Lesson video

Hello there.

My name is Mrs. Dhami.

Thank you for joining me for your design and technology lesson today.

Now the big question for today is how can we redesign products to be more sustainable and to lessen their impact on the environment? I've got an absolutely wonderful product to show you today, so, let's get cracking.

Our outcome for today is, we will be able to explain how products can be redesigned within the circular economy.

We have five keywords today.

Circular economy is where products and materials are kept in circulation and do not become waste or become minimal waste.

Redesign.

Redesign is making design decisions to improve a product in some way.

Lifecycle assessment, otherwise known as LCA, assesses the environmental impact at every stage of a product's lifecycle.

Design decisions.

Design decisions are a deliberate choice to meet a requirement or solve a problem.

And lastly, iteration.

Iteration is refining or improving ideas.

We have two learning cycles today.

Firstly, Redesign, and secondly, Investigate where we're going to investigate that amazing product.

Let's start off with Redesign.

The circular economy can be defined as an economic system where products and materials are kept in circulation and do not become waste or become minimal waste.

And you can see that in the circular diagram there on the bottom right.

Now, if we zoom in to the blue section, which says design or redesign, we have seen this section before for design, but today we're visiting it for the redesign purpose.

So at the redesign stage, design decisions to reduce the environmental impact are usually made by carrying out life cycle assessment.

So let's remind ourselves what LCA is all about.

Lifecycle assessment, often abbreviated to LCA, is where the environmental impact is assessed at every single stage of the product's lifecycle, so that, through design decisions, the environmental impacts can be reduced.

So let's remind ourselves, how do we carry out LCA? We can assess the following at every single stage.

We can assess the sources of energies used, the amount of energy required and the amount of carbon emissions produced.

LCA may inspire many design decisions for redesign.

And let's take a little closer look at some of these throughout the circular economy.

So starting with raw materials.

It might impact the material choices.

So perhaps a redesign might happen by changing materials to be more environmentally friendly, such as using biopolymers.

If we zoom into the distribution stage, perhaps redesigning the product so that it's able to be flat-packed, assembled or stacked.

That means more would be able to fit onto a container or a lorry, therefore requiring less transportation and less carbon emissions.

Let's zoom into product in use stage.

Perhaps a redesign could include a different energy source such as rechargeable batteries or renewable energy sources.

Zooming into repair and maintenance, perhaps a redesign could see a product using modular or standardised parts so that it's easy to fix part of it with standard tools, tools that you might find around your house, or perhaps using a coin to open certain compartments rather than needing to throw that product away.

And lastly, let's zoom into recycling.

Perhaps a design decision for redesign could be enabling products to be dismantled for recycling or encouraging products to be passed on by changing that mindset with consumers and users.

Redesign may happen for a combination of reasons.

As we've already looked at, one reason might be LCA, decisions through LCA.

It might also be developments in materials.

New materials are being discovered and manufactured all of the time, therefore they might be more suitable and more environmentally friendly.

Advancement of technology, same again, they're constantly being updated.

It might be from feedback from primary users or stakeholders about how they want the product to change, perhaps to change to their lifestyle.

Fashions or trends are obviously always changing.

And then adhering to new or updated regulations that may not have been in place before.

Time for a quick check-in.

Andeep says, "Redesign for the circular economy only means making it recyclable." Is that statement true or is that statement false? Have a think.

Come back to me when you've got an answer.

Well done if you've got false.

And why is that? Redesign for the circular economy goes beyond recyclability, including: designing for repair and maintenance, using modular or standardised parts, reducing material use, or using sustainable materials, and making products durable.

Since October, 2020, single use polymer straws have been banned as part of the government's efforts to reduce polymer pollution and protect the environment.

Can you think what the redesign was? Have a think.

Come back to me when you've got an answer.

Well done if you got paper straws or perhaps metal straws.

So this ban from the government created a redesign into paper straws.

However, I don't know if you've ever used a paper straw.

They tend to go a little bit soggy, don't they? So negative user feedback triggered another redesign into reusable metal straws.

Users and designers place greater value on sustainability and reusing with a real big shift away from the previous thinking of a "throw-away society".

Now, the "throw-away society" means where many products were designed for one-off use.

And this throw-away coffee mug is a perfect example of this.

It is designed to be used once and then thrown into the bin.

