Design and the Environment - Cradle to Grave

VDIS10030 DESIGN AND THE

ENVIRONMENTSangeeta Jain

Design and the Environment

• In recent years, we hear about global warming often. We have passed the stage

where we consider it as a possibility and are right now feeling the “heat” of it. Global

temperatures are rising. The polar ice caps are melting. Weather is becoming more

extreme. The sea levels are rising. The impact of these changes are devastating. It is

believed that in the years to come rising sea levels may destroy coastal communities,

there could be shortage of food, some species may become extinct etc. Thus the

threats that climate change poses are pushing environmental concerns to the

forefront. While much emphasis is currently placed on climate change, there are other

environmental concerns too. These include the availability of potable fresh water,

increased deforestation, reduced biodiversity and the destruction of ecosystems.

Reversing these patterns requires dramatic changes in consumption and production at

the process, product, service and system levels. There is a growing demand to research

and implement innovative processes and develop better products and services.

“Designers actually have more potential to slow environmental degradation

than economists, politicians and environmentalist. Their power is catalytic.”

Alastair Faud-Luke

Source: The Eco-Design Handbook

What can designers do?

• It is increasingly apparent that current patterns of consumption and production are

unsustainable, as evidenced in the ever increasing rate of adverse environmental and

social impacts. To keep pace with the rapidly changing setting, many environmental

movements have expanded their scope to include social and economic concerns. This

combination of environmental, social, and economic priorities is referred to as

‘sustainability.’

• Designers are considered to be problem solvers. Thus we certainly have a major role to

play in finding unique sustainable design solution(s)to the problem of global warming

and climate change. We can make a difference especially today when people have

started to notice the value of a good design. However in order to relieve the negative

environmental, social and economic impacts and to develop eco-friendly products

and create sustainable design, we first need to understand the cause of it by

understanding the life cycle of the product, service or process.

Life Cycle Analysis (LCA)

• A life cycle assessment or LCA, identifies opportunities for improvement by quantifying

the impacts that a product has on the environment throughout its full life cycle - from

production and manufacturing to the disposal phase.

• A full LCA is also known as a "Cradle to Grave" sustainability assessment.

• Cradle to Grave is a biomimetic approach to the design of products and systems that

models human industry on nature's processes viewing materials as nutrients circulating

in healthy, safe metabolisms. It can be used to assess the environmental impacts of a

product's life and provide a sound basis for informed decisions.

• It sounds analytical and complex but with some basic theory graphic designers can

certainly apply some practical LCA to their graphic design projects.

This graphic shows the main stages of a cradle-to-grave full life-cycle and the resources that go into the system and waste that comes out (this can happen at every stage, not just at the end).

http://sustainable-graphic-design.blogspot.in/2011/07/materials-life-cycle-assessment-in.html

Life Cycle Analysis (LCA)

• As the term “Cradle to Grave” suggests, it is an analysis of a product/service right from

creation to disposal; throughout the life cycle. Cradle to Grave analysis includes

physical goods as well as services and technological processes. It is a technique to

assess environmental impacts associated with all the stages of a product's life from raw

material extraction through materials processing, manufacture, distribution, use, repair

and maintenance, and disposal or recycling.

• Designers use this process to help critique their products. The main stages of the life

cycle usually follows the cradle-to-grave model (full life-cycle). Occasionally the

cradle-to-gate model (partial life-cycle until it reaches the consumer).

Life Cycle Analysis“Cradle to

Grave Model”

Life Cycle Analysis“Cradle to Gate Model”

http://buddhajeans.com/encyclopedia/cradle-to-gate/

Cradle to Grave Analysis

The main stages for analysis include:

• Raw material extraction

• Material processing

• Design

• Manufacture

• Distribution

• Use

• Repair/maintenance

• Disposal

With regard to the following factors:

• Raw Material use

• Water use

• Energy use

• Waste production

• Waste disposal (air, land, water)

• Transportation steps


• Here's a simple graphic of the direct mail life-cycle. It's highly simplified - and really only

shows the journey of the paper, not the ink or other consumables and it only ends in the

bin rather than a landfill or incinerator. Even so, notice that it's not really a "cycle" but a

linear flow. The thing that makes this linear flow possible is cheap energy to transport

and process the trees into printed material.

http://sustainable-graphic-design.blogspot.in/2011/07/sustainability-graphic-designers.html


There are typically 4 steps in conducting a cradle to grave analysis:

• Step 1: Define the objective of the analysis

• Why am I conducting the analysis?

• Step 2: Define the scope of the analysis

• who, what, when, where, and how.

• Who is going to conduct the analysis?

• What will be included? When and where will it take place?

• And, how will the analysis be conducted?

• Step 3: Collect background data

• Step 4: Interpret the data and devise an action plan


• Consumer behaviour is an important consideration for the cradle-to-grave analysis. For

example a design of packaging needs a complementary system that makes it as easy

as possible for the consumer to recycle or compost the package. Therefore some

questions to consider related consumer behaviour include:

• What economic or other incentives might encourage consumers to recycle packaging?

• How easy is it for consumers to disassemble and store packaging?

• How far will consumers travel to recycle or compost packaging?

• Additionally, a designer needs to have a general understanding about the origin and

their environmental impacts, within the context of the current life cycle. This provides a

basis for assessing the impact of design modifications in a cradle-to-grave system.

Cradle to Cradle is a design framework for going beyond sustainability and designing for

abundance in a Circular Economy.

Cradle to Cradle (C2C)

• In 2002, German chemist Michael Braungart and American architect William McDonough heralded it with their book ‘Cradle to Cradle: Remaking the Way We Make Things’. This framework seeks to create production techniques that are not just efficient but are essentially waste free.

• Its central premise is that products should be conceived from the very start with intelligent design and the intention that they would eventually be recycled, as either ‘technical’ or ‘biological’ nutrients. Time Magazine has called it “a unified philosophy that - in demonstrable and practical ways - is changing the design of the world.”

• In a cradle-to-grave model, products that have reached the end of their useful lives are considered worthless. Whereas the Cradle to Cradle methodology looks at how, at the end of that product’s useful life, they can be taken apart and recycled – or “up-cycled” into

products that may have a value and sophistication beyond that of their original use. Simply, it’s a philosophy of birth-to-rebirth.

Simplified cradle-to-cradle

packaging life cycle using

biological nutrients.

http://web.stanford.edu/class/me221/readings/C2

C_Design_Guidelines_PKG.pdf

Cradle to Cradle (C2C)

Cradle to cradle assumes that a product or its components are not disposed of but are

used in other products and/or processes. It factors in the options for reuse, recycling,

recovery and remanufacturing.

• Reuse – using a product without change or remodelling, whether for the original or a

different application

• Recovery – capturing or extracting elements of a product or process, for example,

chemicals from computer parts or heat from a production process

• Recycle – processing a product or components into a changed form, usually for a

different application

• Remanufacture –rebuilding a product to its original (or better) specifications; this goes

beyond reconditioning or repairing to an acceptable working state.

http://buddhajeans.com/encyclopedia/cradle-to-cradle-design/

Resources:

• http://www.d4s-sbs.org/d4s_sbs_manual_site.pdf

• http://www.hpcorporategroup.com/the-life-cycle-assessment-cradle-to-grave-

sustainability.html

• http://sustainable-graphic-design.blogspot.in/2011/07/materials-life-cycle-assessment-

in.html

• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cradle-to-cradle_design

• http://sustainable-graphic-design.blogspot.in/2011/07/sustainability-graphic-

designers.html