SPACESHIP ECODESIGNDewberry/Goggin On the basis of an ongoing survey of UK organisations, we are able to describe the main policies which contribute, largely in a makeshift or transient way, to ecodesign. Finally, ecodesign is related to the larger territory of 'sustainable design'. We argue that needs can be fulfilled in ways that substantially reduce global pressures on finite resources and decrease levels of waste and pollution.
The jewelled Earth seen from space gave the environmental movement its most powerful image. It also reminds us that we cannot escape the effects of our industrial activities. Manufacturing may be shifting to the low waged developing economies but resource depletion and pollution effects us all: rich or poor - north or south 2. The evidence is overwhelming. Global population is expected to double by some time in the next century. The market for capital and consumer goods likely to increase ten-fold with the less-developed countries rushing to adopt western material lifestyles. Global warming could raise average temperatures by 3-6 degrees resulting in widespread new deserts, transformed weather patterns and rising sea levels. Ozone depletion brings with it the fear of skin cancer and altered ecosystems with uncertain consequences. Deforestation and loss of bio-diversity concern us all. Much more frightening still is the rate of change. In just a few short years we are threatening 3.5 billion years of evolution 3. Future realities are unknown and frightening, the rhetoric is familiar - but what can we do? Problems of such magnitude leave many of us feeling helpless. Well meaning activities, like recycling newspapers and bottles, do more to massage our conscience than save the planet. Equally, worthy measures flow from designing products that use recycled materials or can be disassembled or can be recycled at end of life. But the environmental benefits, likewise, are questionable. There is a need to empower users and designers with the knowledge, ideas and tools that deal with the needs of future generations4. On the current trajectories of production we will all have more products in a less healthy environment. What is the advantage of owning the latest television or car, if the water we drink is contaminated or we cannot step outside for fear of radiation or lung disease? the role of design Designers are in a unique position to effect change. They are responsible for specifying the majority of resources used to produce goods 5. More significant however, designers make the link between products and people. They can change the way people use and respond to these goods or services. In short, they can help shift attitudes and values away from present materialistic lifestyles to those that are less harmful; more equitable; and, hopefully, sustainable in the long term. Currently, there are many terms which describe design that incorporates environmental criteria such as : environmental design; green design; ecodesign; and sustainable design. These can be portrayed as an interlocking hierarchy (see table 1). defining 'ecodesign' The term 'environmental' as applied to design can be misleading. It exists in its own right as 'design for an environment' as practised by architects, interior designers and others. However, it can also be viewed as corrective design which targets emerging environmental problems such as poor air quality, polluted waterways or any of the many problems facing our biosphere. Here there are opportunities for new 'end of pipe' products and services which combat environmental degradation, for example, water filters and face masks6. Paradoxically, it is a growing market expected to be worth around $300 billion by the year 2000 7. The more we pollute, according to this inverted logic, the more commercial activity is needed to clean up! This in turn improves business opportunities and our economic accounts but in reality reduces quality of life. 'Green' design claims made by businesses sprung from popular interest in environmental issues during the mid to late 1980's. You may recall images of dubious advertising campaigns with misleading information about a product's intrinsic 'green' value. Today green advertising, if used at all, tends to refer to single issues such as design for recyclability, or less toxic materials or energy efficiency. These approaches are intended to reduce environmental harm but do so in a limited way. Indeed, sometimes these efforts can actually increase damage by shifting impacts from one lifecycle stage to another, or from one environmental field to another. Ecodesign by contrast, addresses environmental criteria across the entire product lifecycle to prevent environmental gains in one area being offset by increased impacts elsewhere 8. Ecodesign - which is closely synonymous with 'Life Cycle Design (LCD) ' or 'Design For Environment (DFE)' - is a compelling idea 9. Its rationale stems from Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) but some important distinctions are necessary 10,11 Ecodesign is concerned with designing-out future environmental problems whereas LCA is primarily concerned with retrospectively assessing the lifecycle impact of existing products (see figure 02). Ecodesign is a qualitative and proactive approach to design. On the other hand LCA's require huge amounts of quantitative data about a product's entire life which by definition means that all design and manufacturing decisions have already been enacted. This data is not much use to designers at the early conceptual stage, very likely working upon a new generation of radically different products. LCA results come in too late. Results from LCA's have also been proved to be controversial and expensive12. Although the environmental impacts of a product may be quantified in various dimensions, how do