Anders Peterson
St. Olaf Student
Independent Major: Sustainable Product Design
Graduating Senior at St. Olaf College
Independent Major in Sustainable Product Design and Concentration in Nordic Studies
Sustainable Product Design is an Individual Major highlights repairability and reusability. Created by Anders Peterson (Graduated 2025), Sustainable Product Design, incorporates an iterative process of imagining and creating products to solve problems and meet needs in the world around us. Balancing the managing of environmental, economic, and social costs blends the basic tenets of human-centered product design with an ethical framework. This framework is centered on sustainability: creating products that consider the entire lifecycle of the product, upstream and downstream impacts, socially ethical materials sourcing, economic feasibility, equitable access, minimized environmental footprint, and maximizing social benefit.
Key components that integrate into the Sustainable Product Design Major include Engineering, Environmental Studies, Art and Marketing. Sustainable Product Design harmonizes these four disciplines to create a degree new to St. Olaf College.
Full Proposal For The Major
To learn more about my major continue reading below
Independent Major: Sustainable Product Design
A combined study of product design methods and sustainability through an iterative design process that creates products that solve problems, as well as applying an ethical framework centered on creating products that considers its entire life-cycle. This major draws from a variety of departments: Physics, Art, Environmental Studies, and Marketing.
Central Questions
Guiding Questions for Major
How do I focus a social lens of equity in sourcing of material as well as production, i.e. factory settings?
This important question includes thoughtful consideration of materials sourcing criteria that includes factors like environmental impacts, human rights and cost. Attempting to address disparities and inequities by being aware of green-washing and paying attention to bias helps to identify the truest and most valid metrics to measure outcomes.
When it comes to end-user consideration, is access to products, such as affordability, part of the social lens that must be addressed in a sustainable design?
I would like to intentionally consider access to products as part of the sustainability framework that exists to monitor how products improve lives and are within reach for the groups that would most benefit. This generates a discussion around economic cost and social access to the end product. In many cases, single-use items are cheap and accessible. It is important to note that creating repairable items may increase cost on the final product. Finding ways to maximize repairability and lifespan of product, while balanced cost trade-offs of both environmental and economic endpoints.
How can Sustainable Product Design limit the production of “Single-Use” items?
Think-design processes steer towards creating a better customer experience. Product design priorities can be centered on an ethical framework such as reducing single-use items even if it is less convenient for the customer. Developing tools for analysis on the trade-offs might include outliers like the Pandemic that ushered a wave of single-use products in order to address global public health concerns. This IM hopes to develop nuances in analysis that take into account special circumstances and hopefully will find creative alternatives that improve overall sustainability goals.
What might some of the trade-offs be in order to gain Repairability features while attempting to lower environmental footprint?
For example, a product designed to be repairable might include higher initial costs (socially, environmentally, and economically) with less perceived benefits of improved repairability unfolding over a longer range of time. One common example I will be showing in my research is including detailed data from Life Cycle Analysis on less-environmentally friendly materials, and how the use may offset initial costs over time.
How does one monitor for Sustainability success over a long context and range of time, such as would be the outcome of a “Repairable” product?
In other words, how does a Sustainable Product Design justify or create a realistic research-based case for repairability in a disposable world?
Core Courses
Art 236
Graphic Design
This course introduces students to the medium of graphic design as a method of enhanced communication. The course explores the design communication process, including conceptualization, creative processes, terminology, and technology.
Bus 250
Marketing
This course introduces the key elements of marketing principles. Topics include evaluating market opportunities, buyer behavior, market segmentation, targeting, and positioning; market strategy and planning; development of marketing mix; and marketing organization and control. Students are challenged to apply the principles learned in class to current and real-world marketing issues.
ENVST 237
Integration and Application of Environmental Studies
In this course, students learn about sustainable methods, systems, and strategies and how to apply them to civil works and products that benefit the community. The focus is on environmental inquiry: applying a critical lens to the status quo, analyzing the systems involved, and seeking out a more sustainable alternative.
PHYS 160
Intro to Engineering Design
In this course, students created products to solve small-scale problems on campus. Students utilized Solidworks/CAD and Rapid Prototyping. Students researched design patents to ensure that our novel design did not infringe on any pre-existing patents. The final projects were prototyped, modeled, and built to present them to the Professors and class.
