Have you heard? The Environmental Protection Agency wants to know how you feel it can best participate in and support green or sustainable product design and development. And now is the time to act – as the deadline for submissions is October 19th, 2010 .
As described in a recent federal notice, the Agency is currently soliciting individual stakeholder input to help define its role and develop a strategy that identifies how the Agency can make a meaningful contribution to the development, manufacture, designation, and use of sustainable products.
In particular, it is looking for stakeholders to respond to the following questions:
1. What do you see as the major policy and research challenges, opportunities, and trends impacting the development, manufacture, designation, and use of sustainable products?
2. What do you see as the EPA's overall role in addressing these challenges and opportunities?
3. In particular, how do you see the EPA's role in:
- Assembling information and databases.
- Identifying sustainability “hotspots” and setting product sustainability priorities.
- Evaluating the multiple impacts of products across their entire life cycle.
- Defining criteria for more sustainable products.
- Generating eco-labels and/or standards.
- Establishing the scientific foundation for these eco-labels and/or standards.
- Verifying that products meet standards.
- Stimulating the market.
- Developing end-of-life management systems (reuse, recycling, etc.).
- Measuring results, evaluating programs.
While critics may argue that the EPA’s involvement in this area may only create further roadblocks for manufacturers seeking to green their product lines, another way to view this move is that a standard means of measuring and verifying sustainability or “green” claims may be in the offing. This could be extremely valuable to organizations – especially suppliers – that are seeking to meet green mandates from manufacturers – and could well serve as a key first step in raising awareness of – and addressing some of the key challenges surrounding the design, development and manufacture of green products.
It’s all part of next-generation product design, a topic that is explored in greater detail in the related research study, “Sustainability and the Product Lifecycle: A Report on the Opportunities, Challenges and Best Practices for Sustainable Product Design and Manufacturing.” So, stay tuned. We’ll be providing updates and an opportunity to participate in the research in the weeks and months ahead.
It’s all part of next-generation product design, a topic that is explored in greater detail in the related research study, “Sustainability and the Product Lifecycle: A Report on the Opportunities, Challenges and Best Practices for Sustainable Product Design and Manufacturing.” So, stay tuned. We’ll be providing updates and an opportunity to participate in the research in the weeks and months ahead.
To learn more, see:
