Life Cycle Assessment as part of Strategic Sustainability for Product Design
STRATEGIES YOU CAN USE (1)
There are a host of sustainability-related issues affecting the manufacturing sector. To counteract these threats and take advantage of the opportunities, industry is pursuing a number of practices that we have loosely organized into two categories: product design and operations.
Product design
Most of the impacts of a product are determined in its design. A Ford Explorer will never
get the same mileage as a hybrid Toyota Prius, no matter how carefully the owner drives or maintains the vehicle. So it comes as no surprise that most of the strategies for producing sustainable products are related to design.
Design for environment
Design for environment (DfE) is a set of practices that strives to reduce the environmental impacts of a product in its production as well as in its end use. It includes, at the front end, choosing materials with the lowest impact to achieve a certain outcome. This may include considering such factors as recycled content, recyclability, embodied energy (how much energy it took to create the material), more abundant materials (especially metals), toxicity and harvesting practices (as in the case of natural resources that have been certified as sustainable). Some designers try to ‘demassify’ a product, ie to get the same results using less material in order to reduce both the pressure on natural resources and costs associated with shipping. They consider ways to eliminate the use of persistent or toxic chemicals such as fire retardants, wood preservatives, and industrial solvents.
Sustainable designers are not daunted by what at first appears to be a price premium for greener alternatives. For example, Nike, which recently released its Air Jordan XX3, their first premium product designed according to their sustainable standards, discovered that while water-based cleaning solvents cost more per gallon to buy, they didn’t evaporate as quickly as petroleum-based ones. The water-based ones ended up costing less when functionality was considered. The Air Jordan XX3 is made with only water-based cements and they even reduced the needs for glues by stitching more of the components.
Unfortunately these innovations did drive up costs by 25 per cent but perhaps in part due to their commitment, Nike has stolen market share during a soft economy. But don’t get the impressions that design for environment increases costs. Hewlett-Packard eliminated an adhesive that was preventing recycling of inkjet cartridges and saved the company $2.4 million over two years, reducing production costs by 17 cents per cartridge.
DfE also considers the efficiency and eco-effectiveness of the manufacturing process. How much energy is required? How can we use waste heat? Can water be reused? Are the most benign chemicals being used? How much of the raw material actually ends up in the end-product? And last, DfE considers waste not only in the manufacturing process but also to some extent in what happens at the end of the product’s useful life. For example, Steelcase’s Think Chair is reportedly 99 per cent recyclable and can be disassembled in only five minutes.
Designers should ask these questions: can production by-products (formerly known as waste) be sold as an input to some other manufacturing process? Are all the plastic parts labelled and is each part made from only one type of plastic so that it can be recycled? Can the products be easily disassembled? Often, designing for disassembly speeds the manufacturing process because it makes the product easier to make as well as take apart. Philips, the Dutch electronics giant, which manufactures TVs, CDs, DVDs and a host of other alphabet-soup electronics, has pioneered DfE practices. They choose a ‘green flagship’ product in each product category and seek to maximize the environmental features of the product. This practice usually not only produces a product that can be marketed on its environmental benefits but almost always uncovers insights and innovations that can be applied across the product line.
For example, as we mentioned before, Philips wanted to find a way to eliminate the fire retardants in their TV housings, since these chemicals have been found to be endocrine disruptors, mimicking hormones. The fire retardants are there to prevent the TV set from combusting. Philips designers asked themselves why TV sets caught fire at such relatively low temperatures. They discovered that their units had ‘hot spots’. Just as the logs in your fireplace flare when you push them together and the flames die down when you separate them, Philips rearranged the components in their TVs to reduce the hot spots. Since heat is a primary cause of failure of electronic components, this strategy also improved the quality and longevity of their products.
Aveda, a manufacturer of natural personal care products, provides designers with a list of guiding questions. Notice the bookend questions:
• Do we need it? Can we do without it?
• Can we borrow, rent, or get it gently used? • Is the project designed to minimize waste? Can it be smaller, lighter, or made from fewer materials?
• Is it designed to be durable or multi-functional?
• Is it available in a less toxic form? Can it be made with less toxic materials?
• Does it use renewable resources?
• Is reuse practical and encouraged?
• Is the product and/or packaging refillable, recyclable, or repairable?
• Is it made with post-consumer recycled or reclaimed materials? How much?
• Is it available from a socially and environmentally responsible company?
• Is it made locally?
• Do we need it? Can we live without it?
Resources
Kurk, Fran and Curt McNamara (2006) Better by Design: An Innovation Guide. Minnesota Pollution Control Agency.
Lewis, Helen and John Gertsakis (2001) Design + Environment. Sheffield: Greenleaf Publishing.
US EPA website, http://www.epa.gov/dfe (accessed June 21, 2013)
Design for Environment Guide published by the Minnesota Office of Environmental Assistance, http://www.pprc.org/pubs/epr/dfe.cfm (accessed June 21, 2013)
The Ecodesign Section of the Industrial Designers Society of America has produced Okala, a tool for assessing the impacts of various materials. Visit the ISDA website for a White Paper on the curriculum, http://www.lcacenter.org/InLCA2007/presentations/139.pdf. (accessed June 21, 2013)
White, Philip (ed.) Business Ecodesign Tools: Ecodesign Methods for Industrial Designers. Industrial Designers Society of America Environmental Responsibility Section, http://www.idsa.org/ (accessed June 21, 2013)
Hannover Principles, http://www.mcdonough.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/03/Hannover-Principles-1992.pdf(acessed June 21, 2013)
Fuad-Luke, Alastair (2002) EcoDesign: The Sourcebook. San Francisco, CA: Chronicle.
This list provides a way to choose between options. Often, trade-offs must be made between one criterion and another. However, a list like this does prompt designers to look beyond their existing set of suppliers for more responsibly produced materials.
