Part 1

Sustainable Product Design
and Innovation -
Engaging Future Change Makers
Lisa Hix, ScD
Assistant Professor and Lead Faculty Member
Sustainable Product Design and Innovation Program
Technology, Design and Safety Department
Keene State College
Keene, New Hampshire
Product
Design
Education
Sustainable
Production
ENGAGING FUTURE CHANGE MAKERS
Framework for Education
Product Design – what is it
Scientific Principles behind Sustainability
Guidelines for Sustainable Product Design
Visions for Curriculum Enhancement
Problem-based and Experiential Learning
Digital technology, Scientific Inquiry, and the Enterprise
Program Examples
Virtual Ideation Platform (NSF- ATE)
Bachelor of Science in Sustainable Product Design and Innovation
The Product Designer’s
CONVENTIONAL SPHERE of INFLUENCE
Toyota Prius
Ojex Juicer
Aaron Chair
by Herman Miller
Medtronic Defibrillator
©L.Hix 2011
Sustainable Product Design
Scientific Principles
Guidelines
Sustainable Product Design
Scientific Principles
The First Law of Thermodynamics (Conservation)
basically says that energy or matter can neither be created nor destroyed.
OR NOTHING DISAPPEARS
The Second Law of Thermodynamics (Dispersion) says
that while the quantity of matter/energy remains the same, the quality
deteriorates over time, flowing from high concentration to lower
concentration.
OR EVERYTHING SPREADS
http://www.physicsplanet.com/articles/three-laws-of-thermodynamics accessed 5-21-12
Sustainable Product Design
Scientific Principles
Limits on
Resource Supplies
with Increasing Demands
Ashby, Michael F. 2009. Materials and the Environment;
Elsevier Ltd, Oxford, UK. Burlington MA, USA.
The Figure Below tracks, in absolute terms,
the world's average per person Ecological
Footprint and per person biocapacity over a
40-year period.
http://www.footprintnetwork.org/gfn_sub.php?conte
nt=global_footprint
Sustainable Product Design
Guidelines: The Natural Step – Four System Conditions
http://www.thenaturalstep.org/sites/all/files/images/4SP_Box.png accessed 5-18-12
Sustainability:
Ecological longevity of human support systems
or “conserving an ecological balance by avoiding
depletion of natural resources”
Oxford Dictionaries
“We have not inherited the world from our ancestors
but borrowed it from our children.”
Even though this has been credited as Native American, African, and Chinese,
the only academic reference has it as a
Kashmire Proverb.
In 1987, the UN Brundtland Commission states they are “Concerned about
the accelerating deterioration of the human environment and natural resources and
the consequences of that deterioration for economic and social development,
Believing that sustainable development, which implies meeting the
needs of the present without compromising the ability of future
generations to meet their own needs, should become a central guiding
principle of the United Nations, Governments and private institutions, organizations
and enterprises,”
United Nations. 1987. "Report of the World Commission
on Environment and Development." General Assembly
Resolution 42/187, 11 December 1987. pg. 1 (often
referred to as the Brundtland Report) accessed: 11-25-07