Designing a greener product: the Hoover 'New Wave' washing machine range

Hoover is one of the best known manufacturers of domestic appliances in Britain and has made washing machines at its Merthyr Tydfil factory since 1948. This article discusses the creation of the Hoover New Wave range of ‘green’ washing machines, which were launched in 1993 after a four year programme of research, design and development and investment in new manufacturing plant costing £15 million.The New Wave range were the first products to be awarded an EU Ecolabel, having exceeded set criteria for energy, water and detergent consumption and wash performance

A Story of Innovation: The Cyclone Vacuum Cleaner Invented by James Dyson

A summary account of James Dysons' creative process involved in the invention and development of the cyclone vacuum cleaner

Environmental actions to reduce household ecological footprints

This paper presents the ideas of UK householders on how to reduce their Ecological Footprint (EF) after applying a tool called 'EcoCal', which assesses the environmental impacts of households by measuring footprints arising from Transport, Energy, Shopping, House and Garden, Water and Waste. Analysis of the EcoCal results of nearly 700 adult Open University (OU) student households showed that transport and energy impacts are the biggest contributors to the household footprint. Reducing these impacts poses the greatest challenge to achieving a globally sustainable household EF of approximately 0.5 hectares per person. Analysis of the ideas that the OU students were prepared to consider to reduce their household EF revealed a variety of technical and behavioural changes. However, in the context of their own household, the OU students identified several constraints on the implementation of their environmental action plans. Despite such constraints, many of the students instigated changes that helped to make their households more sustainable

Design Improvements from users’ experiences of low and zero carbon technologies

The development and rapid consumer adoption of low and zero carbon (LZC) technologies are key elements of UK and EU carbon reduction strategies to meet the challenge of climate change. Many LZC technologies are available, ranging from established energy efficiency products such as home insulation and energy-efficient lighting to more innovative renewable energy technologies, including solar thermal systems, micro-wind turbines, solar photovoltaics and biomass stoves. This paper examines key influences on consumer adoption – and non-adoption – of energy efficiency products and renewable energy systems based on the findings of a UK Open University project, which conducted some 111 in-depth telephone interviews plus an on-line survey with nearly 400 responses. The results show that it is important to research consumer requirements and use behaviours when developing ‘green’ technologies. Consumer adoption of LZC products and systems has been relatively slow and, even when installed, due to behavioural effects, they have not always reduced carbon emissions as much as expected. The results of this study of UK consumers’ experiences shows that improved designs are required to address barriers to LZC adoption and problems in use, including functionality, ergonomics, interconnectedness with other systems and symbolic value, as well as price and payback. Offering challenges for designers, engineers and managers, the paper identifies user-centred improvements to promote more rapid adoption and effective use of LZC technologies

Climate Change: the citizen's agenda Evidence to Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Committee

i). This paper summarises some results of research by the Open University of the key influences on the adoption – and non-adoption – by mainly environmentally-concerned UK citizens of low and zero carbon (LZC) technologies. These include energy efficiency measures (such as loft insulation, condensing boilers and compact fluorescent lamps covered by the Energy Efficiency Commitment) and micro-generation energy technologies (such as solar water heating, photovoltaics and micro-wind turbines included in the DTI's Clear Skies scheme and Low Carbon Buildings Programme). The research also includes the benefits and problems experienced by the citizens who adopted these LZC technologies, plus ideas and policies for overcoming the barriers to their adoption and their effective use in reducing carbon emissions. The tables in the paper show that each LZC technology has different drivers, barriers, benefits and problems and hence ideas and policies for improvements, but there are some common factors that affect the different technologies. ii) The main driver for citizen adoption of LZC technologies is reducing fuel bills and/or saving energy in the context of rising fuel prices. Another key driver for adoption of LZC technologies is environmental concern (esp. climate change and nature conservation), at least for the mainly 'greener' citizens we surveyed. iii) The barriers to adoption vary widely depending on the technology concerned and go beyond the well-known financial issues. Examples of significant barriers to the adoption of energy efficiency measures include peoples' concerns about irritant fibres in loft insulation materials, needing to clear the loft, and loss of loft storage space when installing the recommended thickness of insulation; the reputation of condensing boilers among installers and consumers for unreliability and shorter life; and the size and perceived ugliness of compact fluorescent lamps, and a failure to communicate improvements in CFL design and technology since their introduction. However, even for environmentally concerned citizens, capital cost is a major barrier to adoption of micro-generation technologies, together with the uncertain performance and reliability of innovative technologies. iv) The benefits of insulation are reported (even by non fuel-poor citizens) largely in terms of warmer homes rather than in reduced energy consumption, i.e. the 'rebound effect' of insulation could be higher than the figure assumed for the Energy Efficiency Commitment. In contrast, improved heating controls when used properly and condensing boilers appear to have little rebound effect and so should help more directly to reduce carbon emissions. Energy efficient lighting appears to involve a relatively small rebound effect, as some users choose to leave CFLs switched on longer and/or may install additional CFL lighting. (v) The micro-generation technologies as well as reducing carbon emissions, offer citizens who can afford to install them (for whom grants were only a relatively minor driver) great pleasure in using renewable energy as well as focusing their attention on saving energy. vi) To encourage the widespread adoption and effective use of these LZC technologies requires different actions and policies tailored to the specific technologies: e.g. allowing use of eco-friendly materials in subsidised loft insulation schemes; designing and installing user-friendly controls that provide feedback on energy used or saved; energy companies offering financing packages to install micro-generation systems; and regulations and standards guaranteeing the performance, reliability and durability of micro-generation technologies

Who adopts microheating technologies?

