gcse.textiles.design.and.technology.in.our.world

• Life Cycle Analysis (LCA)

  1. Source of materials for the product or component

  2. Energy used and pollution caused when manufacturing

  3. Energy used and pollution caused during a product's useful life

  4. Disposal of the product at the end of its useful life
• Designers and consumers consider LCA factors before purchasing a product
• LCA factors can often influence purchasing decisions
• New or emerging materials, manufacturing methods or energy sources


  • Can often provide opportunities for greener products
  • Could be a more eco-friendly material or a self-repairing material
• Self-repairing material


  • The inner tube in the tyre below, which contains a sticky liquid that hardens when it contacts air – a perfect cure for punctures
• Worker exploitation


  Workers can be exposed to unfair working conditions including poor or unfair levels of payment, including child labour
• Social, cultural, economic and environmental responsibilities of designers and manufacturers

  • Social - products must not have an unforeseen side effect on a group of people
  • Cultural - ensuring that a product is acceptable and not offensive for a specific group
  • Economic - ensuring that financial decision making is good for the product (material selection, profit margins, running costs, energy efficiency)
  • Environmental - complying with targets on lowering CO2 emissions
• The Six Rs of Sustainability

  • REDUCE
  • REUSE
  • RECYCLE
  • REPAIR
  • RETHINK
  • REFUSE
• Better build quality can improve a product's performance during its expected life - designers can ensure that products are easy to service, maintain and repair
• Ecological design


  Solving problems alongside minimising environmental damage, without creating other problems
• Eco-efficiency


  Moving towards sustainable development - creating goods, products and services to satisfy user needs and wants while reducing ecological impacts and resource depletion
• Ecological footprint


  Measurement of the environmental impact of a product from cradle to grave
• Fair trade


  An arrangement to help producers in developing countries to achieve trade relationships with other countries, promoting sustainable development by improving trading conditions, including the rights for the workers
• Energy sources


  • Renewable
  • Non-renewable
• Renewable energy sources


  • Wind
  • Solar
  • Tidal/wave
  • Geothermal
  • Biomass
  • Hydro-electric
• Non-renewable energy sources


  • Coal
  • Oil
  • Gas
  • Nuclear
• Renewable energy sources


  Often referred to as 'clean' or 'green' energy sources, because they come from a natural supply that is continuously replaced
• 90% of waste is dumped or burned, mostly in low income countries
• Non-renewable energy sources


  Often called 'dirty' and 'fossil fuels', available in different parts of the world but in limited amounts, often need to be extracted from the earth and sometimes processed, which can give off pollution and be very damaging
• We currently depend highly on non-renewable energy sources, so a shift to 'greener' sources is underway and developing more and more
• Manufacturing using renewable energy

  • Industrial and commercial manufacturing plants and factories around the world are implementing alternative methods of power generation from renewable energy sources, in order to increase production and reduce their energy usage
  • Currently, about 66% of the energy used by the industry and manufacturing sector is fossil fuels, with a small percentage of renewable energy and biofuels
• The UK government has made a commitment for the UK to be net zero emissions by 2050
• Lots of poorly managed waste contaminates the world's oceans
• Waste causes clogging of drains, flooding, the spread of disease and harm to wildlife
• Recycling


  • With economic development and population growth, the generation of waste will also increase
  • High income countries provide nearly universal waste collection, and more than one third of waste in high income countries is recovered through recycling and composting
  • Low income countries collect about 48% of waste in cities, but only 26% in rural areas, and only 4% is recycled
• Overall, only 13.5% of global waste is recycled, and 5.5% is composted
• Circular economy


  Society putting waste back into a good use and continuing this cycle
• UK government targets


  1. Increasing clean wind energy

  2. Slashing carbon emissions

  3. Increasing offshore wind capacity
• Fossil fuel powered road vehicles

  1. By 2030, the UK will ban the production of petrol- and diesel-powered cars

  2. Some hybrid vehicles that use both electricity and petrol or diesel will still be allowed to be produced until 2035

  3. Electric vehicles and hybrids are becoming a more popular choice for motorists, with reduced or no road tax as they are very clean and some produce zero emissions
• Lots of car manufacturers are now producing fully electric cars, however battery technology and charging facilities remain problematic
• Wind power


  • Relatively little impact on the environment, although some people consider turbines to be unsightly, or 'visual pollution'
  • Expensive to install
  • Reliable when there is wind
  • Can affect wildlife, particularly birds
• Solar energy


  • Expensive to set up
  • Very dependent on sunny weather conditions to be at its most productive, although some electricity will be generated on cloudy days
  • Home owners fitting solar panels to their roofs can find them space-consuming
  • Storing solar energy can also be difficult and expensive
• Wave or Tidal systems


  • Expensive to set up
  • Can damage ecological coastlines and harm marine life
  • Generates power for around 10 hours per day
  • Around 80% efficient, better than solar or wind-based systems
• Geothermal energy


  • Uses 'hot spots' where molten rock close to the earth's crust generates hot water
  • In some locations, involves drilling into the earth's surface to reach deeper geothermal resources, allowing broader access to geothermal energy
  • Very high-cost resource
  • Risks triggering earthquakes
• Designers need to build this kind of thinking into products!
• Wind farms


  • Use turbines
• Coal fired power stations


  • Create lots of pollution
• Sustainable, eco or greener alternatives

  Much better for the environment, designed and manufactured with minimising damage and promoting sustainability at the core
• Average life of a mobile phone

  • Two and a half years for a mobile phone, 15 to 18 months for a smartphone
  • Often short life because the user has damaged the device, which requires replacement
  • Using a protective cover is one option to improve the life of the phone
  • Mobile phone manufacturers often release new models frequently to replace previous versions, known as 'incremental' development, which can help ensure consistent sales
• Products using 'greener' power supplies

  • Solar power can often improve energy consumption for users and also makes the product more flexible and less reliant on 'plugging in'
  • Photovoltaic (PV) cells can be used as power supplies and 'trickle chargers', converting free sunlight into electricity
  • Wind-up technology offers far more opportunities for designers, a wind-up torch uses the mechanical movement provided by turning the handle of the device to operate without the need for batteries