THE STUDENT TOOLKIT

Introduction
The following activities are intended for students to use either in their product study or in their major coursework. The activities should help them to assess the environmental, social and economic sustainability, either of existing products or of their own different design ideas.

The Ecodesign Web and the Design Abacus are both qualitative methods of analysis, useful for identifying areas where a product or a design could be improved in terms of sustainability.

The Eco-indicator is more detailed, and involves some qualitative analysis.

A method of using footprint analysis in major coursework will be added at a later date.

ST1: ECODESIGN WEB

ACTIVITY PURPOSE
To enable students to assess the environmental performance of a current product and outline the targets for redesign.

SUITABILITY FOR A/S and A2 STUDENTS
This activity can be used with both AS and A2 level students.

WHEN TO USE THE ACTIVITY
The Ecodesign Web is useful at various points in AS and A2 work. During product analysis it can be used to rate an existing product or an alternative design. During planning a major product it can be used to identify problem areas in sustainability for your design ideas.

IS IT FOR GROUPS OR INDIVIDUALS?
It can be used with a small group or a whole class working in groups or individually.

SUSTAINABILITY ISSUES CONSIDERED
The activity aims to focus on how the redesign of a product can improve its environmental sustainability.

ASSESSMENT CRITIERIA
This will help identify the particular part of the product that is in need of improvement. This is a qualitative tool which is not precise but instead gives an indication of the areas where there are concerns. At both AS and A2 level it would help in criteria A1, A2, C1, C2 and T1. At A2 it meets D3 precisely.

THE ACTIVITY AND HINTS ON HOW TO ORGANISE IT
• Students can work individually or in small groups to assess a product.
• It is often useful to have two of each product to be assessed. Ask the students to dismantle one before the start of the activity as they may need to investigate what the different components are made from etc.
• Each individual or group needs an Ecodesign Web to complete.
• To assess the product the student (or group) should go to each part of the web in turn and decide how good or bad the current product is in that area. This is just a relative measure and accuracy is not needed.
• Once the result is assigned for each area of the web the points can be joined and the area inside the points shaded to give a picture of the product’s performance (for completed example see p xxx).
• Students should then discuss which areas to focus on when redesigning the product to make it more sustainable.
• The targets for the redesign can then be drawn on the web and the area shaded in a different colour.

OTHER WAYS OF USING THE ECODESIGN WEB
• As described above the web is used to assess an existing product for redesign.
• It is equally useful in helping students identify aspects of a product that are very good in terms of sustainability and which they could therefore include in their own design. For example, if a product is shown to be very good in terms of its ease of disassembly, the student might wish to incorporate that idea into his/her own design. The student might take another good feature from another product.
• Students can also assess their own design ideas using the Ecodesign Web. If they complete an assessment when they have generated their early ideas, they can modify their design in the light of the assessment before going on to make their product.

ST2: DESIGN ABACUS

ACTIVITY PURPOSE
To enable students to assess the sustainability performance of a current product or a design idea, highlight the areas where further research is needed and outline the targets for redesign.

SUITABILITY FOR AS and A2 STUDENTS
This activity can be used with both AS and A2 level students.

WHEN TO USE THE ACTIVITY
The Design Abacus is useful at various points in AS and A2 work. During product analysis it can be used to rate an existing product or an alternative design. During planning a major product it can be used to identify problem areas in sustainability for your design ideas.

IS IT FOR GROUPS OR INDIVIDUALS?
It can be used with a small group or a whole class working in groups or individually.

SUSTAINABILITY ISSUES CONSIDERED
The activity can be tailored to meet your own requirements at the time you use it. You can use only environmental, only social or only economic aspects of sustainability or all three. Teachers or students can identify the issues that they feel are most important to consider. All values issues can be assessed using the abacus. However, if a student wishes to concentrate on one values aspect only, e.g. environmental issues, that is equally acceptable.

ASSESSMENT CRITERIA
This will help identify the particular part of the product that is most/least sustainable and in need of improvement. This is a qualitative tool that is not meant to be precise but instead gives an indication of areas for concern. At both AS and A2 level it would help in criteria A1, A2, C1, C2 and T1. At A2 it meets D3 precisely.