The same with disposable nappies.

Opportunities for redesign include things such as reusable mugs, reusable boxes for lunch boxes, reusable nappies made out of material.

And then zero waste shops have started to crop up more recently, where they sell products where users refill their own packaging.

So you don't buy it in any packaging, it just comes in a big tube or a big box, and you go and fill up as much as you need and as much as you require without using any extra packaging.

What a great concept.

Take a little look at this play equipment, not too sure what you call it.

Roundabout, spinning top, something like that.

Well anyway, these are my two kids and they were having a great time playing on this piece of play equipment and I noticed that it was made out of recycled polymers.

And if you can see in that zoom in, you'll be able to see it a little bit more clearly.

I thought, what a great idea.

Using recycled products in everyday products that lots of people use are fantastic.

So redesigns often consider raw materials and how recycled materials can be used, such as play equipment, like above, toilet rolls, clothing and shoes made from recycled materials such as PET bottles, paper, fishing nets, and old tyres.

Now, a very well known sports brand you may know of, they actually use recycled plastics that have been gathered from the sea in some of their soles, which I think is also a lovely idea.

Modular design or modular redesign is a great way to make a more sustainable product.

So let's recap and remind ourselves what the term "modular design" means.

So modular design is a design approach where a product is made up of separate interchangeable parts or modules.

Right, let's relate this to a mobile phone.

If you happen to own a mobile phone, just take a minute.

Have you ever broken your screen? I have.

Have you ever broken your camera? I have.

Has the charging port ever been broken? Has the battery ever stopped charging to full capacity or only lasting, or the charge only lasting a very small amount of time? I imagine we've had a lot of hands up there.

Some phone companies these days are producing phones that are modular, so that means rather than having to throw away the phone if part of it, such as the screen or the camera, or the battery breaks, instead they're designing them to be modular so that you can just replace that part instead of replacing the whole thing.

It's great because it empowers us as users to repair and maintain our products and reduce the amount of waste going into the environment.

As I put here, this has become fashionable while sustainable by extending the product's life.

Examples aren't just phones, but can be clothing, accessories, and also headphones.

What a great idea.

Quick check-in.

Which redesign strategy helps extend the life of a product? A: designing it to go out of fashion quickly, B: requiring specialist tools to repair, C: using durable materials that resist wear and tear, or D: modular design that allows parts to be replaced? Have a think.

Come back to me when you've got a good idea.

Well done if you got C and D, using durable materials that resist wear and tear and modular design that allows parts to be replaced extends the life of a product.

Onto Task A.

Part one, I'd like you to match the main reason for redesign to the product.

Now I say the main reason, and I've put that in a purple colour because quite often there's more than one reason, but I want you to think about the main reason for redesign.

So the products we have are metal straws, reusable water bottles, biopolymer fast food packaging, electric cars, flat pack, parasols and modular phones.

Reasons for redesign.

And remember, I want you to pick the main one.

We have fashions or trends, advancement of technologies, LCA, focusing on repair and maintenance, developments, and materials, adhering to new regulations, and LCA focusing on distribution.

Good luck.

Come back to me when you've got some great answers.

Let's take a look at our answers.

And remember, we are looking for the main reason for the redesign of the product.

So if we start with metal straws, the reason for redesign may be to adhere to new regulations such as the government ban.

Reusable water bottles.

Now one of the reasons for redesign is for fashion or trends, and I can think of the one that my son is absolutely desperate to have, just because all of his friends in his class have that particular bottle.

I wonder which one you guys would probably like.

Biopolymer fast food packaging.

Now that's quite recent.

That is a development in materials.

Electric cars could be an advancement of technologies.

Flat pack parasols could be LCA, life cycle assessment, because if you make them flat pack, you can fit more into a lorry, therefore focuses on the distribution stage.

And lastly, the modular phone.

The main reason for that could be repair and maintenance from LCA, because rather than replacing the whole phone, you could replace a part such as the charging port.

Well done with your hard work on that.

Onto learning cycle two, Investigate.

This is my favourite one.

Let's get cracking.

Put your hand up if you own one of these.

Sam says, "Yes, we have one.

I put on a load of washing each night for my family in between my homework." Sam, I am looking forward to my children being able to do that when they get to your age.

