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Design and Sustainability: Track 1

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Are you aware of the environmental impacts of the stuff you buy? Is that chair you bought made from wood from a sustainable forest, or was it illegally logged ? Or perhaps your TV set's inner parts are too difficult to recycle or cause pollution when it’s dismantled at the end of its life. All this adds up to a huge amount of damage to the planet. This album looks at how designers must respond to the increasingly urgent need for sustainability in product design. Designers now need to come up with not only better, more efficient designs, but must also consider the impacts in all stages in the life cycle of a product to minimise negative social and environmental consequences. This album also reveals how new product ideas and inventions are tested before they’re turned into commercially viable products. You may also want to explore the albums "Energy and Sustainability" and "Sustainable Communities". This material is taken from The Open University Course T307 Innovation: designing for a sustainable future.

Track 1: Design and Sustainability

A short introduction to this album.



Tracks in this podcast:

Track Title Description
1 Design and Sustainability A short introduction to this album. Play now Design and Sustainability
2 Consumer product testing Representatives of Intertech, a product-testing company, discuss their methods of testing. Play now Consumer product testing
3 Testing standards Emphasising the importance of standards in consumer testing. Play now Testing standards
4 The five principles of sustainability The three layers of sustainability and the five principles to reduce the impact of products on the environment. Play now The five principles of sustainability
5 The history of a chair An example of what is meant by the term 'hidden ugliness'. Play now The history of a chair
6 The designer's role in sustainable development Issues that a product designer should consider in order to make a product sustainable. Play now The designer's role in sustainable development
7 Incorporating sustainability in product design The future challenges of sustainability that designers face and how these could be resolved. Play now Incorporating sustainability in product design
8 The five principles in design project work In support of how the five principles of sustainability can help in design project work. Play now The five principles in design project work

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