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The Missing Link in Sustainable Education:
Understanding Product Lifecycles
Daniel Gross, Valleyview Middle School, Centenary College, Schiff Nature Preserve
Contact info: [email protected], http://tinyurl.com/4ar3t7x
Lifecycle of many of the chemicals in our lives
Lifecycle of a productCradle to grave
Design to dispose or reuse
How does this happen?
Poor Design (understatement of a generation)
1st Chapter and Last Chapter - Today learn new chapter 1 and a different ending
Introduction
• Where you work currently• Couple other places you have
worked that participants might be linked to
• What you hope to get out of today: ex. lessons for classroom, background on product lifecycle, or _____________________
Agenda
• Introductions• Sample introduction to product lifecycle:
Sweet Honey in the Rock• Paradigm Shift in Thinking: Story of Stuff• Adding more wood to the fire• Lifecycle of common products• Other Resources and ideas from the group
California
“ What is the most important environmental issue?”
Intentional Design:Toxic agents in the environment
• Every human carries traces of industrial chemicals.
• 80% of U.S. streams contain at least trace amounts of 82 wastewater contaminants.
How toxics move through the environment
Types of toxicants based on health effects: these are all human designed products
• Carcinogens: cause cancer
• Mutagens: cause DNA mutations
• Teratogens: cause birth defects
• Neurotoxins: assault the nervous system
• Endocrine disruptors: interfere with the endocrine (hormone) system
heart disease, diabetes and liver-enzyme abnormalities
24 seconds to 3:11 TED talk
nature
Cradle to CradleLess toxic products: 1. designed to be taken
apart, re-handled, and remade
2. Smallest loop/cycle is more sustainable
U.S. Current Thinking ex.
Flame retardant kids pajamasPolybrominated diphenyl ethers (PBDEs):
Benefit: kids safety
Also used in: computers, televisions, plastics, and furniture
Costs: 1. Persist and accumulate in living tissue 2. Affect thyroid/hormones 3. may cause cancer 4. affect brain and nervous system development 5. Costs not mentioned: ______________
Note: The European Union banned them in 2003.
Going beyond Cost/Benefit Analysis…Model Natural Systems:
been here billions of years try to create self sustaining cycles
Right to Know
Ewg: Environmental Working Group
Cell phone radiationCosmetic data base
Water database and Bottled water database
Health TipsHousehold cleanersSafe Seafood
We need a systems/cycle view
The greatest way we make an impact is with what we buy and how we use it.
1. What is effected by what we buy?
(THAT WE HAVE LEARNED SO FAR)
2. What are all “costs” / “externalities” or additional areas that are effected by the
products we buy?
Listen to the following song and write down
Location step in PLC Costs________________________________________________________El salvador cotton – materials extraction pesiticides, $2/day, civil warPanama canal transport cotton GHG, invasive speciesSouth carolina polyester and cotton combined Venezuela oil for polyester air+ water pollution
workers $6/dayTrinidad and tobago oil upgraded
Haiti make the shirt label practices, $3/daySears in US
What steps are not included in the song?Make this into a cycle.
Cotton and polyester shirt• Sustainable Solutions:
– Buy organic shirts– Pay attention to where your
shirt is from and only buy from countries that pay workers fairly and don’t use harmful pesticides
• Negative Environmental Issues:
– Workers get paid $3/day and absorb pesticides
– Polyester comes from oil. Oil extraction can cause air and water pollution.
