Furniture Design Ideas

"The Council of the European Union, having regard to A, B, and C, act­ing in accordance with procedures P Q, and R of activities X, Y and Z, and whereas… (there follows a list of 27 "whereases") has adopted this directive…"—that was a paraphrase of the way an EU Directive starts. Environmental legislation makes heavy […]

It is exceedingly difficult to negotiate enforceable treaties that bind all the nations of the planet to a single course of action; the diversity of culture, national priorities, economic development, and wealth are too great. The best the international community can achieve is an Agreement, Declaration of Intent, or Protocol[17] that a subset of nations […]

Table 5.1 lists nine documents that have had profound influence on current thinking about the effects of human activity on the environment. The pub­lications span a little less than 50 years. Over this period the approach to pollution and environmental law has evolved through a number of phases,[16] best summarized in the following way: ■ […]

5.1 Introduction and synopsis The prophet Moses, seeking to set standards for the ways in which his peo­ple behaved, created or received (according to your viewpoint) 10 admirably concise commandments. Most start with the words "Thou shalt not…," with simple, easily understood incentives (heaven, hell) to comply. Today, as far as materials and design are […]

Of the five end-of-life options shown in Figure 4.1, only one meets the essential criteria that: ■ It can return waste materials into the supply chain ■ It can do so at a rate that, potentially, is comparable with that at which the waste is generated Landfill and combustion fail to meet the first, and […]

Few applications of materials attract as much criticism as their use in pack­aging. Packaging ends its functional life as soon as the package is opened. It is ephemeral, it is trite, it generates mountains of waste, and most of the time it is unnecessary. Or is it? Think for a moment about the most highly […]

Figure 4.1 introduces the options: landfill, combustion for heat recovery, recycling, reengineering, and reuse. Landfill. Many of the products we now reject are committed to landfill. Already there is a problem; the land available to "fill" in this way is already, in some European countries, almost full. Recall one of the results discussed in Chapter […]

The rapid turnover of products we see today is a comparatively recent phe­nomenon. In earlier times, furniture was bought with the idea that it would fill the needs not just of one generation but of several—treatment that, today, is reserved for works of art. A wristwatch, a gold pen—once these were things you used for […]

CONTENTS   4.1 Introduction and synopsis When stuff is useful, we show it respect and call it material. When the same stuff ceases to be useful, we lose respect for it and call it waste. Waste is deplorable, and it is much deplored, that from packaging particularly so. Is it inevitable? The short answer is […]

The most common uses of life-cycle assessment are for product improve­ment ("How can I make my products greener?"), support of strategic choices ("Is this or that the greener development path?"), benchmarking ("How do our products compare?"), and for communication ("Our products are the greenest"). Most of the software tools designed to help with this task […]