C3. Social and Environmental Responsibilities

Design can play a role in contributing to environmental and social problems. Can shape and lead environmentally and socially aware future and lead to valuable competitive advantage amongst increasingly and environmentally involved audiences.

long-term view - rapidly shifting trends

Environmentally-aware design seeks to reduce the material and energy used and waste created at each stage in the development process.
Socially-aware design seeks to broaden the accessibility and inclusiveness of people able to make use of the products and services on offer.

Managers:

• improving the flow of information on new sustainable materials and techniques
• monitor changes in legislation and financial incentives (consumer trends indicate people would pay more for 'ethical' products)

Many existing business models are based on a 200-years old view of industrial society which is now being called to question.

Sourcing raw materials
materials chosen to satisfy number of factors, for example:

• aesthetics
• function
• costs

Customers want to know more about a product:

• how it was made
• where it was made
• who made it
• under what working conditions

In an increasingly competitive environment, this can become a real selling point for product and service differentiation.

Production processes
Design can make manufacturing and production processes more efficient through:

• refining existing workflows
  
• setting up a whole new system from scratch in order to reduce massive environmental burdens.

Businesses are part of any community, and as such need to be responsible and accountable for their actions and their local and global impact.

Environmental cost
Environmental costs and the amount of natural resources to produce a good service is an increasingly influential factor in our purchasing choices.
Design has a direct impact on the energy and source consumption of the products and services we buy and use.
Design can also raise social and environmental awareness by communicating broader issues to consumers.

End disposal
to find new ways to be more responsible for the total lifecycle of the products and services.
Long-term view of how to deal with waste is a valuable competitive advantage.
Packaging is a major contributor to unnecessary cost and waste, both in manufacture and transportation.

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For Major Project

The product would use large amount of energy. To make it more 'green', we could propose use of:

• overground solar panels
• wind turbines which are using the pressured air in the tube tunnels

We will include this topic into "future concepts proposal' in the presentation.