Sustainability & Environmental Considerations

This lesson examines how designers and manufacturers can reduce the environmental impact of their products, covering the full product life cycle. This is a core topic in AQA GCSE Design and Technology (8552), Section 3.1.1, and will appear across both Paper 1 and the NEA (Non-Exam Assessment).

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What Is Sustainability?

Sustainability means meeting the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs. In Design and Technology, this means designing products that:

• Use fewer raw materials
• Consume less energy during manufacture and use
• Generate less waste at end of life
• Can be recycled, reused or repaired

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The 6 Rs of Sustainability

AQA expects you to understand and apply the 6 Rs framework when evaluating products.

R	Meaning	Example
Reduce	Use less material or energy	Making a drinks can with thinner aluminium walls
Reuse	Use the product or its parts again	Glass milk bottles returned for refilling
Recycle	Process waste material into new raw materials	Melting down PET bottles to make fleece fabric
Refuse	Choose not to buy or use unsustainable products	Declining single-use plastic bags
Rethink	Consider whether the product is necessary or could be designed differently	Replacing physical CDs with digital streaming
Repair	Fix a product rather than discarding it	Replacing a broken zip on a jacket rather than buying a new one

AQA Exam Tip: When a question asks you to evaluate a product's sustainability, try to mention at least three of the 6 Rs, with specific examples related to the product shown. Generic answers such as "they could recycle it" without explaining what material or how will not gain full marks.

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Life Cycle Assessment (LCA)

A Life Cycle Assessment analyses the environmental impact of a product across its entire life, from raw material extraction to disposal. AQA requires you to understand the four stages:

Stage 1: Raw Material Extraction

• Mining metals, felling trees, drilling for oil (to make plastics)
• Environmental impacts: habitat destruction, air and water pollution, energy consumption

Stage 2: Manufacturing and Processing

• Shaping, machining, assembling, finishing
• Impacts: energy use (often from fossil fuels), waste material (offcuts, swarf), emissions, chemical pollutants

Stage 3: Use and Maintenance

• Energy consumed during use (e.g. electricity for a kettle)
• Consumables needed (e.g. replacement filters, batteries)
• Repair and maintenance requirements

Stage 4: End of Life (Disposal)

• Landfill — cheapest but worst for the environment; materials are lost
• Incineration — reduces volume but produces CO₂ and toxic gases
• Recycling — recovers materials but requires energy for collection and processing
• Composting — suitable for biodegradable materials (e.g. cardboard, bioplastics)