ALL JUST RUBBISH? - ETH Sustainability

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ETH SUSTAINABILITY - ALL JUST RUBBISH?
Wooden Furniture
Because Knut (bit.ly/swedishKnut) is a great
Swedish holiday and wood is one of the most
sustainable materials.
INTRODUCTION
Through learning about different tools as well as through
working in a team, a more holistic view on the term
‘sustainability’ will be evolved and put into practice by
using furniture as a case study.
LEARNING OBJECTIVES
Highlighting the economical, cultural, environmental and
social aspects of sustainability in all its variations is the
first intention of this case study. To do so, students will
work on a concrete object and learn to approach a complex
scope as a whole group by working on the various topics in
small teams. Therefore the interchange of the ideas and
possible product improvements found in the whole group
is of major importance.
In terms of content, students will learn to apply life cycle
thinking, the principles of sustainable design as well as
using different working methods. Furthermore, testing,
refining and validating the approaches by putting them
into practice through building models or prototypes will
accompany the conceptual work.
Apart of the internal discussions and presentations, the
insights gained will be gathered together and
communicated in a written guideline document.
Beat Karrer - „Spira“
CONTENT
_General introduction
_Introduction to a life cycle assessment software tool
(SimaPro Software)
_Principles of Sustainable Design (Lifecycle Design
Strategies (LIDS) wheel)
_ Interacting in a multicultural and multidisciplinary team
_Methodologies for the improvement of the different
aspects for sustainable product design
_Practical implementation of the concepts (models,
prototypes)
_Working out guidelines and recommendations for
sustainable product design
_Presentation of the results
_Excursions, Lectures, Work