Abigail Clarke, Ph.D. candidate Dr. John K. Gershenson, Advisor Department of Mechanical Engineering

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Abigail Clarke, Ph.D. candidateDr. John K.
Gershenson, AdvisorDepartment of Mechanical
Engineering Sustainable Futures Institute
Michigan Technological
UniversityHoughton, Michigan
Sustainable Product Realization The Future
Scientific Formalism for Global Manufacturing
Enterprises in 2025
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Why Sustainable Design?

• The benefits of putting sustainability into
  practice are already perceived by many businesses
  in Europe, Japan and the U.S. (Arthur D. Little,
  2004)

(Arthur D. Little, 2004)
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Sustainable Design

• The new business bottom line incorporates design
  and manufacturing, ethical, societal,
  environmental and economic concerns (Charter and
  Chick, 1997 Elkington, 1998)

(Mihelcic et al., 2003)
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Design Process Changes

• Rethink the functional value a product provides
• Examine product from life-cycle (Keoleian and
  Menery, 1993) and systems viewpoint (Fiksel,
  2003 Rai and Allada, 2001)
  
• Consider environmental and social consequences
  through
  
• Dematerialization remove the physical nature of
  a product (Brezet and van Hemel, 1997)
  
• Resilience create products that respond to
  disruptive external stimuli by stabilizing the
  product system (Fiksel, 2003)
  
• Industrial Ecology design for multiple product
  lives (Graedel and Allenby, 2003)

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Legislative Influences

• Extended Producer Responsibility spurred by WEEE
  and RoHS is spreading obligating industry to
  design out, clean up and accept financial
  responsibility for environmental damage

(Roos, 2005)
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The Future Marketplace

• Manufacturers must cater to industrializing
  countries markets
  
• In 2050, population of OECD countries will
  stagnate, industrializing countries will rise by
  nearly 2.7 billion people
  
• People are living longer worldwide, particularly
  in industrializing countries (UN DESA Population
  Division, 2005)
  
• Companies need to address inequity in resource
  distribution
  
• of all people use 58 of all energy use, 84
  of all paper use and own 87 of all vehicles
  
• have difficulty acquiring food, shelter,
  housing, water, sewage treatment and electricity
  (Robins, 1999)
  

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Future Resource Constraints

• In 50 years design, technical, market and
  business culture changes must reduce resource use
  by 90-95 (Lewis and Gertsakis, 2001). Some
  solutions include
• A shift to bio-based materials
• Increased recovery of metals
• Recycline and Freeplay Energy have stepped up to
  the design challenge
  

(Recycline, 2006)
(Freeplay Foundation, 2006)
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Necessary Partnerships

• Supply chain members must share product
  information in order to better meet environmental
  targets at each product life-cycle stage
  (Hanssen, 1999)
• Consumers are increasingly technical savvy and
  influencing product design (e.g., moviegoers
  suggestions through internet blogs, homemade
  videos and emails changed Snakes on a Plane
  (Tyrangiel, 2006)).
• Obtaining user feedback over the internet about
  products using simplified CAD tools could bring
  in new creative power to product innovation
  

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Information Sharing

• Collection of product life-cycle information is
  essential
  
• Creating interfaces between product
  environmental, societal and geographic data and
  CAD tools allows designers to make informed
  choices
• Design tools must include
• Location specific and dynamic environmental
  impact (Graedel, 1998)
  
• Social impacts
• Representations of complex processes

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Conclusions

• Focus product design to meet basic human needs
  and build industrializing nation infrastructure
  within resource constraints
  
• Formulate clear sustainable product realization
  methods (Rai and Allada, 2001)
  
• Improve sustainability product performance
  metrics
  
• Incorporate location-specific environmental and
  social impact information into design methods and
  tools
  
• Develop technology to
• collect product impact information
• allow CAD feedback from customers

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References
Arthur D. Little, 2004, "Innovation High Ground
Report How Leading Companies Are Using
Sustainability-Driven Innovation to Win
Tomorrows Customers," Arthur D. Little (ADL),
Boston. Brezet, H. and van Hemel, C., 1997, Ecod
esign A Promising Approach to Sustainable
Production and Consumption, United Nations
Environment Programme, Paris. Charter, M. and Chi
ck, A., 1997, "Editorial," Journal of Sustainable
Product Design, 1 (1), pp. 5-6.
Elkington, J., 1998, Cannibals with Forks, New
Society Publishers, Gabriola Island, BC.
Fiksel, J., 2003, "Designing Resilient,
Sustainable Systems," Environmental Science and
Technology, 37 (23), pp. 5330-5339.
Freeplay Foundation, 2006, Lifeline Self Powered
Radios Provide Sustainable Access,
http//www.freeplayfoundation.org/
Graedel, T. E., 1998, Streamlined Life-Cycle
Assessment, Prentice Hall, Upper Saddle River,
New Jersey. Hanssen, O. J., 1999, "Sustainable Pr
oduct Systems - Experiences Based on Case
Projects in Sustainable Product Development,"
Journal of Cleaner Production, 7 (1), pp. 27-41.
Keoleian, G. A. and Menery, D., 1993, "Life Cycle
Design Guidance Manual," Washington, D.C.
Government Publishing Office. Lewis, H. and Gerts
akis, J., 2001, Design Environment A Global
Guide to Design Greener Goods, Greenleaf,
Sheffield. Mihelcic, J. R., Crittenden, J. C., Sm
all, M. J., Shonnard, D. R., Hokanson, D. R.,
Zhang, Q., Chen, H., Sorby, S. A., James, V. U.,
Sutherland, J. W. and Schnoor, J. L., 2003,
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Rai, R. and Allada, V., 2001, November 6-8
"Artifact System (AS) Framework A Study of the
Co-Evolution of Technological Artifacts,"
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Manufacturing, Boston, MA, Society of
Photo-Optical Instrumentation Engineers, Vol.
4193, pp. 243-251. Recycline, 2006, Preserve, htt
p//www.recycline.com/ Robins, N., 1999, "Making
Sustainability Bite," The Journal of Sustainable
Product Design, 3 (10), pp. 7-16.
Roos, G., 2005, "Environmental Compliance Poses
Several Business Risks," Green SupplyLine,
(12/12/2005), pp. http//www.greensupplyline.com/h
owto/showArticle.jhtmljsessionid5CQPRS4HZHTUGQSN
DBECKHSCJUMEKJVN?articleID174918050
Tyrangiel, J., 2006, "Listening to the Hissing
Snakes on a Plane," Time, 167 (18), pp. 66.
UN DESA Population Division, 2005, "World
Population Prospects The 2004 Revision,"
ESA/P/WP.193, New York.
http//www.un.org/esa/population/publications/WPP2
004/2004Highlights_finalrevised.pdf