Making Industrial Design a Carbon Neutral Department, a Case Study. a top ten program in the United States. Hosting around 200 students and over 20

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1 Making Industrial Design a Carbon Neutral Department, a Case Study Problem Statement RIT s Industrial Design department is a leader in its field, consistently ranking as a top ten program in the United States. Hosting around 200 students and over 20 faculty and staff members, it is a good representation of a typical academic unit in Art and Design. The fact that industrial design is a highly creative field that produces tangible artifacts and objects presents a set of unique challenges when trying to achieve carbon neutrality. Industrial designers use large amounts of papers for sketching and printing as well as various types of hard foam, plastic, metal and wood for building prototypes and mock-ups of new products. Most often, after design projects are completed, all of the materials become a waste and it is hard to recycle them in an effective way. Also, the department has a model shop with over 30 machines for running on and off every day, costing huge amounts of electricity and water. Additionally, there are two computer laboratories in the department with over 30 computers, printers, scanners, not to mention an emerging need for rapid prototyping facilities. This project intends to calculate RIT s Industrial Design department s current carbon footprint, divided into specific areas such as energy, materials, water, etc. Once the footprint has been defined, a number of strategies for reducing this impact will be tested, in order to create a formal strategy that incorporates changes in reducing the footprint in the future. The value of this project is exciting not only for

2 the direct improvement that will serve RIT s industrial department, but most importantly for the guidance that will offer to the future of education in creative fields such as art, design and engineering. Project Summary/Background In 2009, RIT s president William Destler signed the American College and University Presidents' Climate Commitment (ACUPCC). 1 This research project aims at understating the implications of RIT s environment commitment at an academic department level that assesses potential for improving environmental practices that affect teaching and learning outcomes. The project will be organized in four stages. Stage one: benchmarking of the other art school's method on reducing the carbon footprint, such as PALS 2, MASM 3, RITCAP 4 and RISD s 2nd Life 5, we need to evaluate the current carbon footprint of our department by checking out the inventory including electric usage, water usage, material quantity and traveling condition. We will also send out a survey to our students to find out the individual's carbon footprint habits and design an information map clearly communicating what our current carbon footprint looks like through several carbon footprint scopes. The survey that will be distributed to the department covers current use of materials and resources (Annex 1), as well as frequency and type of use of the facilities. This will provide us with significant data on the environmental consumption and impact of the department. It will also provide insights to areas of high consumption that should be addressed more urgently. After new models for use of resources are identified, a model comparison

3 will show how much water, waste, energy, materials, etc. can be reduced when implementing changes in the department. Stage two: improvements by analyzing the data we have, testing new methods, doing experiment on new system and testing new materials. On this stage, as industrial designers, we will achieve our goals by approaching innovative methods such as brain storming, divergent thinking, convergent thinking and concept execution. Stage three: confirmation of, benefits by performing experiments of our concepts, implementing the changes and verifying the impacts. Stage four: dissemination of results and creation of toolkits with strategies that will be shared with other departments inside and outside of RIT. Relationship to Sustainability One of the most important sections of our project is the study on new materials that will replace the one we are using now in our department. Mock-ups or prototypes can comprise several of materials and each material has its effect on the climate. In our department, we use lots of wood, yellow foam, metal and paper that is essential for designers to sketch in a three dimensional way for exploring our ideas. After the project is done, most of the materials became a waste that is hard to recycle. We believe that there are other materials that are more environmentally friendly and easier for recycling than what we have and could be a good way to improve our department's sustainability. Additionally, we will look into reducing the usage of electricity and water to build a new sustainable system that could benefit students and faculty.

4 Timeline Our project has been divided in the following stages: Stage 1 (Oct 29 th to November 26 th ): Assessment of current footprint. Stage 2 (Nov. 26 th 2012 to Jan 21 th 2013): Testing of new strategies. Stage 3 (Jan 21 th to Feb 18 th 2013): Draft of implementation plan. Stage 4 (Feb 18 th to Mar 30 th 2013): Dissemination of results. Team responsibilities Cong Yao (team leader). Overall organization and management. Collection and assessment of data. Creation of output documentation and visuals. Jong Soo (collaborator). Research of new materials and methods. Assistance with data collection and output materials. Prof. Alex Lobos (faculty advisor). Overall guidance and mentorship. Results, Evaluation and Demonstration This project is improving the environmental impact of our department, but most importantly, it offers a base point to a more sustainable direction to institutions in creative fields, art communities and design companies. Some parts of this project focus on how to calculate and evaluate the economic benefits such are reducing the cost of the electricity, gas, heating, air conditioning, etc. A survey administered to the community within the Industrial Design Department collected information on environmentally related activities in our

5 department, such as the usage of computer labs, recycling of solid waste, average traveling and commuting distance of students and faculty etc. Out of these areas, comments on the survey highlighted strong interest in improving recycling education and collection around the department. We designed several info-graphics to document and analysis the results we have from the survey (Figures 1-1, 1-2, 1-3). (Fig 1-1)

6 (Fig 1-2)

