Teaching sequence

Work through this resource material in the following sequence:

10 minutes

Tune In: What are the impacts of the e-products you use?

40 minutes

Find Out: What are the three pillars of sustainability?

30 minutes

Take Action: Create a design brief that addresses the three pillars of sustainability

10 minutes

Reflection

Tune In: What are the impacts of the e-products you use?

Step 1

Watch the following video with your class:

The hidden impact of the smartphone industry | Fairphone (youtu.be/QRi4srOjtSM)

Advise students to list the interesting information and the strategies Fairphone is using in the video in their Student Worksheet as they watch.

If you want to delve deeper into Fairphone and how they are changing the smartphone industry, we have a fantastic interview with them created specifically for this Closing the E-loop unit available.

This is a good opportunity to delve more deeply into the social impacts of the life cycle of electronic products if you have the time available with your class. This interview with the organisation Walk Free, created especially for this unit, goes into detail about the issue of modern slavery and how Walk Free are attempting to raise awareness and create change to combat modern slavery at all stages of the electronic supply chain. You can find out more about Walk Free and the work they do here.

Step 2

Ask students:

What are some ideas that can ensure people keep their smartphones as long as they can?
How can we design so parts can be replaced or upgraded?
How do you design to recycle, reuse or upgrade?
What does Fairphone do to improve the health and wellbeing of employees?
How does utilising fair trade metals consider the needs of people?
If everyone kept their smartphones, how would tech companies make money?

Point out the importance of balance in the scenario. For example, if we didn’t use smartphones, communities could suffer due to a lack of employment, leading to a poorer quality of life. We can, however, do things better.

Find Out: What are the three pillars of sustainability?

Step 1

Watch the following video with your class:

Episode 6: The 3 Pillars of Sustainability | Sustainable Development | SDG Plus - Swiss Learning Exchange (youtu.be/ijSSe66865w)

Invite students to write down the 3 pillars of sustainability and any interesting points from the video in their student worksheet

Ask students:

What were the impacts of economic prosperity in China?

Discuss the impacts of focusing on only one pillar of sustainability and what a balanced approach could look like.

Step 2

Advise students to write and present a design brief for either a smartphone, headphones, smartwatch or gaming console. Their mission is to make this product sustainable by balancing the 3 pillars of sustainability as much as they can. The purpose of the design brief is for them to design for a mind shift change and maintain a revenue stream.

Watch the following interview created specially for the Closing the E-Loop unit with your students from Play & Co. This strategic design agency helps businesses create sustainable designed solutions. Use this video to inspire your students for this task and show them designers using the circular mindset and an understanding of the 3 pillars to create a better future.

Play & Co Interview (https://vimeo.com/863863347?share=copy)

Allocate students to groups of 3 or 4 and ask them to research the following links. Get them to note down points on how companies have made a positive change by actioning the 3 pillars and maintaining their revenue stream. Note that some may emphasise one pillar more than the others.

Some case studies of companies who have designed for a mind shift:

Reducing emissions

Top 8 Sustainable Tech Companies in the World Right Now - earth.org (earth.org/sustainable-tech-companies/)

Driving positive change through education programs

Panasonic (na.panasonic.com/us/social-impact)

Opportunities and training for minority-owned businesses:

Apple Insider (appleinsider.com/articles/21/08/17/apple-selects-15-minority-owned-businesses-for-impact-accelerator)

Using the Internet of Things to monitor and improve performance of products

The role of the Internet of Things in creating a circular economy (ellenmacarthurfoundation.org/tech-enablers-series/part-3)

Take Action: Create a design brief that addresses the 3 pillars of sustainability

Step 1

In their groups, ask students to imagine a major commercial tech company has approached them to create a sustainable electronic product that utilises the circular economy mindset and balances the 3 pillars of sustainability. They will design a smartphone, cordless headphones, smartwatch, or gaming console.

Step 2

Ask students to write a design brief for their product using the design brief guidelines below.

This could be presented as a report, poster, Canva presentation, PowerPoint or other ways you have used with your students. Depending on how much time you have to allocate to this task, it could be a design sprint, or you could give students more time over your coming lessons to flesh this out and go into more detail. The choice is yours!

To see some examples of Year 9 & 10 level design briefs, you can head here to see some samples from ACARA

Introduction

Write one fact about where or how the product is currently used (such as people are using smartphones while they travel more frequently).

Explain who uses the product and why they use it.

What are the current market needs and requirements?

Body

What social components need to be considered (such as health and wellbeing)?

What economic components must be considered (such as fair pay and governance)?

What environmental components must be considered (such as emissions and recycling)?

What sustainability aspects need to be incorporated (such as renewable power)?

What Rs of sustainability can be incorporated?

Conclusion

What materials are recommended?

How will this improve the lives of end users and people who produce the product?

Ask students to create a final draft they can present from.

Step 3

Ask students to present these to the class as a pitch. They should have a maximum of 3 minutes. Advise them to focus on key points that will convince members of the class that it’s a great idea and viable. Ask how they will address each pillar of sustainability and how to keep them balanced.

Step 4

After each proposal, give students time to take notes and ask them to rate each out of 10.

Critique the top 5 as a class and ask them to discuss something positive, negative, and interesting.

Reflection

See the Circle of Viewpoints Visible Thinking routine to reflect on this lesson.

Allocate groups a particular perspective on the design brief such as:

Consumer/user of the product
Workers producing the product
Environment
Business making the product

You may like to choose 1 design brief that inspired the class or have a broad perspective of all of the students' ideas.

Ask students to finish these sentence starters:

I am thinking of (the topic) from the viewpoint of (perspective)
I think (describe the topic from your viewpoint)...
A question I have (from this viewpoint) is…
A hope I have for the future (from this viewpoint) is…

Creating Sustainability Minded Design Briefs

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