Design for Sustainability

1
Design for Sustainability
Unit 2 The Greening Marketplace
Mike Robinson CMfgE, CQE Natural Science
Technology Manufacturing Technology
2
Introduction

• Companies around the world are making dramatic
  improvements in their operations.
• Partially driven by increased consumer demand for
  environmentally-friendly products
• Bolstered by the business value that can be
  derived from reducing waste and maximizing
  resource efficiency.
• The marketplace is greener now than ever before
  and will become even more responsive to products
  and services promising environmental
  responsibility.

http//www.greeneconomics.net/
3
History of the Green Movement

• In the late 1970s and 1980s, environmental
  calamities dominated the news
• Oil spills in Alaskas Prince William Sound
• Toxic waste dumps in Love Canal near Niagara
  Falls
• Nuclear accident at Three Mile Island in
  Pennsylvania
• The issues were no longer in someone elses
  faraway backyard, but right in our own.

http//www.washingtonpost.com/
http//www.pacificenvironment.org/
4
History of the Green Movement

• The environment rose to the top of the publics
  worry list.
• The twentieth anniversary celebration of Earth
  Day in 1990 attracted 100 million participants
  around the world - ten times the number involved
  in the first Earth Day in 1970.

1990 Earth Day rally In Washington, DC.
http//www.nytimes.com/
5
History of the Green Movement

• On January 2, 1989 Time magazine named spaceship
  Earth, "Planet of the Year - 1988.
• Ominous subtitle Endangered Earth.
• Nearly the entire issue was devoted to the many
  environmental issues facing the world at that
  time, including global warming, reduced
  biodiversity, ozone-depleting CFCs, trash, and
  overpopulation.

http//www.time.com/time/covers/0,16641,19890102,0
0.html
6
History of the Green Movement

• Fueled by voters concerns, municipalities banned
  fast-food cartons from landfills and tried to tax
  disposable diapers.
• In 1971 Oregon passed the first bottle bill
  requiring deposits on beverage containers to
  encourage recycling by consumers. Another 10
  states have ultimately followed suit.

http//gliving.tv/news/san-francisco-bans-styrofoa
m-containers/
http//rafi.ki/projects.php
7
History of the Green Movement

• To preserve its markets and safeguard its
  reputation, industry quickly greened up their
  products and issued environmental ads asserting
  their commitment to a cleaner Earth.

• Consumers felt listened to. They began to recycle
  their soft drink cans and aluminum foil. They cut
  down on disposable diapers, and took other
  environmental steps that gave them a sense of
  control over their day-to-day lives.

http//paulbuckley14059.wordpress.com/
8
History of the Green Movement

• Since the 1980s, the headlines have shifted away
  from wandering garbage barges and medical waste
  washing up on the New Jersey shore.
• Stories of terrorism, illegal immigration,
  healthcare and outsourcing lead the news.
• However, people still worry about any number of
  such specific environmental issues as
• Industrial air and water pollution,
• ozone layer depletion, radiation from
• nuclear power plants, destruction
• of rainforests,

http//www.answers.com/topic/cooling-tower-1
9
Green Movement Goes Worldwide

• Pessimism over the state of the environment
  reigns in virtually every corner of the world.
• No corner of the globe escapes the by-products of
  the one-two punch of rapid global
  industrialization and burgeoning population
  growth

• Contaminated water, filthy air, and a decrease in
  the biological diversity are more prominent in
  areas without a history of environmental
  protection.

http//www.blog.thesietch.org/
10
Green Movement Goes Worldwide

• Environmental emergencies gain global
  attention
• Climate change,
• Ozone layer depletion
• Melting glaciers and polar ice

• Around the world, 64 percent believe "protecting
  the environment is the most important concern,
  even at the expense of economic growth.

http//www.ehponline.org/
11
The Marketplace Goes Green

• The goods being purchased today are a lot
  "greener" than they were even a decade ago.
• In many cases, these environmentally improved
  products make no green marketing claims at all.
• Companies in nearly every business sector have
  significantly improved their efficiency
• Eliminated nearly every ounce of waste from their
  manufacturing processes.
• Learned how to deliver products and services
  using significantly fewer resources.

12
The Marketplace Goes Green

• Some have set their goals on nothing less than
  creating zero waste -- operating factories in
  which every bit of unused material is eliminated,
  reused, or recycled.
• For example, in July 2008, Subaru celebrated its
  three-year anniversary of zero landfill
  designation at its manufacturing plant
• in Lafayette, Indiana. This
• designation was the first in
• the U.S. The Subaru plant
• is also a designated back-
• yard wildlife habitat.

http//www.greentechnolog.com/
13
The Future

• Newly opened markets of India, China, Africa,
  Eastern Europe, and Latin America will create
  perhaps a billion more middle-class individuals
  in the coming decades.
• How do you supply the demands of these billions
  without necessarily raising pollution and
  resource use proportionately?
• Consumers will demand greener products and
  processes to manufacture them with.
• Design for the Environment practices will need to
  be increasingly adopted.

14
Summary

• In the late 1970s, 1980s and 1990s, environmental
  calamities dominated the headlines and sparked a
  new wave of environmental activism in the U.S.
• Both public and private concerns were pressured
  to respond by greening up products and enacting
  new environmental regulations.
• For example, consumers began to recycle, bottle
  bills were enacted, and the use of
  ozone-depleting CFCs were begun to be phased out.

15
Summary

• In the new millennium, two trends have begun to
  merge into a new environmental direction
• Citizens who have become increasingly concerned
  about the long-term environmental impacts of our
  society have begun to seek more eco-friendly
  products.
• Business entities have begun to recognize the
  economic benefit of producing products with fewer
  resources and less waste.
• These have formed the basis for the greening of
  the marketplace.

16
References
Special Section Planet of the Year, Time
Magazine, Volume 133, No. 1, January 2, 1989
Retrieved in December 2007 from
lthttp//www.time.com/time/magazine/0,9263,76018901
02,00.htmlgt The Bottle Bill Resource Guide, The
Container Recycling Institute (CRI). Retrieved
in December 2007 from lthttp//www.bottlebill.org/
about_bb/whatis.htmgt Subaru Celebrates
Environmental Milestone Zero Landfill. Retrieved
in December 2007 from lthttp//www.autospectator.c
om/cars/subaru/0018552-subaru-celebrates-environme
ntal- milestones-zero-landfill-selling-100-000th-p
zev-vehicgt Subaru of Americas Indiana Plant
Achieves Zero Landfill Status. Retrieved in
December 2007 from lthttp//www.greentechnolog.co
m/2007/07/suburu_of_americas_indiana_plant_achieve
s_zero_ lan.htmlgt Roper Starch Worldwide, Green
Gauge Report, 1996. Retrieved in December 2007
from Sustainable Transport, Wikipedia.
Retrieved in December 2007 from
lthttp//en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sustainable_transpo
rtgt. Automakers Corporate Carbon Burdens
Reframing Public Policy on Automobiles, Oil and
Climate. Environmental Defense. Retrieved in
December 2007 from lthttp//www.environmentaldefen
se.org/documents/2220_AutomakersCorporateCarbonBur
dens. pdfgt.
17
Acknowledgments
The author wishes to acknowledge the support from
the National Science Foundation Advanced
Technology Education Program, NSF Grant 0603362
for Midwest Coalition for Comprehensive Design
Education.