Applying principles of sustainability to create

viable systems (A4)

Sustainable design is a strategy design activity of constructing and developing sustainable

solutions, which takes into account economic, environmental, moral and social issues in a
balanced way. Use the design under consideration to guide and meet the consumption
demand and maintain the continuous satisfaction of the demand. The concept of
sustainability includes not only environmental and resource sustainability, but also social
and cultural sustainability. Sustainable design requires the harmonious development of
human beings and nature, and the design of products, services and systems that can meet
the needs of contemporary people and ensure the sustainable development of future
generations. The main design involved in the establishment of sustainable consumption
patterns, the establishment of sustainable communities, the development of sustainable
energy and other technical projects. The following incident is what I discovered during my
internship about sustainability in the workplace.
The last summer holiday, I worked as an intern at a new energy vehicle company called NIO.
During my internship, I met with customers who returned to the factory to replace car
batteries. I learned that NIO recycles batteries that have been used for a certain number of
years with high value. As far as I know, most new energy vehicle companies will not trade in
the abandoned battery. First, recycling the waste battery reduces the company's profit, and
the disposal of the waste battery requires professional equipment, which greatly increases
the company's cost. I asked my supervisor about this. My supervisor stated that, compared
with the fuel vehicles, electric cars are cleaner and more environmentally friendly, many
countries and regions even say no to the fuel vehicles and promote the popularization of
electric vehicles. It is widely believed that electric vehicles do not emit the same harmful
emissions as fuel vehicles, but in some respect, they may have a greater impact on the
environment than fuel vehicles. First, while electric vehicles have lower emissions, the
increased demand for electricity means that power plants use more fossil fuels. Large
electric vehicles with long ranges require large batteries, and the more power they use, the
more pollution they cause. Secondly, the large amount of nickel, cobalt and lithium
materials needed for battery production will cause huge environmental cost. In addition,
scrap batteries are also a problem. electric vehicles don't make too much noise and they
don't emit too much exhaust. However, lead batteries used in electric vehicles have to be
replaced after a certain period of time and buried in the ground without proper treatment
can cause soil pollution. An estimated 11 million tonnes of lithium-ion batteries will be
scrapped over the next 12 years, of which only 5 percent will be recycled. The pollution from
used batteries is permanent. Coal-fired power generation is still common., electric vehicles
charging consumes electricity, while thermal power generation brings pollution. Therefore,
recycling of waste batteries can greatly reduce the impact on the environment. As a
responsible business, NIO needs to do something about it, even if it costs more.
Later, I searched some information and found that after the battery is abandoned, the
casing of the battery can be damaged by corrosion caused by long-term exposure to the
environment, and the heavy metal materials will gradually infiltrate into the water and soil,
causing serious pollution. Battery life of electric vehicles is generally low, which requires
frequent replacement and disposal. For this reason, there are a large number of used
batteries. Waste batteries are rarely recycled and their whereabouts are unclear. In order to
get lead-containing panels, the private disposal of used batteries simply removes battery
electrolytes, which wastes energy, destroys soil organic matter, reduces fertility, prevents
crops from growing properly, and also causes groundwater pollution. In addition, waste
batteries contain heavy metals such as mercury, lead, cadmium and nickel, and electrolyte
solutions such as acid and alkali, which may cause different degrees of harm to human body
and ecological environment.

At present, the main disposal methods of waste batteries are divided into the following
categories:
⚫ Maintenance and manufacturing: replace the damaged parts on the battery,
remanufacture the battery and assemble it for electric vehicles.
⚫ Conversion purpose: change the battery adjustment and install it to non-vehicle static
energy storage device.
⚫ decomposition processing: decomposing and extracting precious metals, chemical
materials from the battery, and selling them in the raw material market or putting them
back into the production of vehicle batteries.