THE ACTIVITY AND HINTS ON HOW TO ORGANISE IT
• Students can work individually or in groups to assess the product.
• It is often useful to have two of each product to be assessed. Ask the student to dismantle one before the start of the activity as they may need to investigate what the different materials are etc.
• Each individual or group needs a number of blank abacus sheets.
• Decide whether to consider environmental, social or economic issues first. Write the relevant title in the bottom box on the abacus sheet (see example of completed sheets).
• Identify a number of issues which are important for the particular product (for help in identifying issues see p xxx). Decide which ones you are to assess.
• Write each of the issues to be assessed onto the appropriate abacus sheet. The ideal condition is listed at the top and the worst condition at the bottom, for example, in the focal area of end of life the ideal condition is easy to disassemble and the worst case is difficult to disassemble.
• When all issues have been transferred on to the abacus sheets the assessment can begin.
• To assess the product the student (or group) should take each issue in turn and decide how good or bad the current product is in that area. This is just a relative measure and accuracy is not needed.
• Once the score is assigned for a particular issue the students can then consider the confidence level. The aim of this is to indicate how confident they are in their judgement. If the students are unsure about anything they can give a low confidence rating and this will help highlight those areas where further research about the product is needed.
• The students should continue assessing the product for each sustainability heading until all issues have been considered.
• The individual sheets can then be joined together and a line drawn to connect all the scores in the issues area and confidence levels.
• This assessment then gives a very visual result that highlights the good and bad areas of the product.
• The targets for the redesign can then be drawn on the abacus in a different colour and when the redesign is compete it can be assessed against the target to see if it has been met.

OTHER WAYS OF USING THE DESIGN ABACUS
• It can also be used to compare two products. Simply use different coloured pen or pencil for each product assessed. This might help students identify good aspects of different products that they can then include in their own designs.
•It can be used to compare two different design ideas they have come up with themselves. They should be able to identify which is the more sustainable.
• Instead of using the three issues of sustainability separately, some students have found it useful to use the abacus to identify sustainability issues over a product’s life cycle. So, instead of using the title environmental in the bottom box, they may start with material selection, then move on to production, distribution, use and end of life.

Click here to download a Blank Abacus or a Completed Abacus evaluating CD-Cases

ST3: THE ECO-INDICATOR

ACTIVITY PURPOSE
Eco-indicators provide a simple process to allow students to calculate the environmental and social impacts of products and services. It can be used on existing products or services or when analysing potential new designs, or when comparing one or more products.

SUITABILITY FOR AS and A2 STUDENTS
This sophisticated activity is designed for A2 students to perform in-depth analysis of products and systems.

WHEN TO USE THE ACTIVITY
The Eco-indicator can be a valuable tool at many stages of A2 work. It can be used at the product analysis stage to highlight problem areas or during project work to compare designs or pinpoint areas for improvement. It can also be used to quantify the successes and improvements of design outcomes.

IS IT FOR GROUPS OR INDIVIDUALS?
There are a lot of stages to this tool so it lends itself to being introduced to students as a class that then splits into groups of four or five to carry out the tasks involved. Some assistance may be required for the mathematical calculations involved. Students can then use it on their own during their A2 project work if they wish.

SUSTAINABILITY ISSUES CONSIDERED
This activity considers environmental and social issues as it takes into account human health, ecosystem quality and use of resources. The impact that different stages of the life-cycle have on social and environmental factors is highlighted as the Eco-indicator is divided into production, use and disposal. An extra discussion can also be made about the influence of values during the development of the Eco-indicator values.

ASSESSMENT CRITERIA
The activity meets A2 - D3 precisely.

THE ACTIVITY AND HINTS ON HOW TO ORGANISE IT

• The Eco-indicator is a table listing the material or process, the amount, the Eco-indicator value and the eco-points for each aspect of the life-cycle. It is split into three sections:

Production Raw materials (e.g. polystyrene), Processing and manufacture (e.g. injection moulding)
Use Transportation of the product (e.g. shipping), Energy required during use (e.g. electricity), Consumables required for use (e.g. paper)
Disposal

• The first stage of the Eco-indicator is to produce a list of component parts. Ask the students to disassemble the product, identify the materials and processes that make each part, and find the weight (in kgs) of each part. Discussions can also be made as to how easy the product is to disassemble and the implications of this for recycling.

• Give each student a copy of the table found below and ask them to add each element to the correct section.

• The product elements are each quantified in relevant units (raw materials in kgs, electricity in kWh, shipping in tkm etc) and these figures can be filled in on the table.

Eco-indicator values are numbers assigned to every material and process used by designers and can be found in a series of tables available from the Pre website (http://www.pre.nl) in the ‘Manual for Designers’. The Eco-indicator value indicates a material’s or an action’s impact based on its effects on:

Human health (e.g. mercury would score many points)
Ecosystem quality (e.g. anything with a toxic by-product scores many points)
Resources (e.g. use of renewable resources scores few points)

• Ask the student to find out the Eco-indicator value for each of the product elements. They can then multiply the weight of each of the product elements by its Eco-indicator value to give its eco-points. The higher the points, the worse the environmental impact of that element.

• The total number of eco-points can then be calculated for each life-cycle stage and graphs can be drawn.

• Students can then discuss which elements and stages of the products life-cycle cause most impact and can be focused on during redesign activities.