Social and Environmental Consequences of Products and Services
At the street market you buy a PET bottle of water for $\$12$. You pay twelve pesos, but is that all it costs? Someone extracted oil, someone worked at the factory, and when you finish drinking it the bottle will end up somewhere. On this page you will learn to see what the price doesn't tell you and to decide using clear criteria.
Social and Environmental Effects
Every product or service changes something around it. These changes are called effects (or implications), and they can be classified into two groups:
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Social: they affect people and the community (jobs, health, safety, noise, access to a service, customs).
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Environmental: they affect nature (air, water, soil, wildlife, waste, energy use).
In addition, each effect can be positive (it benefits) or negative (it harms). This gives us a table with four boxes. Let's look at the case of mototaxis arriving in a town:
| Positive | Negative | |
|---|---|---|
| Social | Jobs for young people; accessible transportation for older adults | Noise downtown; risk of accidents |
| Environmental | Fewer trips in private cars | More gas emissions |
The arrival of motorcycle taxis in a town brought jobs for young people, more noise downtown, affordable transport for older people and more emissions. Separate the…
The arrival of motorcycle taxis in a town brought jobs for young people, more noise downtown, affordable transport for older people and more emissions. Separate the social effects from the environmental ones and point out one you consider positive and one negative in each group, justifying your choice.
The Life Cycle of a Product
Effects don't happen only when you use an object. A product has a "life" with four stages:
Each stage leaves a footprint. If you know in which stage it is greatest, you know where it is best to act.
Think of a PET bottle you buy at the street market. Order the stages of its life cycle (disposal, manufacturing, oil extraction, use) and write one environmental…
Think of a PET bottle you buy at the street market. Order the stages of its life cycle (disposal, manufacturing, oil extraction, use) and write one environmental implication of each stage, plus one decision that would reduce it.
Costs That Don't Appear in the Price
The price you pay almost never includes everything the product costs society. These hidden costs (also called externalities) are paid by someone who did not decide to buy the product.
Examples:
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A truck that pollutes: the customer pays the freight, but the health of the people who breathe that air is the hidden cost.
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A discarded bottle: you bought it for $\$12$, but cleaning the clogged drain is paid for by the city, that is, by everyone.
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A delivery app: the customer pays for the food and the delivery, but the risk of an accident and the lack of health insurance are borne by the delivery worker.
Food delivery apps offer low prices and convenience, but the delivery rider usually works without benefits and takes on the risk of accidents. Identify which costs of…
Food delivery apps offer low prices and convenience, but the delivery rider usually works without benefits and takes on the risk of accidents. Identify which costs of the service do not appear in the price the customer pays, who actually pays them, and propose one rule that would make the service fairer.
Sustainability
A technical system is sustainable when it meets the needs of today without harming nature or people in a way that prevents future generations from meeting theirs.
To move closer to this, reduce the negative effects in each stage of the life cycle:
| Strategy | What it means | Example |
|---|---|---|
| Reduce | Use less material or energy | LED bulbs instead of incandescent ones |
| Reuse | Use the object again | Refill water jugs |
| Recycle | Turn waste into new material | Take PET to the collection center |
| Repair | Extend the life of the product | Take the cell phone in for repair |
Evaluating Alternatives with Criteria
When you have to choose between two solutions, it isn't enough to say "I like this one more." They are compared using criteria:
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Efficiency: it achieves the result with few resources (energy, time, money, material).
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Effectiveness: it meets the goal it was made for.
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Reliability: it works well consistently, without failing.
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Feasibility: it can be carried out with the means, the money, and the conditions of the place.
To these are added the social and environmental effects that you already know how to analyze.
A city council must choose between two parcel delivery systems for the city center: motorcycles (fast, with more emissions and noise) or cargo bicycles (slower, with no…
A city council must choose between two parcel delivery systems for the city center: motorcycles (fast, with more emissions and noise) or cargo bicycles (slower, with no direct emissions, better for the riders' health, but requiring bike lanes). Evaluate both with the criteria of effectiveness, social effects and environmental effects, and recommend one option for short distances downtown, justifying your choice.
Back to the beginning: the $\$12$ bottle costs much more than twelve pesos if you add up oil, energy, trash, and microplastics. Now you know how to see those costs and when it is worth reducing them.