Ecological Design Considerations

Electronic Design from an Ecological Perspective

Eco-tech: a different slant on design methodologies shows up on our pages.

By Vic Desotelle

Our society is so entrenched in technology that it is almost impossible to separate it from reality. Do we fully understand its impact on our lives and how it will effect our children's future? As we move into the next millennium, we need to ask deeper, more responsible questions regarding what and how we design for our world.

So what does it mean to design with an ecological perspective?

Ecological Design is a practice that recognizes environmental and social responses to technology. It measures a design's success by looking beyond the bottom line to see its impact on our long-term health and well being.

The following is an equation for Ecological Design:

where E is the quality-of-life of all living things forecasted out seven generations, S is the stability of human society, z is the diversity of those societies, N is stability of natural living systems (plants, animals, etc.), q is the diversity of those systems, e is the natural decay rate of physical material, and T is the growth rate of technology.

The point is that the stability of our world can only be determined by viewing society, nature, and technology as a complete, interconnected system. It suggests that as the diversity and stability of living systems increase, our quality of life also increases. But as technology's rate of growth increases faster than resulting products can decay, our quality of life decreases exponentially. One thing the equation does not show is the inverse relationship between technology and diversity. Technological advancements are reducing the diversity and, thereby, the stability of living systems in our world.

If the primary intent of design is to improve the quality of life, why does the evidence continue to suggest that we are destroying our own habitat? The point of this article is not to raise debate on "why," but rather to consider "what" we can do about it.

The answer incorporates something called deep ecology. Using deep ecology in our design practices brings to light the inherent interplay between all systems, both natural and human-made. It provides us with a systemic perspective of our world so that nondestructive design processes can be incorporated that are symbiotic with existing living systems.

Although a complete description of deep ecology is beyond the scope of this article, one of its key elements is what I call strategic preventive questioning (SPQ). SPQ is a way that system designers can determine the "hows" and "whats" of a product's life cycle from pre-cradle to post-grave. If SPQ is incorporated during the conceptual stage of a design process, it can help to determine the technological impact of the design on life systems before it is physically implemented. A study done by Motorola and the United Nations suggests that this way of thinking is taking hold in the electronic industry. They concluded that ecological design practices are gaining support based on the rationale that an early dose of prevention costs less than finding a cure later.

Preventive medicine in design? You bet. This truly is about healing our planet. And, companies that have added preventive-based strategies are seeing the potential for financial benefit. A study done by Decision Focus Inc. (Mountain View, CA) found that 70 percent of 24 electronics and aerospace companies gained competitive advantages by introducing environmentally sound design practices. Companies are realizing that preventive design practices can be both ethical and profitable.

Figure 1. The Industrial Age has created an inverse relationship between technology and quality of life. As technology's growth rate becomes greater than product decay cycles, the diversity of living systems decreases. A decrease in diversity breaks down the interconnectivity and, thereby, the stability of the total life system. This breakdown is realized as a loss in the quality of our lives.

Conclusions like this are driving standards that include preventive-based design methods. One example is a program called Design For Environment (DFE). During the 1995 Wescon Conference in (San Francisco, CA), the Joint Venture Group, a part of The Environmental Partnership (San Jose, CA), organized a seminar for companies to present DFE ideas and strategies. It included an outline of the new ISO/14000 Life Cycle Management guidelines that establishes requirements for incorporating recycle, reuse (including system disassembly), energy efficiency and reduction, and the elimination of hazardous materials throughout a design process. Presentations were given by Hewlett-Packard (Palo Alto, CA), Sun Microsystems (Mountain View, CA), and others.

HP's Product Stewardship program is one of the more established DFE programs to date. Their reason for incorporating DFE is based strictly on business decisions driven by emerging regulations and customer demand. They have learned that to stay competitive, it has become necessary to build products that have a reduced impact on the environment.

Sun's DFE program, called Product Life Cycle Thinking, is another example in which designing for the environment is being used to gain a competitive edge. Their reasoning relates to the increase in customers asking about health and safety factors within the Sun computers they purchase. These inquiries have an added benefit. Since Sun is a system house, the need has evolved to require their third-party manufacturers to use DFE, as well. So, if your company designs for a system house like Sun but has not yet been asked to incorporate DFE, be prepared to take action or potentially lose business.

So how do you determine if incorporating ecological design practices can work for your company? First, due to legislation and the need to stay competitive, recognize that your company will probably have to add DFE sometime soon. Second, learn about the eco-metric tools that are being developed by companies such as HP and Sun that help designers meet DFE objectives. Third, hire an eco-audit firm to incorporate a DFE program. Their customized procedures use normalized metrics and cost analysis techniques to quantitatively link results to your bottom line. And last, don't wait for your boss to ask you about DFE. Take the responsibility yourself by initiating SPQ at your next design meeting.

Vic Desotelle is the director of Acclaim Technology's EDA program (San Jose, CA).
For more information on how to implement eco-design strategies please contact him at vic@acclaim.com.

To voice an opinion on this or any Integrated System Design article, please e-mail your message to michael@asic.com.

integrated system design  July 1996