The 11th Hour

The 11th hour is a well constructed video which I think gives everyday people a real insight to what we are doing to the environment around us. The video explains how since the industrial revolution 200 years ago we humans didn’t know what we were doing to the environment around us. It’s not hard to see how much we humans damage the environment on a day to day basis, but yet we still keep on abusing the environment that surrounds us. I don’t want to make it sound like I don’t damage the environment, but I am as guilty as most people in developed countries. The amount of carbon emissions we cause is devastating and if we all don’t act soon enough, the video is right, we won’t be around for that much longer.

Catastrophic effects on the environment due to neglect and abuse was expressed through the amount of fossil fuels we require in our every day lives. Being a product designer every single assigned material used in any design will almost defiantly cause carbon emissions, so the task of choosing the right materials and processes is very important to lower emissions. Current times and trends however make this task much harder to a degree, because like the video explained “we live in a corporate world which makes authority”. Time saving is one of the biggest factors in design, if the timing is to slow then the products will not last in this competitive market.

Solar power, wind power, and biomass was touched on a lot in the 11th hour video. Designing products that evolve around these technologies opposed to fossil fuels will be the way to go in the future but like I said before, with time constraints and the corporate world calling the shots this process of designing more sustainable products will be delayed. Designing cradle to cradle products is also another way to look at products, but sometimes the amount of embodied energy required to extract material may cause more emissions if it’s not powered by green energy.

Designers should all have a checklist or guide to how much emissions their products make. A standard should be set on every single process to ensure minimal energy is used at every stage, from the design/manufacture to the distribution/end user. By Designers being outlined with standards at the very beginning of a products life cycle, we can definitely cut down emissions to the goal of a neutral balance in the environment.