Read the Instructions!

Read the Instructions!

When you buy a new product for your home, it typically comes with all kinds of paperwork. Warranty information, warnings, and assembly instructions are just a few examples of the literature that can be involved in such a purchase. What if there was a more useful piece of paper in that stack? One that tells you exactly what your new product is made of, and a diagram showing you what parts are made of what materials. This way, when you are through with the product, you can easily separate the product down into easily recyclable parts.

This idea is based on the concept discussed in the Cradle 2 Cradle reading that we need to keep biological nutrients separate from technical nutrients. Biological nutrients are those that can become food for the earth. This includes biodegradable products. Technical nutrients are those that are valuable in becoming “food” in the technical cycle (or metabolism). Metals, plastics and chemicals are some examples of technical nutrients. When we mix biological and technical nutrients, we make it impossible to use them past a single use of a product. One we combine these materials, we cannot separate them back out and upcycle them into more products or use them as fertilizer for the earth.

Steelcase is a company that has really been incorporating Cradle 2 Cradle in its product development. For example, the Think chair is up to 98% recyclable and made of up to 37% recycled materials according to the Steelcase Think product brochure. In addition to being highly recyclable, Steelcase has designed the Think chair to be very easily dismantled using ordinary tools. This allows for a quick and easy recycling process after a consumer is through using the chair. Another aspect of Cradle 2 Cradle that Steelcase Is implementing is the use of high quality environmentally responsible textile products. They worked with Rhoener, as discussed in the video, to develop a product with a closed-loop life-cycle. This means that the product does not produce waste. It produces more food and nutrients that can be biodegraded and the production process also eliminates hazardous toxic waste as well, leaving water supplies as clean or cleaner than before the processing.

Recycling can be an intimidating procedure for many people. What plastics go where, colored glass is separated from clear glass and certain metals get separated from other metals. All these ”rules” for recycling can be so daunting that people decide to pass up the whole concept and opt to just toss things in the trash. In order to make the recycling process as easy as possible for consumers, easily dismantled products along with a diagram showing the materials make-up of the product will help guide consumers in the process and make them feel as though they know exactly what they are doing when it comes to contributing to the upcycling of their products.

Think Chair Brochure:
http://www.steelcase.com/en/products/category/seating/task/think/documents/think_brochure.pdf

From Rags to Quilts

From Rags to Quilts

Our society is becoming very individualistic. People love personalization. There are companies out there that customize just about anything you can think of! The quality of distinctiveness is also a mentioned in the “Local and Light” reading this week. It suggests that people want products that are meaningful and diverse. In order to appeal to the nostalgic side of our culture, I am suggesting a program that lets you transform old keepsake textiles into quilts and blankets. Last week, I focused mainly on a large-scale solution, applicable to businesses of pretty much any discipline. This week, I am zoning in and suggesting a smaller-scale concept.

This system allows people to re-use their own items, such as concert t-shirts, baby clothes, or other keepsake products, and turn them into functional items for their home. Companies like “Shutterfly” allow people to upload tons of pictures and organize them into books or collages. This program would work similarly to that. People could send in a box of items to be re-used and the company would organize them into a quilt pattern and return it (in the same shipping box used to send them in) as a blanket. As mentioned in the “Sustainability” reading, our culture is seeing a revitalization of craft skills. “Pinterest” is a prime example of this! For people who are crafty themselves, the program could be available online. You could upload images of the items and it would produce a pattern for you to follow when making your quilt.

This concept incorporates “Use Waste as a Resource” by taking apparel items that might go to waste and transforming them into functional interior products for your home. It also uses the principle of “Optimize Rather than Maximize” by preventing people from buying blankets when they already have raw materials that can be turned into blankets. This allows them to make the most of resources they already have instead of using additional resources.

Redefining Profits

Redefining Profits

Money has become the cornerstone to our society; everything revolves around it. We work to make money so that we can buy things. Companies make things so that they can sell them for financial profit. Unfortunately, the environment has suffered at the hands of financial gain. When companies put all of their efforts into maximizing profits, they tend to overlook the greater losses that occur due to their processes. If environmentally responsible practices were to be financially beneficial to businesses through government policies, then it would help to redefine what companies see as profitable. Likewise, if irresponsible practices were to be financially costly to businesses, they would be more likely to try to reduce their costs by changing the ways that they operate.

In order for this design concept to work, we would need to define responsible and irresponsible practices so that companies would be able to make educated decisions. According to Benyus, there are 10 principles that businesses can incorporate to emulate the way that nature operates. These principles should be used a guideline for running environmentally responsible businesses. There are a few of these principles in particular that would be most applicable to a majority of businesses.

The first principle that businesses should apply is called “Gather and Use Energy Efficiently”. This principle is modeled after the way that nature uses energy. It suggests that we should use natural, renewable energy resources from the sun, and only as much energy as needed to complete certain tasks. Businesses should then receive tax incentives for using renewable energy sources and for not using amounts of energy beyond what is required.

A second principle, called “Use Materials Sparingly”, explains how nature optimizes designs to be as durable as they need to be while using as little materials as possible. Multi-function is another key element of this principle. If one object can serve multiple purposes, then you do not need to waste materials by creating two or three separate objects. Companies who engineer their products to use materials more efficiently will not only receive incentives from tax breaks, but will also see a cost benefit because by using fewer materials, they are purchasing fewer raw materials.

A final principle that companies should implement is that of “Run on Information”. This principle suggests that logistics and information systems are paramount in nature. Animals have developed a complex series of communication used for survival based on feedback. Businesses should incorporate better systems of feedback. The ability to examine results and standings would allow businesses to keep themselves in check. It would also allow consumers to see how businesses are doing and make informed decisions about which companies they do business with. The government could also use these information systems to track how well a company is meeting its sustainability goals. If the government has a system of communicating with companies and retrieving vital information, it provides greater accountability.

Overall, if businesses were given a measurable system of environmental accountability with benefits and consequences built into it, then they would ultimately begin to change the way that they perceive typical business practices. They would begin to weigh the environmental costs of certain things because they know that these negative environmental impacts would result in negative financial impacts for them as well.