This mini-lesson covers the Implications of Wider Issues for OCR A-level Product Design: sustainability and the 6Rs, life cycle assessment, and social, moral, ethical and economic issues.
You will apply the 6Rs, read an LCA, weigh Fairtrade, and calculate recycled content. Press Start to begin.
Design decisions have environmental consequences. The 6Rs guide more responsible design:
Reduce and reuse save more than recycling, because recycling still uses energy to reprocess materials.
A life cycle assessment (LCA) measures impact across four stages:
The carbon footprint totals the greenhouse gases (as CO2 equivalent) across the whole life.
Design has human as well as environmental consequences:
Tap an issue, then the domain it mainly belongs to.
The circular economy keeps materials in use in loops — make, use, recover, remake — replacing the wasteful linear take-make-dispose model. It is supported by Design for Disassembly, repairability and recyclable materials.
Tap an item on the left, then its match on the right.
6Rs: rethink, refuse, reduce, reuse, repair, recycle (reduce/reuse save most)
LCA stages: extraction, manufacture, distribution/use, disposal; carbon footprint = CO2e
Social/ethical: inclusion, fair pay, Fairtrade, cultural respect
Economic: cost, employment, global trade; planned obsolescence criticised
Circular economy replaces linear take-make-dispose
You have covered the environmental, social, ethical and economic implications of design.
You have worked through Implications of Wider Issues for OCR A-level Product Design. 🎉
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Next: test yourself in the Verify stage.