Choosing materials: social, cultural and ethical factors, justifying a choice

Turn over a notebook or a tissue box and look for a small logo: a tree with a tick. Why would a company pay to print it? The paper with the tree is the same as paper without it: the same colour, the same thickness, the same feel. Yet the company had to pass checks, and pay, to be allowed to use that little tree. The obvious guess is better paper, but nothing about the paper itself has changed. To read that little tree, you need the last three factors on the list.

Five factors are already on the map: function, aesthetics, the environment, availability and cost. The last three are about people: social, cultural and ethical. Social factors start with social responsibility: a material choice affects people. That means the workers who make it, the communities it comes from, and the people who use it. Different groups, by age, family, money, religion or lifestyle, want different things from the same product. Take a range of school backpacks. More young people are vegan or care about animal welfare, so an animal-free material widens who will buy the bag. And the bags must suit families on very different budgets, so a hard-wearing, low-cost fabric beats a premium one. The social test asks which people, and what they need or expect. Cultural factors mean being sensitive to cultural influences. The values and beliefs of communities and countries shape which materials, colours and symbols are acceptable. Many Muslim and Jewish customers avoid pig leather, and many Hindu customers avoid cow leather. So if the same backpacks sell in the UK, India and the Middle East, the trims use a synthetic, such as polyurethane-coated polyester, instead of leather, and nobody is put off. Colours carry different meanings in different places too. In many Western countries, white is worn at weddings, while in parts of India and China, white is worn for mourning. What should a designer do before a white gift box goes on sale in a new country? Check what white means in that market, and change the colour if it could carry the wrong meaning there. That is the cultural test: which beliefs or traditions, and what they mean for the material, colour or symbol. Ethical factors are about buying from ethical sources: materials grown, made and traded fairly and responsibly. Animal welfare and fair treatment of workers are ethical reasons to choose a material, or to refuse one. Back to the tree with a tick. It is the logo of the Forest Stewardship Council, F S C for short. It means the wood fibre came from forests managed so that trees are replanted and wildlife is protected, and so that workers and local people are treated fairly. And it is checked all along the chain, from the forest to the shop. So the customer is paying for how the paper was made, not for what it is. The same goes for a furniture retailer sourcing oak for its dining tables. Oak can come from forests logged illegally or cleared without replanting, which harms wildlife and the people who live there. Buying F S C certified oak means customers can trust where it came from, and the retailer stays clear of illegal logging. The ethical test asks whether it was sourced and made fairly and responsibly. Here are four statements. Older users prefer a bag that is light to carry. Red means luck at New Year in China, so the packaging is red. The cotton is picked by workers paid a fair wage. And the leather supplier can show how its animals were treated. Which factor is each of those four: social, cultural or ethical? The first is social: a group of people and what they need. The second is cultural: a tradition and its meaning. The third and fourth are both ethical: one is about fair pay, the other about animal welfare. Animal welfare can be social too, when the point is which buyers want an animal-free bag; it is ethical when the point is how the material was sourced. One examiner's report describes the detailed answers on these factors. Detailed responses for cultural factors and social factors correctly considered religious beliefs in society. The way to match them is to tie each belief to a material. Here are two answers about the retailer's oak. One says the oak is ethical because it is ethically sourced. The other says it is F S C certified, so it came from a forest where trees are replanted and workers are treated fairly. What does the second answer add that the first one does not? A reason. The first only repeats the word from the question; the second says what the certificate promises, and so what for the oak. One examiner's report reminds teachers of this directly. Centres need to remind their students not just to repeat words from the question stem as they cannot gain credit. The fix is to never answer a factor with its own name, and to explain what it means for this material instead.

A full justification puts all eight factors to work on one product, then ends with a judgement. The product here is the body of a toddler's shape-sorter toy. The specification comes first: F S C certified beech, finished with a water-based, non-toxic stain. Beech is a pale European hardwood. Function: beech is hard and tough, so it survives being thrown and chewed without splintering. It is close grained, so it sands to smooth, safe edges. What would the aesthetics point for the beech toy say, with a so? Aesthetics: beech's even colour takes bright stains well, so each shape can be a different colour to help a toddler match it. Environment: beech is renewable where forests are replanted, so the toy uses no finite oil. A worn-out toy can be handed on, or will rot away. Availability: beech is a common European hardwood sold in standard planks, so supply is steady. Cost is the weak spot. Beech costs more than M D F, medium density fibreboard, or a polymer. How could the cost point still work in favour of the beech? Bought in bulk for a batch, the extra cost per toy is small, so it barely shows in the price parents pay. Social: parents buying for toddlers want safe toys that last, so tough beech suits them, because the toy can be handed down to a younger child. Cultural: plain wood and bright colours carry no meaning likely to offend, so one design can sell in many countries. Ethical: the F S C mark shows the beech came from a responsibly managed forest, so parents can trust how it was sourced. It is the same little tree as on the notebook. That is eight linked points, one for every factor. As an answer, though, it is not finished yet. What is still missing from that answer about the toy? The answer is missing a judgement: which factors matter most for this toy, and whether the choice still wins. For a toddler, function and safety matter most, and beech wins on both. Its higher cost is its one weakness, and it is outweighed, because the toy lasts for years and can be passed on. Listing the points is analysis. Saying which of them matter most for this product, and why, is evaluation. One examiner's report pins that gap down in a single clause: fewer were able to fully evaluate the significance of issues identified. The habit that fixes it is to end every justification on a judgement for this product, never on the last point.

To finish, three checks: two on the people factors, then one on the judgement. Packaging that avoids a symbol seen as unlucky in one market: which factor is that? Cultural: a belief in that market, and what it means for the design. Another: a phone maker checks its cobalt is mined by adults paid fairly. Which factor? Ethical: it asks whether the cobalt was sourced fairly and responsibly, with workers treated properly. Now the last one: what turns eight linked points into an evaluation? Weighing the eight points up: saying which count most for this product, then giving a verdict. And the tree with a tick on that notebook: the paper is the same, but the customer is buying proof of where it came from and how it was made.

A full justification against all eight factors, finished with a verdict, means you own this one. Mark it with a thumbs-up and it drops off your revision list. Not quite there yet, then park the video in a playlist and write one full justification out by hand. Written out once, the order of the eight tends to stay.

That completes our chapter on choosing and justifying materials and components. Next chapter: New and emerging technologies. Hopefully that's next in your feed, but if not, search for ScholaFly D T oh five, oh oh.

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