Publications by Jeremy Faludi
White paper for the Additive Manufacturer Green Trade Association, combining a short literature r... more White paper for the Additive Manufacturer Green Trade Association, combining a short literature review with Granta database data to compare the environmental impacts of metal AM with conventional manufacturing methods, such as machining.
Environmental impacts of six 3D printers using various materials were compared to determine if ma... more Environmental impacts of six 3D printers using various materials were compared to determine if material choice drove sustainability, or if other factors such as machine type, machine size, or machine utilization dominate. Cradle-to-grave life-cycle assessments were performed, comparing a commercial-scale FDM machine printing in ABS plastic, a desktop FDM machine printing in ABS, a desktop FDM machine printing in PET and PLA plastics, a polyjet machine printing in its proprietary polymer, an SLA machine printing in its polymer, and an inkjet machine hacked to print in salt and dextrose. All scenarios were scored using ReCiPe Endpoint H methodology to combine multiple impact categories, comparing environmental impacts per part made for several scenarios per machine. Results showed that most printers' ecological impacts were dominated by electricity use, not materials, and the changes in electricity use due to different plastics was not significant compared to variation from one machine to another. Variation in machine idle time determined impacts per part most strongly. However, material impacts were quite important for the inkjet printer hacked to print in salt: In its optimal scenario, it had up to 1/38th the impacts coreper part as the worst-performing machine in the same scenario. If salt parts were infused with epoxy to make them more physically robust, then much of this advantage disappeared, and material impacts actually dominated or equaled electricity use. Future studies should also measure DMLS and SLS processes / materials.
Environmental impacts of six 3D printers using various materials were compared to determine if ma... more Environmental impacts of six 3D printers using various materials were compared to determine if material choice drove sustainability, or if other factors such as machine type, machine size, or machine utilization dominate. Cradle-to-grave life-cycle assessments were performed, comparing a commercial-scale FDM machine printing in ABS plastic, a desktop FDM machine printing in ABS, a desktop FDM machine printing in PET and PLA plastics, a polyjet machine printing in its proprietary polymer, an SLA machine printing in its polymer, and an inkjet machine hacked to print in salt and dextrose. All scenarios were scored using ReCiPe Endpoint H methodology to combine multiple impact categories, comparing environmental impacts per part made for several scenarios per machine. Results showed that most printers’ ecological impacts were dominated by electricity use, not materials, and the changes in electricity use due to different plastics was not significant compared to variation from one machine to another. Variation in machine idle time determined impacts per part most strongly. However, material impacts were quite important for the inkjet printer hacked to print in salt: In its optimal scenario, it had up to 1/38th the impact score per part as the worst-performing machine in the same scenario. If salt parts were infused with epoxy to make them more physically robust, then much of this advantage disappeared, and material impacts actually dominated or equaled electricity use. Future studies should also measure DMLS and SLS processes / materials.
Product companies generally see sustainability as a burden limiting their design process, similar... more Product companies generally see sustainability as a burden limiting their design process, similar to cost or safety limits. A method for sustainable design was created, attempting to turn sustainability from a burden into an innovation tool with inherent business value. The method combines creative whole-systems thinking with quantitative sustainability metrics. It facilitates innovation by the creation of visual whole-system maps that encourage more thorough and more radical brainstorming. It facilitates sustainability by using quantitative measurements, such as life-cycle assessment or point-based certification systems, to set priorities and choose final designs. The method has been anecdotally tested in classes at four universities, and many of the companies partnering with these classes have said the students provided both sustainability and feature /functionality benefits. This paper also compares the method to Lindahl’s nine recommendations for being useful to engineering designers. Thus there is at least anecdotal evidence that the design method may turn sustainability from a burden into an innovation tool. Future studies should compare the method against industry-leading innovation and green design methods.
This study continues recent work providing the first life-cycle assessment (LCA) of multiple 3D p... more This study continues recent work providing the first life-cycle assessment (LCA) of multiple 3D printers using comprehensive multi-variable impacts, and the first such comparison of additive manufacturing vs. machining. In this study, new machines were measured and the functional unit was adjusted from the making of two solid parts to making one thin-walled part, for more realistic comparison of the prototyping most often performed by 3D printers, according to industry sources. Machines measured were a Mori Seiki NVD1500 DCG CNC mill, a Haas VF0 CNC mill, an Afinia H480 desktop FDM printer, a Dimension 1200BST FDM printer, an Objet Connex 350 polyjet printer, and a Projet 6000 SLA printer. Scoring used ReCiPe Endpoint H. Printer usage varies widely, so scenarios included theoretically making parts 24 hrs/day, 7 days/wk, as well as making just one part per week, either leaving machines idling or turning them off when not in use.