Despite the increasing emphasis on the importance of microgeneration heat, such as solar thermal and biomass stoves, adoption by UK householders has been very slow. Surveys by the Open University and the Energy Saving Trust have examined the reasons why householders do and don’t install these technologies, exploring what can be done to encourage more widespread adoption

Designing low and zero carbon products and systems: improvements based on consumers’ experience of adoption and use

The development and rapid consumer adoption of low and zero carbon (LZC) technologies are key elements of UK and EU carbon reduction strategies to meet the challenge of climate change. Many LZC technologies are available, ranging from established energy efficiency products such as home insulation and energy-efficient lighting to more innovative renewable energy systems, including solar thermal systems, micro-wind turbines, solar photovoltaics and biomass stoves and boilers. This paper examines key influences on consumer adoption – and non-adoption – of energy efficiency products and renewable energy systems based on the findings of a UK Open University project, which conducted some 90 in-depth telephone interviews plus an on-line survey with nearly 400 responses during 2006. The survey results show that it is important to research consumer requirements and use behaviours when developing ‘green’ technologies. Consumer adoption of LZC products and systems has been relatively slow and, even when installed, due to behavioural effects, they have not always reduced carbon emissions as much as expected. The results of this study of UK consumers’ experiences shows that improved designs are required to address barriers to LZC adoption and problems in use, including functionality, ergonomics, interconnectedness with other systems and symbolic value, as well as cost and payback. Offering challenges for designers and engineers and marketers, the paper identifies user-centred ideas and concepts to promote more rapid adoption and carbon-saving use of LZC technologies

Managing engineering design in complex supply chains

The trend towards organising design, development and manufacture via supply chains, rather than predominantly in-house, poses major challenges for design management. Procurement methods based on adversarial competitive tendering are generally unsuited to complex engineering products requiring strong design and development coordination. Literature on ‘supplier partnerships’ has largely overlooked the implications for managing design and development. This paper reports the results of a major project that focuses upon this issue, concentrating on practical case studies – from British Rail, Netherlands Railways, Rolls Royce and British Coal – that involve the management of ‘devolved’ engineering design by large business organisations. A spectrum of approaches from in-house to fully devolved design is described. It is concluded that there does not appear to be a single best approach for managing devolved design, but that appropriate approaches for an organisation depend on its location in the supply chain and its ability to manage organisational change

Factoring sustainability into the Higher Education product-service system

This paper summarises the findings of the first phase of a major study of the environmental impacts of an important service system - higher education (HE). The study assessed three methods of providing HE: conventional campus-based courses and distance/open learning courses using print-based and electronic delivery, with the following key findings. (1) On average, the distance taught Open University (OU) courses involved 90% less energy and CO2 emissions (per unit of study) than the campus based courses, mainly due to reductions in student travel and housing energy consumption, plus scale economies in campus site utilisation. (2) The OU e-learning course had over 20% higher environmental impacts than the print-based OU course, due to higher use of computing, paper consumption for printing web-based material, and extra home heating during Internet access. Programmes to reduce the environmental impacts of HE should be broadened beyond 'greening' the campus and the curriculum to include the impacts of student travel and housing. The study challenges claims that 'de-materialisation' and using ICT to provide services such as HE necessarily reduces environmental impacts. Service system environmental impacts depend mainly on its requirements for transport and a dedicated infrastructure of buildings and equipment. ICT will only benefit the environment if they reduce the service's requirements for these elements

Designing low and zero carbon products and systems – adoption, effective use and innovation

This paper summarises the aims, methods and some results of a study of the influences on consumer adoption – and non-adoption – of established energy efficient and innovative renewable energy products and systems; the problems and benefits experienced by users of these low and zero carbon (LZC) technologies; and improvement ideas to make the products/systems more desirable and effective at saving energy and carbon. The influences on adoption and effective use vary for the different technologies and include the socio-economic context, consumer attitudes and values and communication sources. Product/system characteristics are also crucial, and include functional and ergonomic utility; interconnectedness with other systems, 'green' and aesthetic symbolism, and cost. Technical, financial and other ideas for reducing the barriers to adoption and tackling the problems experienced by users are a step towards a more rapid and effective take-up of these LZC products and systems