Jacob says, "I pop to the launderette once a week to use one with my dad." So my question to you is, how could you wash your clothes without electricity, without launderettes and without access to a machine? I'd like you to pause the video, have a little bit of a think, perhaps talk to the person next to you, when you've had that chance, come back to me and we'll move on to the following slide.

Take a little look at some of the pictures I took on my travels.

These are the ghats in Mumbai in India.

Basically clothes from the local hotels are bought here to be scrubbed and washed by hand, not a machine in sight.

Look at the sheer volume of washing being bought in on that picture on the left.

Then you can see the man there scrubbing at those clothes.

Each of those little sections contain water.

And you can see that man on the right there having a wash himself in that heat.

And I put down here, it is labour intensive in the intense heat.

I couldn't even stand in that heat.

I had to stand in the shade.

Yet these people were scrubbing in that intense heat.

Therefore, this creates a design opportunity.

Let's remind ourselves.

A design opportunity is a chance for a problem to be solved through design.

Another slide, another country.

This is Kathmandu in Nepal.

Again, not a washing machine in sight.

These women are washing their families' clothes by hand, and if you look closely, they are scrubbing them on the rocks of the temple.

I took these pictures because I just thought, wow, it is such hard work to wash clothes.

Something that quite often we take for granted by being able to have access to electricity and access to a washing machine.

Therefore, this creates a design opportunity.

We stick in Nepal for this slide.

This is a river in Nepal.

What I'd like you to do is pause the video and have a little look.

What can you see within this picture? Come a bit closer.

Look carefully.

What exactly can you see? Come back to me when you've got an idea.

Did you notice just there where I put a circle around, these are some bodies being cremated? Now, once the bodies were cremated, the remains were then put into the river.

Then did you manage to notice these clothes drying on that big rock on the bottom middle? Those clothes had actually been washed in that river because access to clean water is often very limited in developing countries.

So they have to use whatever is in front of them.

Therefore, this creates a design opportunity.

Time for a check-in.

In developing countries, washing clothes without electricity is often labour something and something to clean water can be a major challenge.

This provides many design opportunities.

Pause the video, have a think.

Come back to me when you've got an idea for both of those spaces.

Well done if you got the word intensive and access.

So in developing countries, washing clothes without electricity is often labour intensive and access to clean water can be a major challenge.

This provides many design opportunities.

And we are gonna take a look at those design opportunities now.

This is Navjot Sawhney.

Now Navjot Sawhney identified similar design opportunities when he was on a sabbatical in India.

Living within the community, he also identified that many women and girls such as his neighbour Divya spend up to 20 hours a week washing clothes, often develop back pain whilst washing the clothes and often develop skin irritation whilst also washing the clothes.

This is Sawhney's neighbour Divya, spending hours and hours and hours washing clothes.

Sawhney promised his neighbour Divya that one day, he would make her a washing machine, and he didn't break that promise.

Navjot Sawhney is an engineer and he responded to the design opportunity by designing the first manual washing machine, and he named it after his neighbour, Divya.

What a great name for the washing machine.

Sawhney decided that his mission as the Washing Machine Project was to alleviate the burden of hand washing clothes for billions across the world.

Jacob says, "How did the Washing Machine Project come up with the idea for the Divya washing machine?" Great question, Jacob.

Sawhney identified the three essential elements needed for washing.

They are agitation, detergent, and time.

And he realised that a simple household item, the salad spinner, could provide all of them.

So to test the idea he used it to wash his socks, I thought I'd try the same.

So here is my mum using our salad spinner to wash my son's very, very dirty sock.

And Sawhney is exactly right.

The water came out dirty and the sock came out clean, therefore it worked.

So the iterations on the Divya began.

Let's remind ourselves.

Iterations, means refinements and improvements.

So the refinements and improvements, the iterations began on the Divya washing machine.

So the first working manual washing machine that Sawhney created, he named the Divya 1.

Now it was made out of repurposed chemical drums. And you can see that's the bright blue part in the picture with a wood surround.

Now, 50 of these repurposed chemical drums were handbuilt and they were sent to Iraq and they were successful.

They washed lots and lots of clothes.

However, there were design problems. It was rugged and it was too heavy to transport.

So, back to the redesign stage.

Then was born the Divya 1.

5.

And you can see there's huge changes between the two.