The environmental impacts of two 3D printers were compared to a traditional CNC milling machine t... more The environmental impacts of two 3D printers were compared to a traditional CNC milling machine to determine which method is the most sustainable for general prototyping, or if such a statement can even be made. A life-cycle assessment was performed, comparing a Haas VF0 CNC mill to a Dimension 1200BST FDM and an Objet Connex 350 “inkjet” / “polyjet”. The functional unit was the manufacture of two specific parts in ABS plastic or similar polymer required by the machines. Several scenarios were considered, all scored using the ReCiPe Endpoint H and IMPACT 2002+ methodologies. Results showed the sustainability of additive manufacturing and CNC machining depends primarily on the percent utilization of each machine; this determines environmental impacts more than which machine is used. For both 3D printers, electricity use is always the dominant impact, but for CNC at maximum utilization, material waste became dominant. At both high and low utilization, the FDM machine had the lowest ecological impacts per part for similar utilization. The inkjet machine sometimes performed better and sometimes worse than CNC, depending on process parameters.
Within this work, life cycle assessment modeling is used to determine top design priorities and q... more Within this work, life cycle assessment modeling is used to determine top design priorities and quantitatively inform sustainable design decision-making for a prefabricated modular building. A case-study life-cycle assessment was performed for a 5,000 ft2 prefabricated commercial building constructed in San Francisco, California, and scenario analysis was run examining the life cycle environmental impacts of various energy and material design substitutions, and a structural design change. Results show that even for a highly energy-efficient modular building, the top design priority is still minimizing operational energy impacts, since this strongly dominates the building life cycle's environmental impacts. However, as an energy-efficient building approaches net zero energy, manufacturing-phase impacts are dominant, and a new set of design priorities emerges. Transportation and end-of-life disposal impacts were of low to negligible importance in both cases.
Ecological payback time was calculated for demolishing an existing commercial building with avera... more Ecological payback time was calculated for demolishing an existing commercial building with average energy performance and replacing it with an energy-efficient, prefabricated building. A life-cycle assessment was performed for a 5,000 ft2 commercial building designed by Project Frog and prefabricated in San Francisco, California, and compared to the impacts of annual energy consumption and continued status quo operation of a comparable average commercial building. Scenarios were run both with and without rooftop solar panels intended to make the prefabricated building net zero energy. The analysis considers the materials and manufacturing, transportation, annual energy use of the new building, and disposal of the existing building, compared to continued annual energy use of the existing building. The carbon payback of a new building with no solar against operation of an existing commercial building was found to be roughly eleven years, and a building with enough rooftop solar to be net zero energy was roughly 6.5 years. The full EcoIndicator99 environmental impact payback for a new efficient building with no solar was found to be twenty years, and a solar net-zero building was roughly eleven years against operation of an existing commercial building.
Sustainable design and engineering is an important topic, yet it is under-represented in educatio... more Sustainable design and engineering is an important topic, yet it is under-represented in educational institutions; moreover, it must be taught to practicing professionals, not just students. A free online system has been created to address both problems at once, providing educational materials for educators and also providing a self-paced program for professionals or students to earn a certificate in sustainable design. Called the Autodesk Sustainability Workshop, it is a collection of video tutorials and supporting materials (PDF reference guides, slide decks, quizzes, and other resources) that can be used either by individuals themselves or by educators (either in schools or the workplace) to learn principles and practical skills related to green design, mechanical engineering, and building science. Its dozens of video tutorials span the range from introduction to fundamental principles in sustainability, to specific operation of analytical software tools such as FEA and energy modeling. All videos are on focused topics and of short duration (typically 3 - 6 minutes) so they can be inserted into curricula as educators see fit, not forcing a full curriculum structure. For self-guided learners, or educators who desire a full curriculum, an interactive structure provides quizzes along with the learning resources; upon successful completion, they lead up to a certificate in green design. Currently there is only one certificate, in basic building science; future releases will expand the certificate program to sustainable product design as well, since many of the learning resources are on these topics. For content not covered by the certificate program, the website's information architecture suggests a multi-threaded approach to learning sustainable design. As three-quarters of a million people around the world have already viewed content from the site, this self-directed online learning system is proposed to be a highly scalable method of providing sustainable design and engineering education.
