INGENIEUR
Figure 5: Combined effort of Government, University and Industry
ii. to continuously innovate products or
services to improve sustainability and
capability to compete successfully in the
market.
While pursuing these roles, industry leaders
must maintain integrity and ethics and comply with
rules and regulations of environmental protection.
Conclusion
The roles of each stakeholder, Government,
university and industry, if cleverly blended and
orchestrated, can support each other to drive
the common objective of achieving effective
implementation of sustainable product design by
meeting needs as well as lessening the impact
on the environment and ensuring the wellbeing
of future generations. Figure 5 illustrates the
combined effort of these key drivers and their
respective roles.
Case Study – The Electric Car
The invention of automobiles with internal
combustion engines powered by fossil fuels like
gasoline and diesel has greatly improved human
mobility and lifestyle. However, the exponential
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increase in the number of automobiles on the
roads has caused a significant amount of carbon
monoxide (CO) and carbon dioxide (CO 2 ) to be
released into the environment. This causes global
warming and climate change, threatening the
planet’s ecosystem. In the recent decade, various
sustainable designs have been attempted using
electrical energy to power automobiles like the
car. Electrical energy from rechargeable batteries
is used to power electrical motors, which drives
the engine of the car, emitting no harmful gases.
In addition, almost all the components, including
the rechargeable battery, of electric cars are
recyclable. It is thus considered a sustainable
product. Electric cars were first produced in the
19 th century but faced many challenges mainly
due to insufficient battery storage capacity
to achieve adequate cruising distance before
needing to be recharged, durability, safety issues
and high production costs. However, the combined
involvement of Governments, universities and
industries injected new motivation and in 2008, a
renaissance in electric car demand occurred.
Government Intervention
In meeting the commitment to protect the
environment, many countries have adopted policies
and set mandates to ban the sale of gasoline-
or diesel-powered cars in the future, notably,