No longer was the repurposed chemical drum used, instead, the main part was manufactured out of polymer purposely for the washing machine.

It had got a wooden stand and they added a gearbox for a spin cycle.

However, there was lots of feedback and they noticed lots of design problems. If it broke, it was really difficult to repair and it was also extremely heavy to transport.

So although it worked, there were problems. And again, they went back to the redesign stage.

The latest redesign is called the Divya 1.

65.

Now the sustainable redesign of the flat pack Divya took three years.

It didn't just happen overnight.

The Divya 1.

65 is full of iterations.

Remember that word? Refinements and improvements.

So it's full of iterations, testing and engineering refinement.

More than 3000 families in Uganda, Kenya, Iraq, Jordan, Lebanon, Cameroon, Jamaica, Nepal, India and the Philippines were interviewed to gain feedback into their washing routines.

Wow, isn't that impressive? Let's take look now at how that feedback from those 3000 people have influenced the design iterations of the Divya 1.

65.

So they decided, the Washing Machine Project decided to build in a scrubber into the lid.

Now if you take a little look at the picture on the left hand side, you'll see it's got raised almost squares inside the lid.

This creates a textured lid that helps to remove tough stains.

So rather than using rough surfaces such as the rocks, like we saw in my travelling pictures in Nepal that were dirty at the time.

Instead those people can scrub the washing against the textured lid instead.

Therefore, the process of scrubbing and washing is integrated into the washing machine.

They also included a faster draining system.

Basically they included a replaceable universal design of a tap, which reduces the drainage time by 50%, which allows more people to be able to use Divya within a day in communal settings.

'Cause often, the machine is shared between communities.

Also, including that universal design of the tap means that if it breaks, it can easily be replaced, not with a specialist part, but with a universal design that hopefully people can get from lots of different places.

The redesign of the Divya 1.

65 also includes stronger, more durable rubber wheels, which makes it easier to move across any terrain, terrain that might be bumpy, might have rocks, might not be even.

This is important because many communities tend to share, so they move Divya from house to house.

Great redesign point.

My favourite feature about the Divya 1.

65 is that it can be flat packed.

If you look back to the designs before the 1 and the 1.

5, they were both made with large, large polymer drums, which took up an awful lot of space for transportation.

Whereas the 1.

65 can be flat-packed, put into a nice, easy to manage and easy to move box.

More boxes can therefore fit onto a lorry or to a container.

Therefore, it makes transportation a lot, lot easier because you can fit more on, which lowers the carbon emissions, making it a more sustainable design.

What a fantastic redesign.

The sustainable lifecycle assessment redesign of the Divya 1.

65 has impacted many stages of the circular economy.

Let's take a closer look.

We'll start with the manufacture and materials processing stage.

This has been reduced incredibly by making it self assembly.

So there are foldable metal tabs that enable self-assembly and then thin metal sheets that can be rolled by hand into shape.

So they haven't gotta make those huge polymer drums anymore.

It is self-assembly.

Let's zoom into the distribution stage.

We've talked about this on the last slide with the ability to now be flatpacked, reducing carbon emissions with transportation.

Let's zoom into the product in use stage.

This is all about minimising water use.

So the Divya 1.

65 uses very minimal water, which is important in developing countries because access to water is not always easy.

As we saw in Nepal with that river water being used for so many different purposes.

They have also placed the door above the waterline on the washing machine, on the Divya, to avoid any leaks to avoid not saving that very precious water.

Let's zoom into the repair and maintenance stage.

It has been intentionally under engineered.

This is to reduce potential failures and increase durability.

Now let's put this into context.

The 1.

5 Divya had a gear box, but they found loads and loads of problems with that and it was difficult to repair.

Therefore, moving onto the Divya 1.

65, they took out that gearbox so they purposely under engineered it to reduce those failures.

And lastly, the recycling stage.

The Divya 1.

65 can be disassembled using standard tools.

So tools that you would expect to find around.

It doesn't need a specialist tool.

So it can be disassembled using standard tools into recyclable and reusable metal parts.

What a fantastic sustainable redesign.

Time for a quick check-in.

Which of the following are sustainability benefits of the Washing Machine Project's Divya 1.

65? A: can be disassembled using specialist tools, B: reduces the amount of water required, C: uses non-renewable energy, or D: ability to be flatpacked for distribution? Have a think, come back to me when you've got some great ideas.

