Green Products and Green Design (I)

Green design is a design method derived from the birth of green products. Therefore, to conduct green design, it is first necessary to find out what kind of product is a green product. What are the characteristics of green products? Which indicators to measure? This also facilitates the design of green products through certain methods and methods.

1. Definition of green product

Green products, or Environmental Conscious Products (ECP), are relative to traditional products. Since the description and quantitative characteristics of the “greenness degree” of the product are not yet clear, there is currently no recognized authoritative definition. However, there is still a basic understanding of green products that can be analyzed and compared with the existing different definitions. The following are the main ways to define green products:

1) Green products are products that can be disassembled and disassembled with the environmental and environmental resources protection as the core concept. After the components are refurbished, they can be reused.
2) An article published in the US weekly "Happiness", entitled "Manufacturing Products for Reproduction," argues that green products are products that focus on reducing parts, rationalizing raw materials, and making parts reusable.
3) Some people think of green products as: When a product reaches the end of its useful life, its components can be refurbished and reused, or the components can be safely disposed of. Such products are called green products.
4) Some people also categorize green products as products that meet specific environmental protection requirements from production to use, and even to recycling, are harmless to the ecological environment, or have minimal harm, and use recycled or recycled resources.

From the above definitions, it can be seen that although the description focuses on different aspects, the essence is basically the same, that is, green products should be conducive to the protection of the ecological environment, do not produce environmental pollution or minimize pollution, and at the same time help to conserve resources and energy. , and this feature should run through the entire product life cycle. Therefore, based on the above analysis, we can give the following definitions of green products for reference: Green products are in the entire life cycle, meet specific environmental protection requirements, are harmless or harmful to the ecological environment, and are resource-intensive. The highest, lowest energy consumption products.

It can be seen that green products have rich connotations and are mainly manifested in the following aspects: 1 Excellent environmental friendliness, that is, products from production to use and even disposal, recycling, treatment and disposal are all harmless to the environment or harmful Very small. This requires companies to use clean raw materials in the production process, clean process, to produce clean products; users in the use of the product does not or rarely produce environmental pollution, and does not cause harm to users; scrapped products in the recycling process There is very little waste generated. 2 Maximize the use of material resources. Green products should minimize the use of materials and reduce the types of materials used, especially rare and expensive materials and toxic and hazardous materials. This requires the design of products, to meet the basic functions of the product under the conditions, as far as possible to simplify the product structure, reasonable selection of materials, and make the parts of the product material can be reused. 3 To maximize energy conservation, green products should consume the least amount of energy in all aspects of their life cycle. The conservation of resources and energy is a very good environmental protection method.

Analyzing the definition of green products can be seen that the "green degree" of green products should be reflected in its entire life cycle stage, rather than a certain part or stage of a product. This has another question: What is the green product life cycle? First, we look at the general product life cycle. Ordinary product life cycle refers to products from "cradle-to-grave" (cradle-to-grave), that is, from all stages of product design, manufacture, sales, use, and even disposal, and a series of problems after product discarding are rarely considered. The result is self-evident, that can not meet the requirements of green products. The green product life cycle should be extended to a cradle-to-reincarnation process that includes the recycling, reuse, and disposal of obsolete (or phased out) products in addition to the ordinary product life cycle stages. stage. It can be seen that the green product life cycle includes the following five processes, namely: 1 green product planning and design and development process; 2 green product manufacturing and production process; 3 product use process; 4 product maintenance and service process; Recycling, reuse, and disposal processes.

2. Evaluation criteria and certification of green products

Green products are the product of adjustments in the industrial structure in order to adapt to global environmental protection strategies in the late 1980s. Since the development history is not long, there are no strict and accurate industry standards for green products. However, from the perspective of the consumer market, the currently recognized green standards include the following three: 1 The product uses less resources and energy in the production process, and does not pollute the environment. . 2 The product has low energy consumption during use, it will not cause harm to users, nor will it produce environmental pollutants. 3 After use, the product can be easily disassembled, recycled, refurbished or safely dismantled for long periods of time.

Only products that have undergone rigorous certification and receive green signs (or environmental labels) are green products. The concept of green products was first proposed in the 1970s in the environmental pollution legislation drafted by the U.S. government. But the real green product was first born in the former Federal Republic of Germany. In 1987, the country implemented a plan called the "Blue Sky Envoy," and the Environmental Labeling Committee granted green products to children's products for products that meet environmental protection requirements during production and use and that do not harm the environment and human health. . This is the first generation of green signs. At present, there are more than 7,500 green sign products in Germany, accounting for 30% of its national merchandise. Later, Japan, the United States, Canada and other countries have also established their own green certification system to ensure that consumers identify the nature of the product's environmental protection, while encouraging manufacturers to produce low-pollution green products. At present, green goods involve many fields and scopes, such as green cars, green computers, green cameras, green refrigerators, green packaging, and green buildings.

In 1993, China implemented the green mark certification system and formulated strict green mark product standards. Currently, it involves seven types of products, namely household refrigeration appliances, aerosol products, biodegradable plastic film, unleaded gasoline for vehicles, water-based paints, and toilet paper. So far, 18 products of 11 companies have obtained the green mark. The green mark certification can protect our country's environmental interests in accordance with international practice, and at the same time, it is also conducive to promoting enterprises to improve the competitiveness of products in the international market, because more and more facts prove that who owns green products will own the market.