Making the World

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Chapter 4

• Making the World
• (The Re-design of Industrial Production)

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Economic consumption does not create or destroy
matter but only changes its location, form and
value.
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No industry lacks potential for radically better
energy efficiency even the worlds most
advanced major business, the making of microchips
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Major leaps in efficiency can be achieved, not so
much through new technologies, but in more
intelligent application of existing technologies

• Commonplace equipment - valves, ducts, fans,
  dampers, motors, wires, heat exchangers,
  insulation, etc.
• Simple things - plug steam air leaks, insulate
  heat pipes, recover reuse heat

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Wont we run out of new technologies?

• When practical limits are approached, someone
  evades the limits by
• redefining the problem

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System Controls

• Still lacking in most manufacturing
• Controls must measure in real time
• Delayed feedback causes waste
• Measurement control intelligence can be built
  into very piece of equipment
• Distributed intelligence Optimization (like an
  ecosystem works)

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Corporate Culture

• Learning organizations always beat out dial
  watchers button pushers
• Must reward measurement, monitoring, critical
  thought continuous improvement
• Move from linear thinking (require-design-build-re
  peat)
• To cyclic thinking (require-design-build-measure-a
  nalyze-improve-repeat)

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Processes

• Innovate to cut out steps, materials, costs
• Use biomimicry to find solutions
• In nature, nothing edible accumulates, all
  materials flow in loops to turn waste into food,
  loops are kept short (technology model)
• Hazardous chemical substitutes, membranes instead
  of heating, compostable materials
• Nanotechnology

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Everything that should not be in a process should
be eliminated by design take the filters out
of the pipes and put them into the designers
heads
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There is no need to invent a sustainable world
its all around us. Learn from its successes.
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Saving Materials

• Good design needs less material to create a
  beautiful and functional object

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Consider the ceramic mug ...

• A key feature is durability - it can functionally
  last for generations !
• How many throwaway paper, plastic and styrofoam
  cups does it replace over time?

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Product shape

• Excess material doesnt need to be removed to
  achieve a desired shape, IF all the material is
  already in the desired shape!
• No scrap it is designed-out
• Consolidate many small parts into a single large
  part already molded into a final shape

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Focus should be on functionality rather on the
product itself attempt to improve the value of
the product (or service) per unit of natural
resources employed
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Within the strategies of natural capitalism, the
manufacturers goal is to SELL LESS MATERIAL
AT A HIGHER PRICE
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Born-Again Materials

• Reuse
• Repair
• Upgrade
• Remanufacture
• Recycle

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Its already happening - Example 1

• Germanys extended product responsibility
  concept
• You make it, you own it forever
• So design products for easy disassembly and
  disposition

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Its already happening - More Examples

• European take backlaws for packaging, batteries
  electronics
• BMWs disassembly line for the Z-1 sports car -
  recyclable thermoplastic skin stripped from metal
  chassis in 20 minutes
• UNC Professor of Reverse Logistics to focus on
  dedistributing products back from customers for
  remanufacture

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Its already happening - Yet More Examples

• Many companies are replacing non-bio-degradable
  materials with compostable ones
• Throwaway cardboard wooden pallets and crates
  are being replaced with more durable, reusable
  ones
• Recycled old car batteries supply 93-98 of the
  lead needed for new US-made lead acid batteries

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Recycling (last resort)- actually often
downcycling where material is reincarnated for
a lower use
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Waste Exchanges

• Set up to match waste materials with potential
  buyers