Well done if you got B and D, reduces the amount of water required and the ability to be flat packed for distribution are both sustainability benefits of Divya 1.

65.

I absolutely love this image of the iterative design journey of the Divya washing machine.

Every single one on there from left to right, all work, they all wash clothes, they just achieve it in a different way.

And this is the iterative journey where they have refined and made improvements along the way to make an even better product.

And I think this is so important because redesign does not mean that the product does not work or is not very good.

It simply means that through iterations, a better way of doing something has been found.

And please remember that when you are designing something, you might not get it perfectly right.

There might be iterations that you need to make, but making iterations is part of the design journey into making a really successful product, just like the Divya 1.

65, and what an amazing design it is.

Let's take a look at the Washing Machine Project's impact.

So far, 14 countries have been reached and I'm sure that will rise.

That includes refugee camps.

So Divyas are being sent to refugee camps wherever these appear and wherever there is a need.

Over 46,000 lives have been impacted.

What an incredible number.

Then, during washing, 75% of time has been saved and 50% reduction in the amount of water that is required.

So the main washers in developing countries are women and girls.

Reducing washing time by 75% has enabled women to earn a livelihood and young girls to go to school.

What an incredible impact that the Washing Machine Project has had and will continue to have.

The Washing Machine Project is a fantastic example of not only sustainable design but sustainable redesign too.

Onto Task B.

Part one, I'd like you to explain the design opportunities that Navjot Sawhney identified.

Part two, I'd like you to explain two ways in which the Washing Machine Project's Divya 1.

65 was redesigned to be more sustainable.

I'm sure you can find lots to write about there.

Good luck.

Come back to me when you've got some great answers.

Part one, I asked you to explain the design opportunities that Navjot Sawhney identified.

So answers could include: Navjot Sawhney saw that many people, especially women and girls, had to wash clothes by hand due to the lack of electricity.

This process was time consuming, meaning women could not earn an income and girls could not go to school.

It was also physically demanding and often caused health problems such as back pain.

Part two, I asked you how was the Divya 1.

65 redesigned to be more sustainable? So answers could include: it's been made to be more durable and repairable.

So the Divya 1.

65 is built using simple, strong materials and has few moving parts.

This makes it easy to repair and maintain with standard tools and fixings, which extends the product's life and reduces waste.

It's also been designed to be flat pack.

The Divya 1.

65 can be flat packed for distribution, which means more units can be shipped at once.

This reduces carbon emissions from transportation and makes distribution more efficient and sustainable.

Part three, I'd like you to choose a product that has been designed to improve lives in developing countries and then redesign it to improve its use.

So you could use the Divya that we've talked about today, or you could choose another project that you are familiar with, such as: the Energee Saw that creates electricity to power lighting in school through play.

You could choose Style Her Empowered, which manufactures school uniform that can grow with the user by six whole sizes, meaning that you have to replace the uniform not very often.

Or you could choose the Hippo Roller that enables 90 litres of water to be rolled easily to communities without access to running water.

Or you could choose another product that you are familiar with.

I'm sure you'll come up with some amazing ideas.

Sofia chose to redesign the lid of the Hippo Roller so that a filter could attach into the lid when required, allowing the water to be filtered as it is rolled.

Because as we know, clean water improves health and hygiene within communities.

Let's take a little look at what she did.

Here is the filter attached to the lid.

If we zoom in, you can see the filter attaches and detaches if needs be, or perhaps it might need to be changed into a little slot of the lid.

A lovely, lovely idea, Sofia.

Well done.

Hopefully you have produced some amazing ideas and hopefully you've had the chance to share them as well.

That brings us to the end of our lesson today.

Let's summarise what we have found out.

At the redesign stage, design decisions to reduce the environmental impact are usually made by carrying out a lifecycle assessment.

Redesign may happen for a combination of reasons, such as: developments in materials, advancement of technology, feedback from primary users or stakeholders, fashions or trends, adhering to new regulations, or LCA, lifecycle assessment, Navjot Sawhney set up the Washing Machine Project, designing the first flat pack Divya washing machine, reducing the burden of washing clothes throughout the world, and an incredible design it is.

Well done with all of your hard work and I hope to see you for another lesson soon.

Take good care.

Bye-bye-bye.