ELEC222, ELEC273 Sustainable development and ethics
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ELEC222, ELEC273
Sustainable development and ethics
Background
Those of you who completed Sustainability assignments during the last academic year will have observed the continuing importance of the topic in the media and in the national and international political agenda. A wide range of government interventions are now in place. It is becoming apparent that many of the proposed solutions to the crisis and various government interventions made are less than perfect. There are no easy answers. It is likely that those students joining the course this year have similar perceptions. Your appreciation of the lack of a clear ‘correct’ answer to these issues will have been enhanced by the ‘Ethics’ session in semester 1.
It is clear that sustainable development and ethics issues will be an increasingly important factor in how businesses are run, how they are judged, in how we choose to allocate our own resources to run our personal lives and, most importantly for your careers, in the design of products and systems.
For this reason, a Sustainable Development/Ethics (SDE) component is present in your Year 2 projects in line with the Faculty view that these issues should become an integral part of a professional engineer’s activities.
The objective of this exercise is to ensure that you go through the Sustainable Development and Ethical aspects of your designed product in a structured manner as indicated below and demonstrate as part of your project the process used and your conclusions as a separate section of your report.
The staff are aware that some projects are designing real physical products which may even have immediate SDE benefits. In contrast, some products may be algorithms or sub- components which appear far-removed from SDE issues - in which case think hard about the product and systems in which your product will or could be used. The marking of this SDE component of your report will take this variety into account.
A mark of 70% is within reach for demonstrating that you have gone through a thorough coherent analysis even if shows that there is little or nothing that can or should be done - whereas a ‘one-liner’ with this conclusion will attract a very low mark.
If sustainable development aspects were already intended to be a core part of your project (e.g. your product is a ‘green’ product), then carry on as you were, but be sure to complete this task in addition.
You are working on the project in teams of about three to five. Each team will need to complete this task together and ONE report should be submitted to Canvas by only ONE of the students in the team.
The submission link is in Canvas course EE-YEAR2 -> Assignments -> Sustainable development and ethics.
Your contribution should have a project title, a brief description of the project and three sections as indicated below. No diagrams are required or expected. Two sides of A4 is the maximum length. Write in the third person (Not ‘I’, ‘You’ or ‘We’) in impersonal style. You
can use this document as a template.
Required Approach (refer to slides presented in class)
Your team should complete this assignment based on your Year 2 project. Assume your Year 2 project will be wildly successful. Imagine that you have been asked to prepare a position paper for the Chief Executive that will be discussed with him in a meeting with his Corporate Social Responsibility advisor, your boss, and also yourselves (the design team who have authored the paper).
Assume the Chief Executive’s concerns will be along the following lines:
• Does this project meet all the emerging environmental and sustainability regulations? Do we need to take any more actions to ensure this?
• Are we laying ourselves open to criticism from environmental groups, competitors, customers, human rights campaigners, etc. that we are harming the environment or society? If so, can we do anything about this?
• Can we leverage the knowledge and capability we will gain from this project to broaden our product range and scope, or introduce new products in different markets? Will this lead us into deeper SD and ethical waters? If so, what further measures could we take.
Sustainable Development and Ethical Aspects of the Design
Heading Project Title
Description
Give a brief description of the project/invention. If you consider the project is difficult to subject to this analysis, then you may wish to write more in this section to explain why and how you have approached it, but do complete the remaining sections.
Section 1 Regulatory considerations
There are two obvious regulations that you should all consider for relevance: the RoHS and WEEE Regulations. Look for these on the web. The following websites should be a starting point.
https://www.gov.uk/guidance/rohs-compliance-and-guidance https://www.gov.uk/government/organisations/office-for-product-safety-and- standards https://www.gov.uk/electricalwaste-producer-supplier-responsibilities http://www.hse.gov.uk/waste/waste-electrical.htm
If there are other regulations or documents that you consider relevant, please refer to them.
In this section, simply explain how you have considered these regulations and identify aspects or areas which need to be considered for your product.
Section 2 SD/Ethical Implications of large-scale manufacture & sale
Think very broadly about all of the life cycle stages of your product (cradle to grave), whether it is a product with an immediate benefit to sustainability, a product which does not have an immediate sustainability benefit or is a sub- component of a larger system (very relevant for software).
Also consider sustainability in its broadest sense, taking account of societal issues such as health and security.
Consider whether the potential customers for your product adhere to your own company’s ethical principles or whether any restrictions need to be made.
Consider whether the product could be misused for illegal purposes and whether any measures need to be taken in this regard
For any relevant aspects, identify the design improvements which will need to be considered.
Section 3 SD/Ethical Implications of follow-on products/markets
As Technology Director you are always looking for new opportunities that will attract funding to keep your department going. You may want to use this opportunity to persuade your Chief Executive to give you further work.
Consider other products (market opportunities) which could capitalise on your own design or be based on the capability you are providing. An important aspect of business is the identification of opportunities to extend a product range (by identifying new technological approaches and ways of extending the originally envisaged new capability) or enter new markets based on a new capability (for example, your product or algorithms may provide the basis for a new product for the growing ‘sustainability’ or ‘green’ market).
Would this natural drive for increased growth and profitability increase our vulnerability to SDE issues.
2023-03-07