Mechanical Designs for Reducing the Carbon Footprint

MECHANICAL DESIGNS FOR REDUCING THE CARBON FOOTPRINT
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There is a growing interest to account for the environmental impact of systems, products, and
processes, especially during the design phase. Numerous studies have carried out an
investigation for the reduction of environmental impact across the life cycle of the product (Kuo
2013). There has also been launching of the efforts to have such impacts quantified very
accurately. The carbon footprint and energy consumption are considered to be the most
commonly investigated and adopted environmental performance metrics (Valid, Bhattacharya
and Byrne 2014). Such factors notwithstanding, manufacturing research and sustainable design
should be done in a manner that benefits the local community(He et al.2015).
A point of departure in the consideration of the concurrent multiple stages of the life of the
product must be established for the present efforts to be moved forward in pursuit of the
economic, environmental and social sustainability(Lehmann 2013). The issue of environmental
sustainability has been unprecedented in both complexity and magnitude. This concept, however,
has been faced with several challenges that are common within the modern society including
growth in the population and increasing demand in the quality of life which have collectively
augmented the consumption of energy and worldwide emissions (Stevenson, Carmona and
Hancock 2013).
As indicated in various literature sources, the design engineers have successfully designed
perfect products that meet the needs of the society but fail to contribute to the reduction of the
emissions to the surrounding (Yang, Guo and Ma 2016). It is, however, important to note that the
design decisions that are made the early stages of the design will definitely determine the
economic and the environmental impacts of the anticipated decisions. Adoption of the paradigm
shift from the focus on cost as well as the performance will definitely assist in the balancing of
the environmental, economic and societal considerations (Liu 2014). The design of an

environmentally friendly product is never an easy task. As a result of the complexities that are
associated with the life cycle of the product, the incorporation of the environmental design will
mean the use of additional tools (Zhou, Boa, Chen, and Xu, 2016).
Figure 1: Integration of Eco design and existing design tool for concept design(Zhou, Boa, Chen,
and Xu, 2016)
As a result of the expansion and growth in the industrial sector, there has been an emergence of
sustainability as one of the crucial aspects of the production. This has been very common
especially for the cases of developed countries. The emission of the greenhouse gases that are
commonly known as GHGs especially carbon dioxide will definitely result in climate change as
well as global warming (Dodoo, Gustavsson, and Sathre 2014). The concept of low-carbon
technology as a sustainable technology is being stipulated to the industries in order to ensure that
there is a reduction of the rate of the emission of the greenhouse gases. As derived from the
ecological footprint, the product carbon footprint is used as an indicator of the impacts of the
products on the environment (Mohammed et al.2017).
In general terms, the carbon foot print assists in the description of the sum of the GHGs
emissions that have accumulated during the period of the life cycle of the products. The product
of low-carbon, as a sustainable design has been focused on the results of the several
contributions in recent years. The basis of the product low-carbon design is product carbon