Sustainability and the environment - Intro

Pick up the nearest thing you own. Every material in it was dug up, drilled for, grown or cut down somewhere. And when you're finished with it, it has to go somewhere too. That journey, from the ground to the bin, is what this whole topic is about. The marks go to answers that name a real material in a real product, at the stage of the journey the question asks about. Vague answers about being better for the environment often miss the mark.

Whatever material you specialise in, this chapter is for you. The later videos use ideas from the earlier ones, so the first time through, watch them in order.

If the topic is new to you, that means starting with Sustainability: finite resources, waste and the impact of new products. It sets up the ideas the rest of the chapter builds on. The six Rs: reduce, refuse, re-use, repair, recycle, rethink comes next. It gives a buyer or a designer six different ways to cut what a product costs the planet. Recycling, reuse and disposal of materials is for the answer that says recycling is better for the environment, and then stops. That is a common slip, and the video shows how to finish the reason. Product lifetime: planned obsolescence and designing for repair is about how long things are made to last. Not every board sets it, so check your own specification. Ecological footprint and carbon footprint comes next. A lot of answers there talk about the wrong stage of a product's life. Life cycle assessment follows it and uses the footprints. The common slip there is making general points instead of walking through the stages in order. So if the exam is close, the footprints and life cycle assessment are where your time goes furthest. Judging a new technology's environmental impact comes last, because it uses everything before it to weigh up something new. It is on some boards' lists and not others. Each of these videos can be searched by its title or by its code. The scholafly.com website is the quickest way, because it indexes every video in every subject.

Next in the chapter is Sustainability: finite resources, waste and the impact of new products. Hopefully that's next in your feed, but if not, search for ScholaFly D T oh seven, oh one.

Every other video is on scholafly.com too, easy to search by video code or by keyword. Whatever you're revising, go there and have a look, or, watch the next video.