all aluminium scrap is recycled.

In order to make the disassembly process easier, wherever it is possible the use of adhesives for the assembly process are avoided and also to eliminate emission of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) in the workplace.

The LIFE chair weighs only 15 kg, which is remarkably lighter than competitive products that weigh between 18 and 25 kg. LIFE also has fever components only 177 compared with over 200 for one competitor. This facilitates easier disassembly, reuse and refurbishment, as well as materials recycling when LIFE reaches end-of-life. This chair has been designed for durability the company provides a 10 year warranty compared with more common 5 year warranty. So applying the Design for environment criteria has increased the product features, durability and sales in the market [15].

APPLE

Even though Apple Computer has long held the philosophy of customer-focused product development, they were hesitant to consider to change their packaging from their signature bleached-white boxes to environmentally-friendly cardboard brown. More recently, Apple has taken this one step further in reducing packaging for their cables: by eliminating plastic bags, cardboard containers, and unnecessary documentation. Although, initially they were feared that the packaging change would cost the company money in terms of marketing feared they would lose sales due to the uglier appearance, Apple has logged more than $4 million in savings from the switch, as well as almost $2 million dollars saved from minimizing cable packaging. Not only were there monetary benefits, but Apple consumers whose demographics show they are educated to environmental concerns praised the switch, much to the relief of Apple’s marketing department. In addition to their packaging reforms, Apple is also active in encouraging, and in some cases requiring, suppliers to implement environmental programmes of their own, showing by example how environmental programmes can increase and enhance quality improvements and profits[10].

Concluding Summary

With increase amount of environmental problem, Design For Environment (DFE) has become an important measure to improve the sustainability through design, product environmental friendliness and providing solution to pollution problem both caused in manufacturing and impact to the environment. The DFE requires manufacturer to obtain its labels which is a stringent set of health and environmental criteria.

DFE directives may limit choices of materials or process options which in the long run could benefit both technology innovation and the environment, the typical lesson can be taken from apple company who were hesitant in using environmentally friendly packaging for their products considering quality and looks but in return they logged more product by considering environmental friendly material in their packaging. The Design for Environment requires manufacturer to obtain approval from using any chemical in the process that may cause unreasonable danger to environment or human health.

Applying Design For Environment can contribute significant environmental and social benefits. The case studies in the report have demonstrated that there are many benefits to providing systems or services. The most important of these are the increased innovation, increased opportunities for the customers loyalty, the opportunities to retain the value in the product and potential for increased profile.

Choices for a green sustainable or eco-friendly product is in great demand amongst most of the consumers, so the companies adopting DFE criteria and thereby achieved the labels on their product and processes enters in a demanding market.