Sunday 18 August 2013

LCA lifecycle analsys video reflection

Video responses

Greenfly: Design greener products video
The service that greenfly offers appears to be very convenient, although having experience in the industry I just do not feel confident with what is provided. It seems too simple, and there are too many other considerations to be taken into place. Very similar to the concept of how people say a product is “recyclable”, just because somebody says something is recyclable doesn’t mean it’s going to be recycled. Just because the methods here on greenfly exist doesn’t mean it is how it is going to work. I feel it would be more responsible if there was an actual job position available for this, somebody that their pure job is to lower the environmental impact on these products (which already exists!).

Autodesk: whole system and lifecycle thinking video
Very informative, I like this video as it shows you a rough and easy way to just asses the whole situation YOURSELF, it comes in very easy as it’s something that can be done from such an early phase in the design process, this can be done in the basic concept stage. This happening at this point in time comes in very useful as you can have a rough assessment if your design is going to have a bad impact before actually making full commitment of commencing the design. I think another thing that comes in useful about this process addressed is the simplicity of it. It can be thought of by an industrial designer, but then it can also be done by an architect, or an artist, or just somebody that is experimenting with a design in their garage. Very intuitive video enjoyed it.

Autodesk: improving product lifetime video
The idea of this video is good, designing something with a longer lifecycle, or designing something that majority of the parts can be re-used or recycled is all a great idea. Fortunately this is all information I have already known, and when I look back at this to the realistic world, it is great for a designer or an engineer to come up with these designs. BUT the next problem that is the entire reason this is not currently being applied was not addressed, and that is the marketing and finances! Realistically a company wants to make a product that is cheap to make and easy for a customer to buy again, that is how the world works, designers have come up with many products that have great end of life but the problem comes in that the marketing wants the product that will earn them the most money instead of the one that is best for the environment. This video has a good idea in mind but financially it is not the best option.

Autodesk: light weighting video
This idea is good and I like how they demonstrate the waste involved. Light weighting is a great and innovative option. Something I feel they missed out on this video is how it is actually helpful for the costs in production, as that is the big determination on if a product gets made. It puts more pressure on the designer but for a very good reason. One of the things I like most was how they explained that they don’t want to lightweight design if its manufacturing method does more of an environmental impact.

Autodesk: green materials selection
Informative, but way too short a video, was expecting it to start getting into some depth explaining the green material selection further but it seemed to cut it very short. That being said from what they did say using the cup demonstration was very useful as coffee cups are something most people use every day and it’s something everyone else can relate to.

Autodesk: Energy efficient design
Explaining the process of electricity from the ore all the way to the product has already helped a lot as many people don’t understand the process and effort that is required to get the power out of your wall socket.  This already gave myself and others a good idea of how key it is to have energy efficient design. Although I feel the explanation of solar panels was not necessary. But knowing the concept of Watts, joules, and energy comes in very useful for design. Fortunately I already knew most of this from being a previous physics and engineering student, although what I got told here I can still see it as something that is simpler even for the basic designer to understand.

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