you decide which is more damaging: global warming - acid rain - resource depletion - polluted rivers? For these reasons, the design professions have initially viewed LCA with suspicion. But the idea of thinking about the complete lifecycle of a product or activity - from cradle to grave - is a powerful concept that extends design horizons and can promote creativity and innovation. Ecodesign can be represented using a simple matrix (see figure 02). Here a typical lifecycle is shown against one axis from production through to disposal; with environmental costs placed on the corresponding axis. This view of ecodesign clearly indicates the relationship between recyclability, energy efficiency and use of non-toxic materials and so on. The implication is that design for disassembly or recyclability, or designing products that use recycled, non-toxic or less materials cannot be regarded as ecodesign, but rather as constituents of ecodesign. The ecodesign matrix is a useful tool that can be used to visualise environmental criteria and indicate possible strategies. However, this does not imply that using ecodesign principles means that a product is sustainable in the longer term. Sustainability requires a much broader and global view. Such a view raises questions about our basic needs and the inequitable distribution of material resources. Where ecodesign fits into sustainable development is discussed in our conclusions. empirical evidence Our research into ecodesign activities in UK organisations, suggests that many are focusing efforts on one or two aspects of the product lifecycle and very rarely on the lifecycle as a whole. An example of this is the high profile given by many companies to the recycling of product components, product packaging and to the use of recycled waste (often from pre-consumer stock) in the manufacture of their products. Recycling may only give a low environmental benefit and although it may result in incremental improvements, the companies' efforts might well have been better spent concentrating on, for example, increasing energy efficiency or low emissions . This is well illustrated by the automotive industry where several car manufacturers are working on models designed to optimise recycling. Increasingly cars are designed to include the maximum number of recyclable items. For instance, BMW's new 7 series is 85 per cent recyclable and many cars are already up to a 75 per cent recyclability. The German Motor Industry has this year drawn up plans to create a system to enable effective car recycling. 'By 2002 all cars are to be 85 per cent recyclable and by 2015 only 5 per cent of the car's weight will be left on the rubbish dumps' 13. However, it is the end use and emissions of cars that cause greatest environmental damage. Therefore, this is the area where the industry should focus its environmental efforts. A more radical approach would be for manufacturers to invest more widely in new technologies and fuels to reduce impact in use. This is a more difficult option than recycling. This kind of scenario is occurring across a wide range of industry sectors. Firms tend to promote dubious environmental credentials in order to remove political pressures, public controversy and the 'environmental heat'. It would seem that design teams are being briefed in inappropriate areas that will not reduce the environmental harm of a product to any significant extent. These design changes are frequently made on the basis of minimal risk action and low investment. This option minimally satisfies compliance to environmental standards and usually in only one localised environmental area. In this way the company keeps their market share whilst maintaining customer interest by publicising questionable environmental improvements. According to our research this stance is typical within UK industry. There are very few companies who are actually doing more than this. Very few are looking at both the need for a product and the environmental impact over an entire lifecycle.14. survey information Surveys of both design consultancies and manufacturing industry in the UK 15 have indicated that the environment is still a low priority compared to other business issues such as health and safety, quality and, above all, cost. There is still a long way to go before UK companies in general are willing to invest in the environment. Our initial surveys on 'environmental awareness' within design related industries led to further research on those companies who had specifically flagged an 'environmental interest' by either:
The research was based upon intensive interviews with either a design manager; designer(s); or others directly involved in making design decisions. The information gathered from these interviews supports the view that most design labelled 'ecodesign' focuses on a single environmental issue or a couple of issues associated with a particular product group. It was also found that these are rarely priority issues for the company and indeed entail minor environmental benefits. The majority of the companies interviewed were found to be reacting to new or anticipated environmental legislation. One company, however, took a more proactive role. It led its particular sector in the area of environmental action. The company examined each problem systematically and conducted an environmental assessment for each project, whether it was a part of the design brief or otherwise. The company also analysed environmental impact predictions for past projects to determine how accurate they had been. From this analysis it has developed a method of checking environmental impacts for each project. All companies interviewed had a seemingly comprehensive environmental policy but only two had really incorporated it as a part of company philosophy and long-term planning. Overall, a clear mismatch was found between what most firms say they do and their day-today activities. Although the products reviewed in this series of interviews did go some way to decreasing environmental impact in general - the design process and decision making criteria engaged little with less damaging alternatives. There was little exploration of new or alternative technologies to address a need in ways that significantly reduce environmental harm. some conclusions Our research findings, so far, suggest that design measures in the UK to improve environmental performance - in the guise of 'green' or 'ecodesign' - has the following characteristics:
