Ethical issues in engineering design - 3TU.Centre for Ethics and ...

Ethical issues in engineering design
and no weighting factors were necessary to compare different negative
environmental effects of cars like CO2 emissions, smell and noise pollution. This
operationalisation could lead to inconsistencies in cases like the use of catalytic
converters. Catalytic converters increase the amount of energy used by the car
but decrease emissions of NOx. So although emissions are often related to
energy use, a slightly higher energy use caused by a catalytic converter can lead
to a decrease in noxious emissions.
Third, a further operationalisation of minimising energy use during the lifecycle
was to minimise the mass of the car. According to the DutchEVO design
team, energy consumption for cars is largest in the use phase (about 85%).
Energy consumption in the use phase is mass dependent. Therefore decreasing
the mass of a car decreases energy consumption, hence the main
operationalisation of sustainability was the requirement that the car should have
a mass of 400 kg or less. So the criterion of sustainability was operationalised as
minimising energy consumption and that was operationalised mainly as a need
to design a lightweight car.
Fourth, in co-operation with another project of the DIOC focused on
recyclability (Susan and Ann were both part of this DIOC project), friction can
exist between sustainability as closing the materials cycle and sustainability as
minimising energy consumption during the whole life cycle. A problem with a
lot of lightweight materials is their bad recycling properties. Starting in autumn
2000, more attention was given to recycling. Mass remained, however, the most
important selection criterion for options. Only if little mass was added to make a
part better recyclable, was recycling considered. Joining could be an issue with
regard to this; using adhesives is light but makes recycling difficult, using bolts
makes the car heavier but eases dismantling. One of the team’s arguments not
to build a car that could be dismantled is that dismantling is not economically
feasible and would therefore not be done. This argument disregards possible
future legislation or subsidies that might make dismantling feasible or dumping
material on landfills very expensive. In this subject the importance of lightweight
was visible again. The combination of lightweight and recycling was very
difficult to attain and recycling was given a low priority.
Fifth, another part of the operationalisation of sustainability focussed on
what the design team called “emotional sustainability”. Emotional sustainability
meant that a good relationship between driver and the DutchEVO should
develop and that the DutchEVO would be fun-to-drive. Frictions can occur
between emotional sustainability and energy consumption. Designing a city car
that is fun-to-drive can lead to behaviour that will increase energy consumption
although the car itself is energy efficient. It is possible that users will use the car
more frequently because it is fun-to-drive. In cities a lot of alternative ways of
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