Tips for DFE (design for the environment)

Here are a couple of key themes when considering how to make products that are not bad – or maybe even good for – the environment.

In text form:

-Meaningful and specific parts lists shall be included.
-Cases shall be easy to open.
-Batteries should be replaceable.
-Special tools are allowed only for darn good reasons.
-Profiting by selling expensive special tools is wrong and not making special tools available is even worse.
-Torx is OK; tamperproof is rarely OK.-
-Components, not entire sub-assemblies, shall be replaceable.
-Consumables, like fuses and filters, shall be easy to access.
-Circuit boards shall be commented.
-Power from USB is good; power from proprietary power adapters is bad.
-Standard connecters shall have pinouts defined.
-If it snaps shut, it shall snap open.
-Screws better than glues.
-Docs and drivers shall have permalinks and shall reside for all perpetuity at archive.org.
-Ease of repair shall be a design ideal, not an afterthought.
-Metric or standard, not both.
-Schematics shall be included.

(These are commonly referred to as “design for disassembly”)

Some more tips:

-Minimize volume and weight
-Use low-energy materials and processes
-Avoid hazardous or toxic materials and constituents
-Incorporate recovered materials
-Consider transport implications of supplies, raw materials, the product and packaging
-Product use & maintenance features such as enhanced durability, operation without oil, battery, chemicals or other consumables, and minimizing energy and water consumption
-Utilize environmental packaging and materials, including reusable, bulk and non-hazardous

And finally, from Cradle to Cradle:

•Buildings that, like trees, are net energy exporters, produce more energy than they consume, accrue and store solar energy, and purify their own waste water and release it slowly in a purer form.
•Factory effluent water that is cleaner than the influent.
•Products that, when their useful life is over, do not become useless waste, but can be tossed onto the ground to decompose and become food for plants and animals, rebuilding soil; or, alternately, return to industrial cycles to supply high quality raw materials for new products.
•Billions, even trillions of dollars worth of materials accrued for human and natural purposes each year.
•A world of abundance, not one of limits, pollution, and waste.