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Contents:
1 - It's not as simple as that...; 2 - Systematically identifying weak points; 3 - Targeted identification of eco-design measures; 4 - Preparing ecodesign for product development; 5 - Embedded ecodesign in environmental management; 6 - Successful initiation of ecodesign products.
Review:
Regular readers will know that I can find the most useful material in the least expected areas. This slim text is actually written to help produce sustainable design ideas but it would also make a great analytical tool for product analysis in ecological and environmental science or even be the start of a co-operative project between the design/technology and science/ecology/social studies departments.
To start at the beginnig, the PILOT stands for 'product investigation, learning and optimization tool for sustainable product development'. The genesis of this book lies in the need to be proactive rather than reactive to industrial design problems. It was one of the projects sponsored by the Alliance for Global Sustainability (a group of interested industrialists and politicians focussed around four universities - MIT, Tokyo, Chalmers and the Swiss Federal Institute for Technology). Following discussions in the late 1990s a pilot project was started which lead, after modifications, to this present text. It is clear from the book that thje aim is to get senior managers to consider more closely the environmental impact of their products. The very brief introductory chapter highlights why such an approach is needed (interdependencies of products and environment). Chapter two starts to describe the process. What we are given is less of a text and more of a manual. Technical details are minimised, reader-friendly apporaches such as the constant use of diagrams and a series of questions ( a 'dialogue' that continues throughout the text) are employed. The aim of this stage of the process is to identify the impact of the product on the environment. In keeping with current environmental ideas, the authors adopt a 'life cycle' approach arguing that the product goes through a life cycle from production to final disposal and that the impacts it creates during these phases must be taken into account at the design phase (i.e. the conventional reactive, cean-up approach is too late in the cycle). Chapter three moves the proces further by working out how to minimise the impact of the product at the various stages of its life cycle. Here, the CD supplied with the text comes in useful. The concepts in the text are illustrated via a series of interactive web pages which provides a very clear illustration. By the end of this stage you should have a clear idea of precisely how the product is going to minimise its environmental impact. Remember, at this stage there is still no product: this is very much an extended design process focussing on the ideas of sustainability and corporate responsibility. Chapter four starts to put the design principles developed in chapter three into the actual management of the product. Chapter five goes one stage further and suggests how ecodesign principles can fit into the braoder picture of environmental management. The final brief chapter shows how ecodesign might be deployed by the various work units in the company.
Within this slim volume we have an excellent case of thinking through the implications of industrial production. Although aimed at management the whole text is so well written and illustrated (especially with the CD) that it could be used by school students and their teachers to great effect. It is an excellent resource to develop thinking skills andenvironmental and sustainability analyses. It could also be used as a whole-school approach to both the school-as-product and in a range of interdisciplinary tasks. Its only drawback would be its price (unless brought out in paperback) but even then it could be justified as a joint purchase. Failing that, just make it an inter-library loan. This is an excellent text that provides us with so many teaching ideas that it should be widely read.