A New Graduate Course On Environmental Issues In Manufacturing And Product Use

A new graduate level engineering course, offered in the Spring of 1998 and entitled “Environmental Issues in Manufacturing and Product Use” , explores environmental and economic aspects of alternative materials used in a product throughout the product life cycle. The objectives of this course strive to introduce industrial ecology, life cycle analysis and technical cost modeling to engineering students who have not been previously exposed to these concepts. Students work in teams to analyze case studies of specific products fabricated using metals, ceramics, polymers and paper. The system of case studies is set up so that real societal issues can be discussed and debated, with students using role-playing to present their findings. Beverage containers are the product selected for initial analyses. These case studies compare cost, energy, resources used and emissions generated through the mining, refining, manufacture, use and disposal stages of the product life cycle. Although analyses are limited due to time constraints, students are made aware of the enormous amount of information required for these investigations. Issues in legislation (manufacturer take-back, packaging, ecolabeling) and issues in disposal strategies (landfill, incineration, reuse and recycling) are debated. The difficulties associated with environmental impact assessments and the development of decision analysis tools to weigh the tradeoffs in technical, economic and environmental performance of the product are discussed. This course offers new perspectives for enhancing the breadth of engineering education, and has been welcomed as a complement to the existing curriculum.