Material strategy in design
This assignment was focused on understanding and applying Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) in the context of product development. I was assigned a panini grill, which I analyzed in terms of environmental impact across its full lifecycle—from raw materials to end-of-life.
Based on the LCA results, I identified several environmental hotspots—areas in the product's life cycle with particularly high impact. The next step was to develop design strategies to address and reduce these impacts. This involved outlining a plan for redesign, refining it over time, and ultimately creating a new concept that could be compared directly with the original product in terms of sustainability performance.
Through this process, I gained valuable experience in eco-design thinking, material impact assessment, and in using LCA results to guide meaningful design decisions.
Life Cycle Analysis of the Product
Here, I collected and organized all available information about the product I was assigned. Based on this data, I conducted a Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) using SimaPro, relying on relevant market data values to estimate the environmental impact.
The analysis focused on calculating the COâ‚‚ emissions generated at each stage of the product's life cycle. I divided the assessment into four key phases: raw materials, transport, use, and end-of-life disposal.
This structured approach provided a clear overview of where the product's most significant environmental impacts occur and laid the foundation for identifying design opportunities to reduce them.
Problem Framing and Concept Development
To support the redesign of the panini grill, I began by analyzing both external and internal factors that could influence the product. This helped me understand which aspects I could realistically change—and which constraints I needed to respect—when working toward a more sustainable design.
I then created a mind map to explore the product’s full lifecycle, identifying opportunities for improvement in three key areas: use, production, and end-of-life. For each area, I brainstormed possible solutions that could help reduce COâ‚‚ emissions, while still maintaining the product’s core functionality.
Based on this, I sketched out a range of redesign concepts and began estimating their environmental impact. The goal was to identify the solutions that offered the greatest reduction in emissions without compromising the user's needs or experience.
This process gave me hands-on experience with problem framing, sustainable ideation, and evaluating trade-offs between environmental performance and product functionality.
My Solution
My proposed solution focused on redesigning the heating element to feature a tighter layout with more bends. This adjustment allows for more even heat distribution, which in turn makes it possible to use a thinner grill plate without compromising performance. By improving how heat spreads from the start, the material thickness of the grill plate could be reduced—leading to significant weight savings.
However, reducing the mass of the grill plates also lowers their natural ability to distribute heat evenly. To compensate for this, the heating pattern was optimized to maintain consistent thermal performance. While this assumption appears theoretically sound, a more conservative approach could have involved a smaller reduction in material thickness to ensure a more balanced result. That said, the decision was made to prioritize a greater reduction in COâ‚‚ emissions during both production and transport.
One consequence of using less aluminum is a reduction in the amount of material that can be recycled. The original plates were easily recyclable—removable and meltable with minimal processing. The reduced material volume slightly decreases the potential environmental benefits from end-of-life recycling.
Despite this, the redesign resulted in an overall estimated reduction of 41% in the product’s COâ‚‚ footprint—a significant improvement in terms of environmental performance.
