Journal of Engineering Studies and Research Volume 17 (2011) No. 1 77 [619172]

Journal of Engineering Studies and Research – Volume 17 (2011) No. 1 77

PROMOTING ECO-DESIGN IN SCHOOL

RADU CRINA
1*, CRISTEA ION1, RADU PETRICA1

1“Vasile Alecsandri” University of Bacau, Ca lea Marasesti 157, Bacau, 600115, Romania

Abstract: The paper gives an overview of
the efforts made by the “Vasile Alecsandri”
University of Bacau, Romania together with six European Univers ities to increase the
students’ awareness concerning the environment protection, by improving their engineering curricula with an eco-design module. These efforts were made in the frame of the project: “Eco-design: An innovative path towards sustainable development”, developed with the
financial support of the European Commission.

Keywords: education, eco-design; sustainable development;

1. INTRODUCTION

The problem of relation between humans and environment is not new. It once appeared with the first human communities, since human being, with the intelligence and creative spirit that define him, started with tenacity
and courage to transform the nature according to his needs.
Until a certain moment, the natural balance has not suffered unless, maybe, on very small areas, which could not
affect the whole. But with the Industrial Revolution, which provid ed mechanical power, invention of steam
engine and many other machinery, greater use of metals, etc., the power of man increased inordinately, giving
him opportunities to modify the environment and raise the average living standards everywhere. Unfortunately,
the reverse of contemporary industrial civilization, of material progress, has been the environment worsening.
Under the impact of economic development, soil, water and air have been polluted more or less seriously,
different species of plants and animals have disappeared or are endangered and human being is confronted, in
turn, with various diseases caused by pollution, phenome non that now encompasses all countries and continents.
It was stated that within a decade, the civilization deviations have caused environmental damages greater than in
a millennium. The environment has already been degraded to such an extent in cer tain areas that people are
forced to migrate. They are facing scarcity of resources like food and energy. Currently, we spend far more
environment than we have; a recent study developed by Gl obal Footprint Network clearly demonstrates that in
present times the population of Earth consume more than it naturally can provide us (in net terms, humanity has moved from using about half of the planet biocapacity in 1966, to over 1.5 time the biocapacity of the Earth in
2007 [1]).

Thus, we must reconceptualise how we live on this planet and we must do this as quickly as possible. We cannot
afford the luxury of evolutionary thinking; ecological consciousness must become our first imperative to ensure
a future for our planet. Terms like design for the environment, environmental product development, sustainable
product development, eco-design, should become familiarly for each of us, no t only for the speci alists. Each of
us should be ecologically literate by understanding how ecological systems works an d by understanding that we

* Corresponding author, email [anonimizat]
© 2011 Alma Mater Publishing House

Journal of Engineering Studies and Research – Volume 17 (2011) No. 1 78

are part of the environment, it is not something separate from us. This could be the most powerful solution to the
current environmental problems and the best source of hope and confidence into a future healthy life.
Environmental education is necessary to move from ignorance to appreciation, understanding, participation, action.
The aim of this paper is to give an overview of the ef forts made by the “Vasile Alecsandri” University of Bacau
together with other six universities from Romania and abro ad to strength the ecological consciousness of their
students – the future engineers and designers of society, by enriching their courses curricula with an eco-design module. The eco-design module was developed with the financial support of the European Commission in the
frame of the curricula development project “Eco-design: an innovative path towards sustainable development”.

