Project Management: In this weeks lesson students learn more about closing the loop for products by using recycled content, locally and regionally available, environmental certifications, rapidly renewable resources, etc. To build upon this concept, recognize we often see products made to actually be serviced or repaired (meaning not disposable when they break, which is a novel concept for other products), as well as products that are remanufactured or reused in an alternative manner. This week students need to critically think about this concept and find a product that claims to apply at least one of the closed loop end-of-life concepts for this homework assignment.

Students need to evaluate the product claims further (i.e. labels, declarations, certifications, etc., see textbook and supplemental materials examples). There are several things students should look for in their selection regarding poor marketing or green washing claims. Further students should look for potentially false, misleading, obsolete, or other claims contrary to generating a positive impact on sustainability performance. Students should consider trade-offs beyond the planet, but also profit and/or people impacted by the product (i.e. we cant pursue an alternative product for environmental impact if it sacrifices the people or costs massive amount of money can we?). Students should carefully review potential risks, concerns, uses, impact, etc. for the product selected.

Students must reflect on the credibility of sources used for this assignment (see Course Materials Doing Research and Using APA under the Course Content). Today the internet offers the ability to communicate globally and when you use it for research you need to reflect on the source of your information as often you are seeing only biased marketing materials. Students need to add further research to support this evaluation (i.e. customer ratings, purchasing guidelines, independent tests or certifications, etc.). As students prepare to finish Assignment Series 3 next week, they will need to propose recommendations to make improvements on the assessment conducted in Assignment Series 2. All sources of information used to support improvement recommendations must consider this type of analysis or you might negatively impact sustainability performance for your project. Students should look at research that is from multiple perspectives before they finalize their decision (i.e. for and/or against) using any alternative products