This is the 'down-side'. The 'up-side' however, is that companies are beginning to take environmental concerns more seriously. We already have in the UK a small number of companies that are presently leading in their particular industry sectors, all be it from a product based and single issue perspective. It appears that the tide is changing and from a design point of view this is encouraging because companies are beginning to realise that it is only through thinking much harder about their products - that is more design thought- can they respond to increasing legislative, customer and environmental demands. Designers have argued for many years that design needs to be taken more seriously and considered at higher levels within organisations. Environmental issues may well provide the platform for this to become more widely acknowledged. This work has attempted to provide a definition of ecodesign, describe some of its characteristics and relate this to practice as presently found in industry. The concept of sustainable design however, is much more complex and moves design concerns outwards towards societal conditions, regional development and ethics. What is required for this to become a reality is an absorption of an extended range of external factors - presently excluded from the design process - of 'the external' world and its physical, societal and cultural limitations. Here the parameters of design are semi-permeable and the process is enhanced by additional information that seeps into the 'design bubble'. The focus of design will therefore begin to move away from a product to a systems based approach. Concepts such as: dematerialization 16; the move away from hardware to software; ideas to achieve 'more from less'; and an onus on 'service' as opposed to 'ownership' - all raise the question -how will design roles alter to accommodate such radical changes? Ultimately the ability to follow through this degree of change in design thinking will depend on consumer behaviour and values systems, and whether designers - as part of the current product provision system - can influence a change in attitudes towards this goal. Sustainability, as a target for designers, consists of a broad range of external material and cultural factors. If we consider the widely acknowledged '20 factor' - and agree that, collectively, we must reduce global resource throughput by a factor of 20 in thirty years or so - we realise the extent to which consumption patterns must change. The implications for design are clearly profound. Issues such as inequality between developed and developing regions; the fact that 20 per cent of the world's population consumes 80 per cent of the world's resources; the rapid growth in demand for the benefits of western lifestyles; the erosion of national boundaries; and the implications of information technology - all seriously affect design. Ecodesign fits into this move towards sustainability but it has many limitations. (see figure 04). The authors would argue that the concept of ecodesign and lifecycle thinking can be applied to all products and can act as a suitable guide for designers at the product level. It is possible to begin this process here and now. What ecodesign cannot do, however, is deal with the more fundamental question of whether a product is really needed in the context of sustainability. This requires other elements such as: cultural attitudes; value systems; ethics; equity and access; among others - to be integrated into the design process. Only then will designers be able to integrate their activities with a truly sustainable programme for present and future generations. references 1: Eco2-irn. (Ecologically and Economically Sound Design
and Manufacture - Interdisciplinary Research Network)
(Nov. 1994). Workshop on defining 'ecodesign'. 2: Meadows, D. et al., (1992) Beyond the Limits: Global
Collapse or a Sustainable Future. 3: Myers, N. (ed) (1993) The Gaia Atlas of
Planet Management. 4: Brundtland, G. (1987) World Commission on
Environment and Development: Our Common Future. 5: Smallpeice Trust. Design for Production: seminar
notes 1989. 6: Ryan, C. (Re) (Oct. 1992) Designing Cleaner
Products. 7: DTI (1993) The Joint Environmental
Markets Unit. 8: Dewberry, E. & Goggin P. (1995) Ecodesign and Beyond: Steps Towards
Sustainability. Paper to The European Academy of Design
conference 'Design Interfaces' University of Salford. 9: US Environmental Protection Agency (1994) Life-Cycle Design: A
Guidance Manual. 10: Society of Environmental Toxicology
& Chemistry (SETAC) (1993) Guidelines for Life-Cycle Assessment.
11: US Environmental Protection Agency (1993) Life-Cycle Assessment:
Inventory Guidelines and Principles. 12 ENDS Report (July 1993) The Cost, Pitfalls and
Opportunities in LCA's No. 222. 13: Financial Times (8th Aug. 1994) Green light begins
to flash for recyclable cars in Germany. 14: Goggin, P. (1995) PhD research in progress
'Environmentally Sensitive Design'. 15: Dewberry, E. (1994) PhD research work in
progress at The Open University. 16: Bernardino &
Galli, (May 1993)
Dematerialization: Long-term trends in the intensity of
use of materials and energy.
|
