Task 2

This video by Unilever, provides viewers with information on how they design and create sustainable packaging.

The video relates to points in the Eco-Design Manifesto as follows:


14. Design to create more sustainable products/materials/service products for a more sustainable future. 


Pack designers go ahead and select a material that is best for the protection, preservation and presentation of the product, then design them to be as sustainable as possible. Aiming to half product waste by 2020.


8. Design to exclude innovation lethargy by re-examining original assumptions behind existing concepts and products/materials/service products. 


An example of this is in the video is at 0:41in, where they have harnessed the original design of the roll on deodorant and altered it so that it stands upside down using 18% less plastic saving 2,000 tonnes of plastic every year.

1. Design to satisfy real needs as opposed to transient, fashionable or market-driven needs.

The Hazeline shampoo now introduces a refill pouch for customers, costing less to buy, allows bottles to be reused and reduces packaging waste by 2/3.




This video is by UPS and explains the mechanics behind reducing carbon waste through wise packaging choices.

2. Design to minimise the ecological footprint of the product/material/service product, i.e.
reduce resource consumption, including energy and water.

Nothing is more wasteful on resources than having to reproduce a replacement product because it was received faulty. the example given is that if for instance a laptop is packaged incorrectly and it was found broken by the customer, the company would have to use energy and material to produce a new one, package that and then build another box and use more fill material. The transport of the new laptop would then mean for more oil to be used in the vehicle transporting the replacement back to the customer.


14. Design to create more sustainable products/materials/service products for a more sustainable future.

UPS focuses on another area of sustainability called cube optimisation, which is basically the ratio between the product and the packaging box. They do not use boxes that are bigger than they need to be as this allows for less material to be used in the size of the smaller box, less fill material, and means that more boxes can be fit onto the vehicle that transports the products, saving on petrol.


4. Design to enable the separation of components of the product/material or service product at the end of life in order to encourage recycling or reuse of materials and/or components.

Wise packaging selection allows for packaging to be recycled and the use of a material called corrugated is one of the best choices as it is on of the most recyclable materials out there.

Task 1

In the climate change film, ‘The Age of Stupid’, the issue was raised that global warming is causing the earths deserts to advance at a rate of 3 miles per year; which is a scary thought. The name for this occurrence is desertification. The definition means that healthy productive land becomes wasteland due to overuse and/or mismanagement. In the case of climate change due to global warming, desertification is occurring as the earth is warming from the depleting o-zone allowing more of the suns energy to enter the atmosphere drying out plant life on the edge of existing deserts. This in turn leaves just soil, which is venerable to wind and water erosion leaving small coarse granules; sand.

This image shows the areas on the African continent where the current desert is at risk of advancing to. The areas are massive!

I see the advance as a very negative effect to agriculture, and it is making more and more space on this very over populated planet practically unusable.

In the 1970’s there was a very successful attempt on stopping the advancement of the Sahara Desert, which was estimated to start advancing southwards down the African continent at a rate of 5-10km per year. The attempts to cease the advancement included planting trees and shrubs, which created a ‘green belt’ along the southern fringe. People also constructed stone lines to capture the moisture that was naturally available. Since the 1970’s, satellite photographs have shown that the Sahara Desert has not made any significant advancements south, and in fact, it appears that the green belt has advanced back onto the Sahara, which is very successful.

Today it is the Sahel desert that is most at risk of a rapid desertification advance and so until, or even if we figure out a way to drastically bring down green house gas emissions, perhaps a similar approach as that used on the Sahara could be used.

I don’t think that desertification would have a huge impact on designers, unless it makes a certain material un-farmable due to loss of agriculture.