Many things impact on the individual throughout the production and design stage; two of these being society and the environment.Industries must work towards reducing their impact and footprint on the environment.

The impacts on the way in which a product, system or environment is designed and produced are factors such as personal values, cultural beliefs, sustainability, safety and health, community and individual needs, and equity.

Environmental issues

At some stage in a life cycle of every product, system and environment, an environmental footprint is left.Designers must consider the short and long term effects on the environment that their product, system or design will have. The impact of a design on the environment at all stages – from the extraction of the raw material to the production, and finally to the end user and disposal of the product after use, should be examined.

Companies concerns are:

The level of air, water and land pollution created in the production, and use of a product (focusing on the greenhouse effect and release of carbon emissions).

The use of raw materials, whether they are renewable, scarce or non-renewable.

The disposal of plastic bags is an issue in Australia. 6.9 billion plastic bags are consumed every year in Australia. 80 million end up in parks, streets and waterways.

Australia’s natural resources are becoming depleted, particularly water. The drought in Australia and the ever-decreasing water supplies are big issues, unless suitable technologies area developed to use water wisely eg water tanks.

Solar energy and bio-fuel (fuel derived from bio-mass, recently living organisms or their metabolic by products such as manure) have been developed as oil is becoming higher in cost and creates pollution.

Innovation and Ethical IssuesMany great innovations have become possible through technology, but some innovations cause us to consider values and morals, such as the atomic bomb, the electric chair, cloning genetically modified foods and stem cell research.

Ethical and environmental considerations

Ethics is defined as doing right or wrong based on one’s personal values, customs or beliefs.

Designers must predict the short to medium and long term effects that their product, system or environment bring about in order to reduce negative consequences for their products, systems and environments into the future.

Today environmental implications are necessary. In the past, protecting the environment was not a priority and hazardous consequences have resulted. Designers have legal and ethical responsibilities with which they should feel obligated to comply.

• Ensure that they work within customer’s deadlines, budget constraints and quality expectations.

• Ensure that the goods are priced reasonably and of good quality.

• Ensure that social, cultural and moral responsibilities are addressed.

• Ensure that environmental and sustainable issues are considered.

Global Warming

An increase in greenhouse gases in the earth’s atmosphere is known as global warming.

Many greenhouse gases are caused by human activity such as burning fossil fuels and land clearing. Other greenhouse gases also include water vapour, carbon dioxide, methane and CFC.

One-fifth of Australia’s green house gases are generated from households; that being15 tons per household each year. One ton of green house gases are generated from transport, burning of fossil fuels including coal, oil and gas, and decay of household wastes in landfills.

Environmental Impact

Eco design refers to designers that have specifically taken into consideration minimal environmental impact throughout the life cycle of the product system environment.

Sustainable Technologies

Sustainable technologies are technologies using environmentally friendly resources; eg:

Wind

Solar

Hydro (water)

Solar Power

The conversion of sunlight into direct current electricity is solar power.Solar power reduces greenhouse gas emission by nearly 2,500 tonnes every year. =