So now we've learnt a little more about Reduce, Reuse and Recycle lets start to take things one step further. Everything in this world that hasn't been created by Mother Nature must have been designed. It could have come from a few thoughts in somebody's head or it could have gone through a rigorous design process in a large corporate company. However it happened it can be changed or altered by thinking about what will happen to the product at the end of its lifecycle.

Thinking about what happens to packaging after the product has been bought and used should certainly influence the design process of many products we buy everyday. How many times do you peel off one layer of packaging to reveal yet another layer? Do we really need two?
 

This just isn't about packaging though. What about more substantial things such as buildings? What happens to them when they reach the end of their natural life cycle? What happens to all of the excess materials the builders discard during the building process? Are there are alternatives to the materials that are being used? Can we build our houses and offices from more environmentally friendly products?

What starts to spring to mind here is design for sustainability. When we design something we need to look at the resources available and see if when we use them to create our new wonderful design will we be starving the rest of the world of a valuable resource?

Passive solar heating is an awesome way of reducing the amount of energy consumed within the home. The principle of this technique is to capture as much energy as possible from the sun and use it to heat your home throughout the day and night, vastly reducing your need for conventional heating methods. Not only will this save you money but will also reduce the amount of toxins released into the atmosphere as a by product of traditional heating methods. Have you considered Solar Heating? How much attention did you give to insulation when you built your home?

Are there other ways we can capture energy that Mother Nature produces? What about the wind? The debate continues and will always continue as to whether or not our country side needs windfarms. Many say they are noisy and ugly, there also many others who believe that whilst they may distract somewhat from the natural environment they produce far less pollution than traditional power stations and as such will make the world look a nicer place in the long run.
 

As we are still thinking about energy and supplying it lets take our attention to vehicles. Most of us own and use a car regularly. We are all feeling the pinch of the ever increasing petrol prices but how much do we think about where the petrol comes from and how much damage it does when it is being used. Emissions from vehicles cause a vast amount of pollution around the world. In major cities it is thought to be one of the major contributors' to children's respiratory problems.

We all know about car sharing and trying to use other methods of transport when ever possible but lets get real there are times when you just have to use your car. What we should be spending more time thinking about is the design of our car. What alternative fuels are there to petrol and Diesel? Some of the major car manufacturers are starting to produce Hybrid engines. These use a combination of petrol and electric energy sources. The electric portion of the engine can be charged as the car is running by capturing energy that would be normally lost.

The other school of thought here is that we need to eliminate the need for oil at all, well crude oil in fact. There are a few on to it cats that have started brewing up their own Bio-Diesel. Yep they take discarded vegetable oil from wherever they can get it, so long as it isn't too disgusting and through a very clever process manage to produce a fuel that will work in a diesel engine. Ok so its not too straight forward but the point is people are on to it, developments are being made, will the billion dollar oil barons finally start to wise up? Well it is down to us, the general public of the world to make our voice heard.