WEEK 6

24/05/2021 

Our group had managed to select a suitable material for our chosen product using the COWS matrix as well as the MFD in weeks 4 and 5. In week 6 however, we learnt that apart from considering about materials for design and design for material, another important aspect in making our product is about environmental sustainability. Initially, sustainable design seemed like a foreign word to us and after further research on it, we came to an understanding that sustainable design is the approach to creating products and services that have considered the environmental, social and economic impacts from the initial phase to the end life such as the use of non-toxic materials, energy efficient processes and many more. We applied our knowledge on the product life cycle by illustrating and listing down the 6 stages of our Cat Litter product in detail. 

Another technique we used to accomplish environmental sustainability in our product was the Cradle-to-Cradle Design technique which is a biomimetic approach to the design of products and systems that emulates nature's processes. There are 3 design principles of this technique, Nutrients become Nutrients Again, Use of renewable energies as well as Celebrate diversity. Out of these 3 techniques, we have chosen 2 to work on which are nutrients become nutrients again and celebrate diversity. From the detailed product life cycle we had done earlier, it made it easier for us to apply the 2 chosen techniques that would help improve our product into something environmental sustainable for users. We compiled our detailed annotations into a single document for easier reference in the future: Product design cycle & C2C design technique