Steffen, Alex (editor). "Worldchanging: a user's guide for the 21st century." Abrams, 2008.
Chapter in "Eco-Labels: Concerns and Experiences" by Asha Joshi. ICFAI Univ. Press, 2008. ISBN: ... more Chapter in "Eco-Labels: Concerns and Experiences" by Asha Joshi. ICFAI Univ. Press, 2008. ISBN: 9788131415801.
Academia.edu by Jeremy Faludi
ABSTRACT Ecological payback time was calculated for demolishing an existing commercial building w... more ABSTRACT Ecological payback time was calculated for demolishing an existing commercial building with average energy performance and replacing it with an energy-efficient, prefabricated building. A life-cycle assessment was performed for a 5,000 ft2 commercial building designed by Project Frog and prefabricated in San Francisco, California, and compared to the impacts of annual energy consumption and continued status quo operation of a comparable average commercial building. Scenarios were run both with and without rooftop solar panels intended to make the prefabricated building net zero energy. The analysis considers the materials and manufacturing, transportation, annual energy use of the new building, and disposal of the existing building, compared to continued annual energy use of the existing building. The carbon payback of a new building with no solar against operation of an existing commercial building was found to be roughly eleven years, and a building with enough rooftop solar to be net zero energy was roughly 6.5 years. The full EcoIndicator99 environmental impact payback for a new efficient building with no solar was found to be twenty years, and a solar net-zero building was roughly eleven years against operation of an existing commercial building.
Papers by Jeremy Faludi
This guide takes the reader through the 3D Printing for Repair (3DP4R) process. It consists of gu... more This guide takes the reader through the 3D Printing for Repair (3DP4R) process. It consists of guidelines and tools to create a 3D printable version of spare parts needed for a product repair. 3D printing a spare part is more than just printing the original part. Instead, it is an iterative process in which the part is analysed, redesigned, manufactured, and tested, in order to come to a final part. This guide will describe these four phases in detail. The guide is meant for anybody who is interested in trying to manufacture spare parts with 3D printing technologies, remakers, tinkerers, volunteer repairers, professional repairers, and everyone who is interested in repair initiatives.
Volume 4: 18th Design for Manufacturing and the Life Cycle Conference; 2013 ASME/IEEE International Conference on Mechatronic and Embedded Systems and Applications, Aug 4, 2013
Additive manufacturing, Oct 1, 2020
Abstract Previous studies on the environmental impacts of polymeric additive manufacturing (AM) h... more Abstract Previous studies on the environmental impacts of polymeric additive manufacturing (AM) have shown that higher printer utilization dramatically improves impacts per part—so much so that it might dominate all other interventions if taken to an extreme. High utilization can be both temporal (printing constantly) and spatial (printing many parts at once). In this study, life cycle assessments (LCAs) were performed for an inkjet fusion printer with exceptionally high spatial utilization capacity and were compared to previous LCAs of nine printers printing with eight materials. Comparisons were performed in different utilizations, both temporal and spatial, to determine if high utilization reduces the environmental impact of AM more than other interventions, such as using sustainable print materials. For the inkjet fusion printer, maximum utilization dramatically reduced the environmental impact per part to less than 1% of its impact in lowest utilization; this was below the impacts of other printers in low utilizations. However, when compared in the same utilization scenarios, the inkjet fusion printer still caused a higher environmental impact per part than almost all printers, primarily due to high energy use. The lowest-impact printer used both high spatial utilization and low-impact materials that also enabled a low-energy printing process. Therefore, printer utilization is not the overriding factor and must be combined with energy efficiency and material choice.
