Sustainability and the Environment

What this unit covers

This unit sits in the Design Principles and Context strand of Design and technology. Its resources look at how products affect the environment and how designers can reduce that harm. Most are mind maps, with flashcard decks, a few slide sets and some notes alongside them.

Start with the Rs

The Rs are the easiest way in. The mind map 4R's covers reuse, recycle, recover and reduce, and explains just in time production: making only the amount of product that matches demand, so nothing is left over. Move on to The 6 R's and The Six R's for Sustainability, which ask practical questions such as whether a product can be reused many times, or whether the packaging can be reduced. The circular economy map then shows the bigger idea: keeping products and materials in use and cutting waste.

Go deeper

• Recycling Materials is a flashcard deck on glass, aluminium, plastic, paper, textiles, batteries, oil and steel.
• Product Design - Design Issues asks about renewable and non-renewable materials and the common recycling symbols.
• Life Cycle Assessment and Cleaner design and technology covers the stages of assessment and life-cycle inventory.
• The two upcycling maps, UPCYCLING RESEARCH and UPCYCLING HISTORY, define upcycling and trace where it came from.

Using maps and flashcards together

1. Read a map to see how the ideas connect.
2. Cover the map and try the matching flashcard deck from memory.
3. Note what you missed and go back to that branch.

The GCSE revision maps on sustainability are handy for a quick check before an exam, and several resources mention GCSE and A-level Design and Technology. Teachers can use the slide sets such as 6Rs in lessons.

Make it your own

Once you have found the gaps, try writing a map of your own for a product you are designing, and turn its key terms into a deck.