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Ecological and Social Footprint: Deforestation and the Six Rs

The impact of making and using products: the ecological footprint from deforestation, pollution and carbon, the social footprint on people, and how the six Rs of sustainable design cut the harm.

⏱️ 16 min 🎯 14 activities
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What you'll cover

The cost of what we make

Every product leaves a mark. Making it uses up resources and can harm nature, and it also affects the people who make and use it. A good designer works to lower both kinds of harm. This module looks at the ecological and social footprint of products, especially timber, and at the six Rs that help cut the damage.

Footprint vocabulary

Learn these four terms before you study the impact of products.

Ecological vs social

A product leaves two kinds of footprint, one on the planet and one on people.

Match the R to the action

A top answer pairs each of the six Rs with a real action, and keeps the ecological footprint, the harm to the planet, apart from the social footprint, the effect on people. For timber the headline ecological issue is the loss of forests, so a designer should choose responsibly sourced wood.

Match the R

  • reduce
  • reuse
  • repair
  • recycle
  • use less material and energy
  • use an item again rather than binning it
  • fix a broken item to make it last
  • process waste into a new material

Match the term

  • refuse
  • rethink
  • carbon footprint
  • the FSC label
  • say no to a wasteful option
  • ask whether the product is needed at all
  • the greenhouse gas a product causes
  • a mark that wood came from a managed forest

Ecological or social?

Which of these is a SOCIAL issue, about people, rather than an ecological one?

  • Keeping the workers who make a product safe.
  • The loss of forests to get wood.
  • A large carbon footprint from transport.
  • Polluting a river near a factory.

Spot the six Rs

Select the TWO of these that are part of the six Rs of sustainable design.

  • Reduce.
  • Recycle.
  • Remove.
  • Replace.

A product life

Put the stages of a product life in order, earliest first.

  • The product is made from raw materials
  • The product is used
  • It is repaired to make it last longer
  • At the end of its life it is recycled

Complete the six Rs

Saying no to a wasteful option is to _____. Asking whether a product is needed at all is to _____. Fixing a broken item is to _____. Using an item again is to _____. Processing waste into a new material is to _____.

refuse rethink repair reuse recycle reduce footprint carbon social timber

Rs left to learn

There are six Rs of sustainable design. If you can already name four of them, how many are left to learn? Subtract 4 from 6.

Find the six Rs

Tap the TWO words that are part of the six Rs of sustainable design.

  • reduce
  • recycle
  • pollution
  • deforestation

Which R is it?

Read each choice and choose which of the six Rs it shows.

  • A designer makes a bottle that can be refilled and used again
  • A shopper mends a torn jacket instead of buying a new one
  • A company asks whether a product is even needed before making it

Lower the footprint

Explain how a designer can lower the ecological footprint of a product. Use at least three of the six Rs and give an example of each.

  • Explain what the ecological footprint of a product is
  • Name three of the six Rs
  • Give an example of using each one