Journal of Mechanical Design, May 13, 2019
When teaching sustainable design in industry or academia, we should teach design methods, activit... more When teaching sustainable design in industry or academia, we should teach design methods, activities, and mindsets that are most effective at driving real change in a industry. However, most studies of design practices are performed on students, not on professionals. How strongly do student perceptions of value predict those of industry teams designing real products? This study provided workshops on three sustainable design methods (The Natural Step, Whole System Mapping, and Biomimicry) for 172 professionals and 204 students, applying the methods to their actual products being developed. It surveyed both populations about which activities or mindsets within each design method provided sustainability value, innovation value, and overall value. Quantitatively, student results did not strongly predict professional opinions; professionals chose clearer favorites and valued more things. However, qualitatively, student results did predict the reasons why professionals would value the design activities and mindsets. Therefore, care should be taken to choose appropriate participants for the questions being asked in sustainable design research.
Smart innovation, systems and technologies, Dec 24, 2014
Design science, 2020
Recommendations of sustainable design methods are usually based on theory, not empirical industry... more Recommendations of sustainable design methods are usually based on theory, not empirical industry tests. Furthermore, since professionals often mix components of different design methods, recommending whole methods may not be relevant. It may be better to recommend component activities or mindsets. To provide empirical grounding for recommendations, this study performed 23 workshops on three sustainable design methods involving over 172 professionals from 27 companies, including consultancies and manufacturers in three industries (consumer electronics, furniture and clothing). The design methods tested were The Natural Step, Whole System Mapping and Biomimicry. Participants were surveyed about what components in each design method drove perceived innovation, sustainability or other value, and why. The most valued components only partially supported theoretical predictions. Thus, recommendations should be more empirically based. Results also found unique and complementary value in components of each method, which suggests recommending mixed methods for sustainable design. This may help design professionals find more value in green design practices, and thus integrate sustainability more into their practice.
Journal of Environmental Management, Nov 1, 2016
This research developed a single-score system to simplify and clarify decision-making in chemical... more This research developed a single-score system to simplify and clarify decision-making in chemical alternatives assessment, accounting for uncertainty. Today, assessing alternatives to hazardous constituent chemicals is a difficult taskdrather than comparing alternatives by a single definitive score, many independent toxicological variables must be considered at once, and data gaps are rampant. Thus, most hazard assessments are only comprehensible to toxicologists, but business leaders and politicians need simple scores to make decisions. In addition, they must balance hazard against other considerations, such as product functionality, and they must be aware of the high degrees of uncertainty in chemical hazard data. This research proposes a transparent, reproducible method to translate eighteen hazard endpoints into a simple numeric score with quantified uncertainty, alongside a similar product functionality score, to aid decisions between alternative products. The scoring method uses Clean Production Action's GreenScreen as a guide, but with a different method of score aggregation. It provides finer differentiation between scores than GreenScreen's four-point scale, and it displays uncertainty quantitatively in the final score. Displaying uncertainty also illustrates which alternatives are early in product development versus well-defined commercial products. This paper tested the proposed assessment method through a case study in the building industry, assessing alternatives to spray polyurethane foam insulation containing methylene diphenyl diisocyanate (MDI). The new hazard scoring method successfully identified tradeoffs between different alternatives, showing finer resolution than GreenScreen Benchmarking. Sensitivity analysis showed that different weighting schemes in hazard scores had almost no effect on alternatives ranking, compared to uncertainty from data gaps.
Journal of Cleaner Production, Oct 1, 2019
This study investigated best practices in teaching environmental responsibility to inventors and ... more This study investigated best practices in teaching environmental responsibility to inventors and innovators. Because successful invention includes engineering, design, and business, best practices in all three disciplines were investigated, as well as connections among them. The investigation sought best practices in curriculum, delivery methods, and administrative leadership to maximize environmental responsibility in invention education. To find best practices, interviews of 25 instructors, administrators, and graduates from sustainable innovation and entrepreneurship programs were performed; a small literature review provided background and validation. Results found that for curriculum, there was no "silver bullet" but a wide spread of topics for different contexts; however, core topics included business knowledge, measurement of impacts, systems thinking, communication, and inclusion of social justice for broader sustainability. For delivery methods, project-based learning in interdisciplinary teams was a best practice, especially when partnering with industry or other external stakeholders. For leadership, faculty leading with strong administrative support was often praised, though other models were also described, and barriers were mentioned. Leadership best practices also included involvement of all aspects of institutions: faculty, administration, students, facilities, and operations.
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Publications by Jeremy Faludi
Academia.edu by Jeremy Faludi
Papers by Jeremy Faludi