J06

The topic I chose to write on from the five provided was Design and the Environment. Essentially, design and the environment means considering all of the possible environmental effects and influences that a product/building/process/etc. will have, and trying to minimize or eliminate all of the negative effects. Design and the environment means trying to design things in such a way that the impact that the designed item has on the environment is minimal, or ideally, non-existant. Design and the environment is a topic that was overlooked and neglected somewhat in the past due to an illusion that the earth and its resources were infinite, but I chose to write about this topic for the J06 post because of the recent surge of attention environmental design has been experiencing. The topics relating to environmental design in class were good, but I feel that the 5 sources below expand on programs/areas of environmental design that were not touched on in much detail.


1
http://www.epa.gov/dfe/pubs/projects/formulat/label.htm

The above link will take you to a page that summarizes the EPA's "Design for the Environment" program. The page describes how if a product meets certain standards set by the EPA, it is allowed to have a DfE (design for the environment) logo placed on the products, so that consumers so it was designed with consideration for the environment in mind. The site details the rules and rationale behind this EPA program, and is a great place to visit if you are looking for information on what the government is doing to promote and acknowledge environmental design in consumer products.

2
http://www.npd-solutions.com/dfe.html

This site goes into more detail on three major elements of design for the environment than we covered in class. The three areas they cover are design for environmental manufacturing, design for environmental packaging, and design for disposal and recycleability. This site is a great resource if you are looking for some detailed and specific information on any of these 3 topics.

3
http://www.usgbc.org/DisplayPage.aspx?CMSPageID=1988

The above webpage and associated website describe what the LEED program is. It provides information regarding what LEED is, what it measures, what it delivers, how to achieve it, as well as many other things. One great part of this site is that there is a section which describes why LEED certification makes good business sense, which is something that will be important to know should you ever find yourself trying to convince someone to pursue LEED for the construction of a new building. This site is interesting if you are looking to get some more information on how architecture and larger scale products can be designed with the environment in mind.

4
http://www.epa.gov/sustainability/basicinfo.htm#sustainability

The above webpage provides some detailed information defining and describing sustainability. For anyone considering environmental design, sustainability is crucial. Sustainability is an essential component of large scale, big picture environmental design. Although hard to define, this webpage provides an easily understandable definition on sustainability, and also has links to many other related topics and areas if you are interested in knowing what the EPA is doing with respect to sustainability.

5
http://www.apple.com/environment/

This fifth and final website outlines and provides statistics for Apple's environmental footprint. Individuals can talk about environmental design and sustainability all day, but this would be useless were companies not actually trying to put environmental design to the test. This site is a great resource because it provides a specific example of a company that is environmentally conscious, and lists all the information behind their products and the effect they have on the environment. Companies need to be help accountable if they are going to make claims saying that they design their products with the environment in mind, and this is a great example of a company letting consumers exactly how environmentally friendly their products were designed to be.