7 (Fig 1-3) As a follow-up activity, a brainstorming session was held with about thirty students and faculty, who focused on specific areas to be improved in our studio in terms of sustainable practices. Two relevant topics that emerged from the discussion were to implement a more clear set of guidelines for recycling and to generate a

8 culture in the studio that leads to a cleaner environment and more respect to communal spaces. The studio often gets messy and disorganized due to the amount of materials used for mockups and models. It was encouraging to hear from students multiple ideas on how to improve our sustainable practices as well as how to address the quality of life in our area. In terms of electricity and resources data, Facilities Management Services of RIT and Industrial Design s staff were able to provide us with data electricity and water usage, renewable energy credits of RIT and business travel done by faculty and students. By collecting all of this data, we were able to use the Campus Carbon Footprint Calculator 6 as the main protocol to calculate our department s carbon footprint. Table 1-1 shows the calculations for the period between 07/01/ 2011 and 06/30/2012. According to these calculations, RIT Industrial Design Department s total carbon footprint in that period is Metric Tons eco2. Out of this number, the areas that use the higher amount of resources are purchased electricity which is Metric Tons eco2. Additionally, the footprint of solid waste (48.3 Metric Tons eco2) in our department is a relatively large number compare to the other departments, largely in part to the high volume of three dimensional models and mockups that are produced in the studio. Fiscal Year Scope2 Scope3 Gross 2011 Purchased Electricity Commuting Solid Waste Waste Water Emissions Table 1-1

9 Additionally, we tested alternative materials used for sketching modeling and prototyping that come from more sustainable processes. One example is modeling foam. We have been able to move from traditional urethane foam, which is 100% chemically produced, to an improved type that is made out of 30% renewable materials. 7 Another material that we have successfully experimented with is modeling clay, which offers the benefit of being reusable multiple times and comes from natural materials and processes. The models and prototypes are based on a industrial design project using classic design innovation methods including Incremental Innovation 8 and Radical Innovation. 9 Conclusions There is significant room for improvement of departments such as RIT s Industrial Design. Areas that need particular attention are better energy management and more efficient disposal and recycling of waste, materials and supplies. Students, faculty and staff in the Industrial Design department are highly interested in adopting better practices into their design process as well as to improve the quality of life in the studio. Taking this first step in quantifying the department s environmental impact will allow for easier monitoring of changes and sustainable improvement in our methods for years to come. Dissemination of this process is a key element to our project. We are currently building a website or a blog to document our processes and update our latest status.

10 For delivering all of the valuable moments, we may set up a projector to display some of the pictures or videos from the website. RIT s Industrial Design department is a typical representation of medium-sized academic units in art, design and engineering in the U.S. Because of this, the results of this project could be widely used in other departments with similar sustainability needs and carbon footprint reduction goals. References 1 ACUPCC: The American College & University Presidents Climate Commitment (ACUPCC) is a high-visibility effort to address global climate disruption undertaken by a network of colleges and universities that have made institutional commitments to eliminate net greenhouse gas emissions from specified campus operations, and to promote the research and educational efforts of higher education to equip society to re-stabilize the earth s climate. American College & University Presidents Climate Commitment Presidents Climate Commitment All Rights Reserved 2 PALS: Partnership for Academic Leadership in Sustainability. In September 2010, thirty-three academic leaders from 33 independent colleges of Art and Design came together to create a new vision for design education that responds to the complex nature of our world. Each PALS "Fellow" has been appointed by the president of their institution to participate in a collaborative effort to link the resources of independent art and design colleges around the critical environmental, social and human centered design issues that face us. 3 Mass Arts' Sustainable Mission, Mass Art Green Roof Pilot Project funded by the Massachusetts Sustainability Program Climate Action Plan, Office of President, Rochester Institute of Technology, RISD 2ndlife, Rhode Island School of Design is a nonprofit, student operated, material-upcycling center for the community. RISD 2ndLife started from a 2004 proposal by students Alex Willams and Kate Arbarbanel for the final project for Yuriko Saito s class, Ecological Responsibility in Art & Design. 6 Clean Air-Cool Planet, Campus Carbon Calculator Clean Air-Cool Planet, Inc. All Rights Reserved Incremental innovation: As the name suggests, this type of innovation makes small changes at one given time and is sometimes referred to as continuous improvement. A simple product may be improved (in terms of better performance or lower costs) through the use of higher performance components or materials. A complex product that consists of integrated technical subsystems can be improved by partial changes at one level of a sub-system. Design for Sustainability a Practical Approach for Developing Economies United Nations Environment Program Division of Technology, Industry and Economics, Delft University of Technology 9 Radical innovation: Radical innovation involves the development of key new design elements such as change in a product component combined with a new architecture for linking components. The result is a distinctively new product that is markedly different from the company s existing product line. A high level of uncertainty is associated with radical innovation projects, especially at early stages. Due to high levels of uncertainty, the process cannot be described as an orderly structured process. Radical innovations are confronted with uncertainties on different levels. Design for Sustainability a Practical Approach for Developing Economies United Nations Environment Program Division of Technology, Industry and Economics, Delft University of Technology