Sustainable and accessible design

Explain what ecodesign is and mention two specific design decisions that make a product more sustainable.

Explain what it means for a product to be accessible and give an example of an everyday object that is well designed for people with reduced mobility.

Compare two backpacks: a very cheap one, made of blended fabrics with parts that are impossible to separate, and a more expensive one, repairable and with available spare parts. Reason which one better follows ecodesign criteria in terms of durability, repairability and end of life.

The figure orders the "three Rs" of sustainability according to priority, but one of them is missing. State which one it is, reason why it occupies that position in the hierarchy, and give an example of each applied to your school supplies.

"Design for all" benefits many more people than it seems. Explain, using two examples (a ramp, subtitles...), how a solution designed for accessibility ends up being useful for anyone.

A juice is advertised as "eco-friendly" but its packaging is a multi-layer carton (cardboard, plastic and aluminium joined together) that very few recycling plants can process. Analyse which ecodesign criteria it meets and which it does not, and propose a reasoned redesign for the packaging.

Explain the difference between reusing and recycling using a glass jar as an example: describe one action of each type using that same jar.

Rank these options from most to least sustainable and justify the order: buying a reusable bottle, recycling every single-use bottle, using single-use bottles daily without recycling, and refilling a single-use bottle a few times before recycling it.

Design a pencil holder for the classroom following three ecodesign criteria (material, manufacturing process and end of life) and two accessibility criteria. Justify each decision you make.

What does it mean for a product to be "repairable"? Name three design features that make this possible (screws instead of glue, available spare parts, disassembly manual).

A product is advertised as "green" mainly because its packaging is green and features drawings of leaves. Explain what greenwashing is and write three specific questions you would ask the manufacturer to check the real sustainability of the product.

To counter the statement "sustainable is always more expensive" using technical and quantitative arguments, analyze this case: a school is considering replacing 20 60 W incandescent light bulbs in a classroom (cost: 1,20 €/unit; lifespan: 1000 h) with equivalent 9 W LED models (cost: 4,50 €/unit; lifespan: 15 000 h). The lighting operates for 1000 h per year, and the price of electricity is 0,20 €/kWh.

1. a) Calculate the total cumulative cost of each option after 3 years (including initial purchase, necessary end-of-life replacements, and electricity consumption).
2. b) Determine after how many hours of use the LED investment pays off and justify, using your data, the difference between short-term purchase cost and life-cycle cost.