2. PROJECT DESCRIPTION

2.1. Why eco-design?
Protection of the environment is one of the major challenges facing the world. With global ecosystems degrading
at an ever increasing rate, calls for sustainable development, have become louder and more urgent. Integrating
the concept of sustainability as well as environmental consideration into the product development process is the
guiding idea of eco-design. The European Environmental Agency defines eco-design as "the integration of environmental aspects into the product development process, by balancing ecological and economic
requirements. Eco-design considers environmental aspects at all stages of the product development process,
striving for products which make the lowest possible environmental impact throughout the product life cycle"
[2]. Therefore, eco-design means designing for a safer future. It is a tool in the hands of designers and engineers
helping them to reach the goal of protecting the environment and forestalling further ecological damage. However, in order to attend this goal, they need information on the challenges and the options available for more
sustainable patterns of production, consumption and development.
The main sources of education in ecological product design and design engineering are the technical universities.
Design students have to learn how to integrate ecological aspects into the design process in order to create more
environmentally friendly products. Besides, a design student should be trained as an opinion leader, meaning that he must be capable to stimulate desires. In other words, designers should do more than designing and making
products – they should create the market demands. Desi gners should influence peop le, the customers of their
products, to change their way of thinking and persuade them to join in this work of preserving and protection the
environment. From this perspective, the role of ecological education in product design and design engineering is
far more important.

2.2. Aim of the project
The aim of the project “Eco-design: An Innovative Path Towards Sustainable Development” was to improve and
enrich the curriculum of Engineering courses, especially those from Industrial Design and Environmental
Engineering specializations, in all the partner institutions, at bachelor level, by implementing into the current
engineering curricula an European module of eco-design; this was an answer to the European demands for a
sustainable development and, according to it, the needs of the labour market imposed to the engineers.

2.3. The partner universities
Starting from the principal that “m ulticultural education is most effective because diverse human mind
encompasses numerous forms of inte lligence” [3], the project was devel oped in an European partnership
consisting of Technical University of Vienna – Austria, Technical University of Tallinn – Estonia, Technological
Educational Institution of Athens – Greece, University of Brighton – United Kingdom and three Romanian
universities: ”Vasile Alecsandri” University of Bacau , “Petru Maior” University of Targu Mures and
“Transilvania” Univer sity of Brasov.

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3. DEVELOPMENT OF THE TEACHING AIDS

The Eco-design module was structured into four subjects, for which th e teaching aids – books and CD-ROMs
with supplementary information – were elaborated. The four subjects were: Eco-design: Fundamentals, Product
Life Cycle Assessment, Product Recycling Technologies and Embedding Eco-Design in Product Development.
Before starting the elaboration of the teaching aids, the partners agreed upon the necessity of introducing into the
material content many examples and case studies, to facilitate students a better understanding of the eco-design
principles and the possibilities for their application. Besides knowledge, we wanted to develop skills, to provide
the students with a capacity of critical and independent judgement and with the ability to solve at a certain level
the environmental problems.

3.1. Presentation of the books

3.1.1. Fundamentals [4]
The aim of “Fundamentals” was to introduce students into the world of eco-design. The book is structured in five
chapters (Figure 1), divided into 14 lessons, corresponding to the 14 weeks of an academic semester from the Romanian universities.

The students are introduced in the terminology of the field, the life stages of a product and their environmental impact. The last chapter of the book informs students about the most important management aspects regarding
the ecological development of products. Some case studies presented for each chapter of the book help to
illustrate and explain the new theoreti cal knowledge that become s in this way more accessible to the students.

Fig. 1. Content of the “Fundamentals” book.

3.1.2. Product Life Cycle Assessment [5]
„Product Life Cycle Assessment”, the second manual of the Eco-design module, is structured in 8 lessons
(Figure 2). The book intends to improve students’ knowledge regarding the product life cycle analysis and to present them some methods and tools to find more environmentally friendly design solutions for a product.
During each lesson some case studies are pres ented and different exercises are suggested.

Fig. 2. Content of the “Product Life Cycle Assessment” book.

3.1.3. Product Recycling Technologies [6] The book “Product Recycling Technologies” is structured in five chapters (Figure 3) divided in 14 lessons and is
concentrated on the theoretical, legal and operational as pects concerning the products recycling process. At the

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beginning of each lesson are presented the lesson objectiv es and at the end of the each lesson, some assessment
questions or supplementary study reports are suggested.

Fig. 3. Content of the “Product Recy cling Technologies” book.

3.1.4. Product Development [7]
The forth book of the Eco-design module, “Product Development”, represents a guide of how to analyze a
product, considering its environmental impact and how to improve its design in order to be less harmful for the
nature. This book presents also a very useful and easy to use software, Eco-design PILOT’s Assistant, that was
developed by the specialist from Technical University of Wien, in order to evaluate the environmental performance of products. The book is structured in 14 lessons (Figure 4).

