Design for sustainability - Essay Example

Design for sustainability refers to the philosophy of designing products or objects that are environmentally friendly and conform to the principles of social, economic and ecological sustainability. Design for sustainability is also known as environmentally sustainable design or simply sustainable design The aim of design for sustainability is to completely get rid of negative environmental effects or impacts through skillful and sensitive design. Its manifestation does no want resources that cannot be renewed, has minimal impact on the environment and relate humans to the natural environment.

Therefore, when designing a product, companies should incorporate environmental and social factors throughout the life cycle and supply chain of the product with respect to their socio-economic surrounding (McAloone and Bey, 2009). The life cycle of a product begins from extracting, processing and supplying of the raw materials and energy required for the product. It then proceeds to the production, distribution, consumption (reuse and recycling) and ultimate disposal. It is important to note that sustainability has no absolute value; the sustainability of any product is an allusive quality that will differ from one product to another (McAloone and Bey, 2009).

Due to global concerns over environmental and social problems such as climate change, biodiversity loss, poverty, health and pollution, most industries have improved their products to meet sustainability criteria or principles in order to out do or out shine their competitors. However, there are some companies that have not adapted this principles of sustainability and their products seem to be so unfriendly and unsustainable, for instance, the plastic bags (Diehl and Crul, 2007). The plastic bags were initially considered to be more sanitary and friendly to the environment as compared to the deforesting paper bag.

They are cheaper to make, sturdy and easy to carry. However, with recent findings, they have proved to be very much environmentally unfriendly and unsustainable. Plastic bags are made from flimsy plastics which are not easy to recycle. They easily blow into trees and water bodies thereby killing marine life. They also take much of the required landfill space. In addition, plastics are made from polyethylene (a by product of oil refining) which is a non renewable resource. According to Mendis (2009), the oil used in making plastics is about 4% of the world’s total oil production.

Plastics are also produced using a lot of electricity as compared to the paper bags; they require four times as much energy produce and 85 times as much to recycle (Mendis, 2009). The chemicals and inks used in making the plastics can also leak and pollute the environment, particularly the soil and water bodies. When burned, the chemicals and inks in the plastics produce noxious compounds that are a threat to the human life. Plastic bags are non biodegradable; they take about 400 to 1000 years to disappear.

Plastic bags also have the tendency of causing suffocation among children. It is estimated that about twenty five children (below one year) in the US suffocate each year because of the plastic bags (Mendis, 2009). The plastic bags are also a threat to the life of most animals. About 105,000 sea animals such as dolphins, penguins, whales and turtles die yearly due to plastic bags. Most of these animals mistake the plastic bags for food, ingest them and eventually die (Mendis, 2009). For instance the turtles always mistake the bags for jellyfish.

And since the plastic bag are non digestible, they will intact even after the animal dies and decomposes. Thus, it lies in the sea and gets ingested with another animal. Having mentioned the impacts of plastic bags on the environment and how it is unsustainable, it is wise to explore ways of making it environmentally friendly or give alternative for it. To protect the environment, it is therefore important to consider the following alternatives to plastic bags: use