In my opinion, the lack of regulation, coupled with high recycling costs, has created a vicious
cycle in which some manufacturers are keen on selling cars and pay no attention on
recycling used batteries.
⚫ First, there should be a specific government department to supervise the matter,
strengthen the recycling of waste batteries supervision.
⚫ Second, every battery should be marked with a unique number. These Numbers are
administered by government departments. After the recycling of waste batteries, check
the number. In this way, the sources of used batteries can be found and the
manufacturers can be punished.
⚫ Third, certain subsidies should be given to the recycling of waste batteries to supply
both manufacturers and car owners.

In addition, in the automotive industry, there are many cases of non-compliance with
sustainability principles, such as the installation of gas purification devices. In my opinion, if
the automobile industry wants long-term development, it must be designed and applied
under the principle of sustainable development by integrating economic and environmental
factors.

Through this communication with the supervisor, I understand that an enterprise should not
consider profit growth regardless of the impact on the environment. The earth's resources
are decreasing day by day, and we need to make more efforts to maintain the quality of life
of future generations. Sustainability is closely related to human survival.
Professional Practice within intercultural and
global contexts (F)
With the rapid development of globalization, the multicultural characteristics of the
workplace become more and more obvious, and most multinational companies increasingly
rely on intercultural teams to complete complex tasks. In an intercultural team, multi-
culture can increase the creativity of the team, promote the members to know each other
better, and help improve the quality of team decision-making. For multinational companies
under the background of globalization, integrating cultural differences, promoting strengths
and avoiding weaknesses, paying attention to team composition and development stage,
and playing the role of team leader all play an important role in the management of highly
intercultural teams.
NIO, as a global start-up, has its headquarters and production car research and development
center in Shanghai, autonomous driving research and development center in SAN Jose,
design center in Munich, extreme performance research and development center in
London, and software research and development center in Beijing. The Shanghai team is
mainly responsible for vehicle research and development, manufacturing operation,
marketing and service functions. The design center is located in the world automobile
design center, responsible for product modeling design. The fleet team headquarters in
London is responsible for project operation and management strategy. The purpose of the
company to set up studios around the world is to understand the needs of various countries'
markets, gather the advantages of each region to improve their products. The company's
management team also comes from different countries and has held important positions in
different companies. They have special talents and advantages, rich experience in solving
problems and advanced methods of management team. When they work together for a
goal, their challenges will be easier to solve.
During my internship, I was assigned to a team composed of members from different
departments, whose responsibilities included workshop technology, quality inspection,
sales, after-sales service, data analysis and task arrangement. We always work as a team to
complete a complete task. Although we have learned different things and come from
different backgrounds, we know each other and trust each other through multiple
communication and getting along with each other after work, and we become more
understanding in group work.
Cross-cultural conflict means the coexistence of diverse cultures, and the differences
between cultures can stimulate the collision of different thoughts. In this case, cross-cultural
conflicts can play a positive role, reflect the "cross-cultural advantage" in transnational
operation, and create rich market resources and profit income for multinational companies.
Cross-cultural teams can enhance the innovation ability of enterprises and enhance the
reaction capacity of enterprises to deal with emergencies. An intercultural team must
comply with the principle of respect, communication and adaptation. Due to the complexity
of multicultural diversity, the team will have different ideas when in the face of the cultural
differences. At this time, team members should use the tools and method of rational
thinking, captured the essence of things through the surface phenomena, recognize the law
of development of things from complex contradiction, in the heat of the development trend
of cross-cultural grasp the cultural advantage, grasp the advantages of culture in the fierce
cross-cultural development trend, in this way can fully respect cross-cultural conflicts. In
cross-cultural teams, reasonable and effective communication through language can
improve the level of recognition of cultural differences. Respect is only a basic requirement
in teamwork, which requires language to adapt to each other's cultural behaviors and grasp
each other's cultural meanings. The ultimate goal is to reach a consensus. In essence, it is to
establish the same values in the common position, and to form a trend of integration and
common position in thinking judgment and behavior mode.