Team 3 Sustainability Project
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Project Overview
With heightened fears of global warming over the past decade, sustainability has become a hot topic in the field of product design. Designers have shifted their focus from simply fulfilling user needs, to fulfilling user needs and the needs of the environment.
Sustainability is an aspect of product design that can be considered in every stage of the products life (manufacturing, usage, end of life). These things can range from, how much energy is used to make to product, to how is waste from the product managed.
One product that has recently been receiving a lot of backlash on its sustainability, or lack there of, it the single serving “pod style”, coffee machines. People are claiming that this new way of making coffee is bad for the environment, because the plastic pods that are used end up in landfills where they decompose and release CO2 into the atmosphere, polluting the ozone. Although this is true, this is only one part of the products sustainability. During this project, the team will work to gain a better understanding of the sustainability of all aspects of a pod style coffee maker, and propose a design to help make this product better for the environment.
This project will be carried out in three different phases.
- Understanding the Product and Process (Presentation)
- Understanding Stakeholders, Context, and Constraints
- Proposing an Improved Design
Navigate through this site to learn more about this hot topic, and follow our journey to creating a more eco-friendly product.