Redesigning Ironing for Sustainability

What?

In my Sustainable Design course, we were challenged to redesign a common household appliance, reducing its environmental impact by at least a factor of 2. My team, which consisted of two Wellesley College students, one exchange student from France, and me as project manager, chose to redesign an iron.

Why?

Ironing, while not essential to life, is vital to many people as a way to feel professional and prepared to impress others. These people don't trust alternatives like wrinkle-free shirts, but they would definitely trust a professional ironer to press clothes for them. A professional ironing service powered with solar energy could reduce the impact of ironing by a factor of 18!

How?

My team first took apart a popular iron as well as an ironing board and identified how much of each material was used and what processes might have been used to manufacture them. We used this information to perform a Lifecycle Analysis of the system, then redesign the system and compare our final Lifecycle Analysis to our original. Our final poster is below.