Fig. 4. Content of the “Embedding Eco-Design in Product Design” book.

4. IMPLEMENTATION OF THE ECO-DESIGN MODULE TO THE “VASILE ALECSANDRI”
UNIVERSITY OF BACAU

At the “Vasile Alecsandri” Un iversity of Bacau, the four subjects treated in the project have been implemented
into the teaching planes of four sp ecializations of the Faculty of Engi neering, as follows (Tables 1÷ 4):

Table 1. Eco-design: Fundamentals was included into the content of the following courses.
No. COURSES Specialization(s)/Year of study
1 General ecology Environmental Engineering /II
2 Study of the ecological impact Environmental Engineering /III
3
Environmental engineering Industrial Design and /III
Machine Building Technology/III
4 Eco-design Industrial Design/IV

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Table 2. Product life cycle assessment was included into the content of the following courses.
No. COURSES Specialization/Year of study
1 General ecology Environmental Engineering /II
2 Study of the ecological impact Environmental Engineering /III
3 Product life cycle Industrial Design/III
4 Ecological materials Environmental Engineering /III
5 Eco-design Industrial Design /IV

Table 3. Product Recycling Technologies was included into the content of the following courses.
No. COURSES Specialization/Year of study
1 Equipments for waste recycling Equipments for Industrial Processes/III
2 Waste management Environmental Engineering /IV
3 Ecological materials Environmental Engineering /IV
4 Eco-design Industrial Design/IV
5 Study of the ecological impact Environmental Engineering /III
6 General ecology Environmental Engineering /II

Table 4. Embedding Eco-design in Product Development was included into the content of the following courses.
No. COURSES Specialization/Year of study
1 Study of the ecological impact Engineering and Environmental protection /III
2 Product life cycle Industrial Design /III
3 Eco-design Industrial Design /IV
4 Ecological materials Engineering and Environmental protection /IV

5. CONCLUSIONS

A group of three Romanian Universities decided to initiate a project that allows to improve the engineering curricula of their students towards a more life-cycle oriented approach, with the environmental aspects and
working tools truly integrated. In order to develop a module at European level, it was necessary to search an European partnership, considering
the most experimented institutions and departments. Thus, another four European Universities were involved
into the project and all together elaborated the teaching aids consis ting in four books and CDs with
supplementary information, guidelines and strategies for future designers and product developers on how to
avoid or minimize the environmental impact of the products.

The project was a success from at least two points of view: the eco-design module was implemented into the
curricula of all the seven partner universities, and in th e mean time, very good relationships between universities
were created or improved. Being an Erasmus Programm e, the project facilitated the motilities, both of teachers
and students, between universities, so the less experienced partners could learn from the institutions with large
experience in the field of eco-design (Technical University of Wien and University of Brighton).
As concern our university, the feedback from students was very good. They found very interesting the
information provided in these courses and have shown par ticular interest in applicative activities. Some students
even decided to deepen the eco-design aspects by choosing for their graduatio n project a theme in this field. And
what is more important, they have become more aware of the importance of protecting nature and conserve the resources and the beau ty of our Planet.

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REFERENCES

[1] Living Planet Report 2010. ( www.footprintnetwork.org – accessed on 21.03.2011).
[2] xxx – www.eea.europa.eu (accessed on 20.03.2011).
[3] Caduto, J.M., Ecological Education: a system rooted in diversity, Journal of Environmental Education, Vol. 29, 1998, p. 11-22.
[4] Ecodesign for sustainable development. Fundamentals, Vol. 1, Transilvania University of Brasov, Romania [5] Ecodesign for sustainable development. Product Life Cycle Assesment, Vol. 2, Transilvania University of
Brasov, Romania, 2007.
[6] Ecodesign for sustainable development. Product Recycling Technologies, Volume 3, Transilvania University of Brasov, Romania, 2007.
[7] Ecodesign for sustainable development. Product development, Volume 4, Transilvania University of Brasov,
Romania, 2007.