© 2022 by Bastian Reichhardt | ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
“It is almost always better to reuse products and components than to dispose of or recycle them in order to make room for new ones. This principle, of course relies on the fact that the older products were well designed, met our needs, and were socially and environmentally acceptable.” - Design Is the Problem, Nathan Shedorff, p.217-218


unu 2.0
Design for a circular economy


Umeå Institute of Design | 2020 | 8 Weeks Sprint
Brand Strategy, User Experience, Industrial Design, Sustainability
The Challenge

How can designers rethink the development of new industrial products in a more sustainable, holistic way? And how can we encourage customers to commit by conscious buying behaviour?

UNU 2.0 is a campaign addressing products made for refurbishment, while considering the previous, current and future life of its resources.

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BRAND
UNU

PRODUCT
Tire Pressure Gauge
Unu is a German startup that wants to make sustainable mobility accessible to everyone. They offer scooters with clean electric motors, portable batteries, integrated navigation and shareable digital key. So they utilize newest technologic trends in order to relieve urban infrastructures. The scooters are aimed to be rented or can also be bought by individuals as well as companies for fleet sharing purposes.
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The Circular System

A circular economy is an alternative to a traditional linear economy (make, use, dispose) in which we keep resources in use for as long as possible, extract the maximum value from them whilst in use, then recover and regenerate products and materials at the end of each service life. (WRAP) The aim is to increase sustainability, reduce waste and prevent harm to the environment.
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ENTERING THE CIRCLE, RECYCLE
Using ocean waste as resource

Before starting the development of a new tire pressure gauge, it were considered how the product can avoid unnecessary waste of resources and its manufacturing even contribute to environmental care.
A positive impact is reached by collecting, seperating and recycling ocean waste plastic. Newest technologies allow high quality recycled materials made of 100% ocean waste (more information). In this way, objects and products whose life-cycle have ended, can be reused in order to create a new product life.
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MAKE
Designing for refurbishment

The new tire pressure gauge is designed under consideration of the sustainability scorecard tool. The product is made to last long and for easy refurbishment in oder to replace single components rather than throwing the whole product away. So the product itself can enter multiple life-cycles with more than one user.
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USE
Made to drive secure & ecofriendly

The tire pressure gauge helps in multiple concerns: With an incorrect tire pressure, the braking distance can be longer, cornering can be worse, and at particularly high speeds there is even a risk that the tire will burst. Furthermore, a flat tire has a higher rolling resistance which results in an additional energy consumption.
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REUSE
Easy to (dis)assemble

The design ensures best possible accessability to the technical components without disposable connections or quickly breaking and fragile parts. Only one screw needs to be unscrewed and the whole products comes apart. This supports a refurbishment through saving efforts, time and costs.
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2.0
Give it a second chance

When the product has been refurbished it gets a 2.0 print on the backside in order to communicate the second life-cycle.
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REMAKE
Prepared to be remade

The new product is dematerialized and thus lighter and smaller compared to existing tire pressure gauges and the number of components, materials, and types of materials were minimized to the essential.
Due to their glue, adhesives, and information stickers were avoided. Text is printed on or casted in the plastic.
By using pure Polypropylene (PP) without any compound materials, full recyclability is ensured. In order to easily find out the type of plastic, the material indication is casted in the parts.
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Only One Screw. No Adhesive. No compounds. Plastic Recyclability Indications.

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