This project is part of NTU's commitment that all students will benefit from work-like experience opportunities embedded into their course, allowing them to engage directly with industry and develop essential professional skills, knowledge and attributes for future career success.
Project background
Product designers are increasingly being challenged to innovate and create new products while taking responsibility to reduce waste and environmental damage to the planet. Alpkit as a brand have forged a lead in developing carbon-light outdoor equipment and are continuously interested in developing innovative methods to reduce their carbon footprint and social handprint.
With Alpkit enrolled in NTU’s Sustainability in Enterprise (SiE) programme, we saw an opportunity to provide our BSc (Hons) Product Design students with an engaging work-like experience challenge. 54 students were invited to take part in a live project brief set by Alpkit – to design and make improvements to the carbon footprint of their best-selling tent, the Soloist.
“I gained a better understanding of how to properly use a Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) tool, which will allow me to reduce the carbon footprint of my future designs. I also formed a good relationship with the designers from Alpkit which can help in my future career.”
– Jake Inglis, BSc (Hons) Product Design
The project brief set to students:
Objectives:
- Improve the sustainable credentials of the Soloist tent manufactured by Alpkit
- Explore the use of the Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) methodology and fully utliise the information within an iterative design process
- Consider the circular lifecycle of the product - i.e. the materials, packaging
- Fully justify your design solution utilizing the data gathered through the use of the LCA methodology
Deliverables:
- Portfolio Pages / Marketing / Presentation of your proposal
- Presentation (7 mins max) to the client and tutor team using your marketing/ portfolio page - clearly articulating the comparative carbon credentials of your proposal to that of the original product
- LCA Report and Technical description/costing
- Visuals to be delivered as sketch form, making use of the imagery provided whilst utilising appropriate software to enhance and bring your idea to life
- Process Document
- Reflective Journal
Total duration of the project: 2 weeks
Project timeline
The project was delivered over a period of two weeks which first involved BSc (Hons) Product Design students taking a trip to Alpkit’s head office in Hathersage. There they received onboarding and brand immersion from Alpkit’s designers and staff. Afterwards they were provided with training into the use of LCA – a critical tool used to evaluate carbon analysis of products.
An intense design sprint week followed where students were asked consider and make improvements to the tent and decrease the Soloist's carbon footprint. This concluded with a presentation to the designers at Alpkit and students were asked to explain their design solutions, talk through how these would deliver benefits to the user, and justify use of data gathered through the LCA methodology.
“Alpkit were very helpful and open when it came to their products and brand guidelines. This gave us a boost as it felt that the company really wanted to participate in the project and listen to the ideas we could offer.”
– Kate Smith, BSc (Hons) Product Design
Alpkit on their experience taking part:
“We were approached by NTU to take part in the project and were instantly hooked. We could see a huge amount of value in not only taking a snapshot of our carbon footprint but also having NTU students present a post-LCA with suggested carbon-reducing changes. Through their presentations, students suggested many useful alternative materials. Such insights are invaluable and allow us to develop for the future, keeping pace with the ever-changing landscape of material science.
We saw projects with radical carbon reductions: swapping materials; removing components; or reducing the overall size of the Soloist. One project, led by Adam Zaki, Tyler Mason and Zak Boardman, took a more original approach. By maintaining all the original materials, their project completely redesigned the Soloist to reduce material consumption and product weight. Impressively, they also increased the overall useable space. These are principles we try to apply to any redesign: to decrease waste; decrease weight; and improve performance.
We were so impressed by their redesign of the Soloist that we are now developing their ideas into our products! We found every project presented to us by NTU students provided some valuable knowledge that we can action immediately or plan for the long term. We were so impressed with their work that we have arranged to repeat this brief project again in the 2023/2024 academic year.”
—Rowan William, Senior Product Developer (Alpkit)
Image gallery
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Alpkit Live Project BriefBSc (Hons) Product Design students visiting Alpkit’s headquarters. -
Alpkit Live Project BriefBSc (Hons) Product Design students visiting Alpkit’s headquarters. -
Alpkit Live Project BriefBSc (Hons) Product Design students working on a project during their visit to Alpkit. -
Alpkit Live Project BriefBSc (Hons) Product Design students presenting their work. -
Alpkit Live Project BriefBSc (Hons) Product Design students during their visit to Alpkit. -
Alpkit Live Project BriefStudents working during their visit to Alpkit HQ. -
Alpkit Live Project BriefBSc (Hons) Product Design students visiting Alpkit HQ.
Find out more
Product Design
Find out more about our BSc (Hons) Product Design course.
Sustainability in Enterprise
This programme provides practical support and funding to reduce the carbon footprint of SMEs in the local area. Support focuses on four key areas of business performance: people, processes, premises and products.
Architecture, Design and the Built Environment
We make, create, design and build. We’re planners and problem solvers. We draw lines, and we break boundaries. We’re a provider of industry-accredited learning; a worldwide centre for professional connections; and a hub for some of the UK’s most exciting collaborations and research projects.
Further information
For more information about this project, please contact Karen Whitfield: Karen.Whitfield@ntu.ac.uk