Is there lead in my nephew’s toy? Does my new HDTV have a much greater impact on global warming than my old TV? When I finally recycle those old cell phones and computers that have been collecting dust in my closet, where will they be taken, and will anything or anyone be harmed as they are recycled? 

Without answers to these questions that people are seeking, there are limits to the role consumption can play in our shift to a more sustainable economic model. As product developers, designers, tinkerers, and technologists, we have the means to uncover these answers, and communicate the backstories of the things that we make.

The objective of this course is to explore sustainable models, methods, and practices of both production and consumption. The class explores an interaction design model proposed by Bruce Sterling’s Shaping Things, in which he implores, “Designers must design, not just for objects or for people, but for the technosocial interactions that unite people and objects.” Additional content exposes students to the relationship between production, consumption, and impacts to the earth’s ecosystem and human health. Students learn how to analyze product/service systems and life cycle thinking.

Students also are asked to investigate and communicate a product backstory to an existing product. The final exercise of the course involves the creation of a new product/service system that provides a framework for users to affect and modulate the environmental and social impacts throughout their relationship with that object. Class participation is required and group projects are encouraged.