Evaluating Full Cost of Resources Use
• Examples– Clear-cutting + habitat loss– Commercial fishing + depletion of fish stocks
• Tax breaks
• Subsidies ex. Farm bill – What is the cheapest food in the grocery store?– We subsidize farmers to grow corn, soy and wheat
which all require huge amounts of chemicals and contribute to the fattening up of America
Story of Stuff:
change the paradigm of
“planned obsolenscence”
Electronics
• They rule so many people’s lives• The cultural effect is just as important …• But where do they come from…Story of Electronics:1st- list the steps in a product’s lifecycle in general2nd- with something erasable, write down your hypothesis for typical electronic lifecycle including costs3rd- Watch 8 minute video and fill in effects
Electronics• Sustainable Solutions:
• Negative Environmental Issues:
Material Extraction:
Production
Transportation:
Use product:“Products life”
Disposal/Reuse/Recycle
Electronics after videoSustainable Solutions:. You made it, you deal with it
. Extended user responsibility
. Product take back. Longer lasting, less toxic, more recyclable/reusable/modular. Consumer demand for greener products. Ask recycler where e-waste goes. Design government policy to encourage green
innovation
Negative Environmental Issues: • Design for the dump• Workers exposed to chemicals (40% >
miscarriages)• Silicon Valley polluted• Toxics in . . . Toxics out• Externilizing costs of production
– Cost vs. Benefit analysis
Material Extraction:1000 materials
mines
ProductionPVC, flame retardants, chemicals
Transportation:
Use product:“Products life”
Disposal/Reuse/Recycle
. Old TV 5 l. lead. China recycling25 million tons/yr
Two approaches for determining safety
Classroom ideas: positive
Research a sustainable company1. Create a product lifecycle for one of
their products as best you can2. Write a letter to company with
compliments and suggestions to make their products more sustainable. Include areas where they need to have more transparency.
Make a Map of PLC of a Shoe
1. Set up the 7 continents
2. What materials need to be extracted
3. (hand out pics)4. Location of
materials
5. Pass fishing line as tell story
Sustainable Solutions Survey1. Research a sustainable product:Sustainable( using a product lifecycle mentality)
worker rights, fair pay, environmentally sound, reuse, etc…
2. Create a survey of their product teach others about the product after the survey 3. Graph and write a newspaper article about
their survey and results and the importance of their product.
Classroom ideas: positive
Analyze a Product Lifecycle
Source: Use Worldwatch Institute or another organization
1st Give students existing product lifecycle 2nd Have students make note-cards of
their lifecycles3rd Create stations where kids need to
put cards in a cycle4th Stations:
a. List Negative Environmental Impacts b. List Sustainable Solutions (may not
be in article)
Connect to Food Miles Lesson
Key topics in Sustainability that connect to product lifecycle
1. Ecological Footprint2. Lifecycle of a Product3. Biomimicry
3 Tools you need to help understand keys to sustainability:
Natural capital, bioregional studies, developing local economies, permaculture, ____________________
Ideas for the classroom:
Have students trace the lifecycle of bottled water . Show story of bottled water . Campaign to have school bottled water free . Bottle water tower
Other MS and HS and college ideas/lessons
Applying to younger grades
• Ideas
Website: http://tinyurl.com/4ar3t7x
• WEB RESOURCES• • • • LESSONS: • • • • Facing the Future: 9th-12th: 10 lessons called "Buy, • Use,Toss" Connects with Story of Stuff• • • 7-12th grade: lifecycle of shoes• • paper vs. plastic bag lifecycle analysis• • simple lesson for a marketing teacher• • • • •
REFERENCE: background and key vocab. related to product lifecycle Patagonia Co. specific lifecycles Impact of materials in shoes: good as a research point Story of Stuff downloads: Story of: bottled water, cosmetics, electronics, stuff, cap and trade and more to come William McDonough TED talk: this guy is amazing How to prevent toxins in your life Environmental Working Group: great site for helping to make sustainale buying decisions
Systems approach:
Timeline
• Introductions-• Present and modify goals of session- 10 min. • Sample introduction to product lifecycle: Sweet
Honey in the Rock- 30 min. • Paradigm Shift in Thinking: Story of Stuff- 30 min• Adding more wood to the fire- 20 min• Lifecycle of common products- 15 min. • Other Resources and ideas from the group
Notes and don’t forget
• Get cent pp and 8th grade pp• Cd song• Need speakers• Notes on each slide