Full Class List For This Major
Independent Major: Sustainable Product Design
Senior Capstone Project
Sustainable Case Study: Bottled Water Redesign
For the Capstone Project for my Individual Major, I decided to tackle a redesign of one of the most commonly bought products, single use bottled water. To accomplish this I decided to create a reusable wide-mouth plastic water bottle that can be safely cleaned, easily refilled, and stored for ongoing use. This contrasts the current standard of plastic single-use water bottles: narrow-mouth plastic bottles that cannot safely be sanitized for reuse and are difficult to refill. Redesigning a standard 8 - 16 oz. narrow-mouth plastic water bottle into a reusable wide-mouth version for public use has several key benefits.
Key Goals:
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Create a multi-use product out of a single-use product.
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Reduced hygienic risk
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Human-centered design addresses the social need for inexpensive, refillable, washable, and storable plastic water bottles accessible to the unhoused and displaced populations due to climate disruptions and geopolitical crises.
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Materials: recycled plastic base component and attached lid enhance ease of reuse and eventual recycling.
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Low Toxicity Plastic materials are to be determined and analyzed at high temperatures as experienced in extreme heat events.
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Social benefits: Humans must have access to clean water for health and well-being. Access to hydration stations and clean water sources is a social problem that this project seeks to address secondarily. Reusable water bottles that can be kept clean and refilled may be part of the solution.
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The scope of this project's reach and benefits would be very large, considering the entire world utilizes plastic water bottles for hydration distribution, especially during climate disruption.
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Monitor: triple-check the toxicity of plastic. Try to monitor the waste stream exit point. How many times could a person reuse this item that would normally be a single-use?
When designing these prototypes I engaged in a Cycle of Iterative Design in which rapid prototyping gave way to problem solving different models: this is a visual representation of the process
Prototype A Version 1 (Left)
Pros:
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All-in-one print allows for consistent print quality
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Body of the bottle is very strong
Cons:
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Top ring printed in the wrong size
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Top of bottle could not print properly due to the all-in-one print design
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The top of the bottle is very fragile due to lack of support
Prototype A Version 2 (Middle)
Pros:
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Updated top ring is more reliable to print
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Design adaptation allowed for better prints
Cons:
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Not threaded for a cap of any kind
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Printing leaves the bottle too thin and prone to cracking
Prototype A Version 2.5 (Right)
Pros:
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Is a representation of a potential version 3 prototype
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Fully functional water bottle
Cons:
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Pieced together due to the manufacturing method
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Fragility of prototype from manufacturing method
Prototype B Version 1 (Left)
Pros:
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All-in-one print allows for consistent print quality
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Body of the bottle is very strong
Cons:
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Top ring printed in the wrong size
-
Top of bottle could not print properly due to the all-in-one print design
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The top of the bottle is fragile due to lack of support
Prototype B Version 2 (Middle)
Pros:
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Updated top ring design led to stronger prints
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Design adaptation allowed for better prints
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Have a simple body design allowed more support
Cons:
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Not threaded for a cap of any kind
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Printing leaves the bottle too thin and prone to cracking
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The different halves came out uneven in their thickness
Prototype B Version 2.5 (Right)
Pros:
-
Is a representation of a potential version 3 prototype
-
Fully functional water bottle
Cons:
-
Pieced together due to the manufacturing method
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Fragility of prototype from manufacturing method
Prototype C Version 1 (Left)
Pros:
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Square body makes the print very strong
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Stackable and space efficient design
Cons:
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Sizing of the print was a bit off to making the print less stable
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Printing two halves makes the print more stable, but inconsistent in wall thickness
Prototype C Version 2 (Right)
Pros:
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Fully threaded for a cap
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Stackable and space efficient
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Closest to a final product
Cons:
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Does not fit in the already cylindrical ecosystem for water bottles humanity has designed
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Manufacturing method does not allow the screw top be as accurate as it needs to be
Additional Resources From The Project and Bibliography
Thank You
To St. Olaf For Facilitating This Major
