MIT’s SourceMap: The Future of Supply Chain Transparency and Accountability?

Sustainable product design – which emphasizes the importance of designing responsibly using eco-friendly materials and minimizing environmental impact – is enough of a challenge for many product designers. It requires a new way of thinking about design – and a new way of measuring a product’s success beyond conventional price/performance metrics.

At the same time, sustainable product design also requires manufacturers to be ever watchful of what may wind up in a product, from a supplier located millions of miles away. Indeed, understanding and addressing the challenges of managing sustainability across the supply chain, as well as across the product lifecycle, is no small feat.

But thanks to MIT’s Leonard Bonanni, the creator of SourceMap, the task of tracking, measuring and, in general, comprehending the environmental impact of a product across its supply chain, is getting easier. Originally conceived as a PhD project, SourceMap offers a user-generated visualization of a product’s supply chain and resultant carbon footprint.

It’s a compelling concept – one that, as a recent article describes it, “represents the future of environmentally friendly consumption, one based on transparency and accountability.” Based on its ability to provide a visual map of a product's supply chain, SourceMap just may accomplish this goal, and provide a guide for companies and consumers that are seeking more sustainable solutions.

As noted in an excerpt from the article, Bonnani’s original mission was to help consumers who wanted to be able to do so, make more sustainable choices:

“Basically,” explained Bonanni, “the idea came from the fact that people want to make sustainable choices, but there’s no place for them to go if they want to investigate products and services.” The site (www.sourcemap.org), then, acts as a “public good mission to teach sustainability and understand supply chains.”

To get the project off the ground, Bonanni and his advisers at MIT’s Center for Future Civic Media, Hiroshi Ishii and Chris Csikszentmihalyi, first focused on breaking down select commodities’ trade routes, which can often be quite convoluted. Electronics, for example, can contain components from over ten countries. Thus, Bonanni and his team started by reverse engineering products to track their origins, often by simply calling companies to find a certain item’s origins. Then, with a trail mapped out, says Bonanni, “I needed to break the problem into environmental impact,” like how much carbon shipping and packing sends in the atmosphere.

Of course Bonanni knew we live in a digital world, and wanted to create a visual guide for an easily distracted public. To that end, he reached out to graphic designer David Zorg, who drew maps laying out a product’s trade route and emissions. Now customers can look at the guide for a Giant TCR ‘04 bicycle, and see its 21 components result in a carbon footprint of 82.01 kg, or Apple’s iPod, which has seven assembly spots, and emits 9.84 kg of carbon along the way.

Three years later, SourceMap, a forthcoming 501(c)3 still funded by MIT grants, has evolved into more than just a research product aimed at consumers. It’s a resource for companies, as well.

It’s all part of next-generation product design, a topic that is explored in greater detail in our upcoming research study, “Sustainability and the Product Lifecycle: A Report on the Opportunities, Challenges and Best Practices for Sustainable Product Design and Manufacturing.”

Do you have what it takes to design sustainable products? Or wish you did? Tell us more. By taking this short survey, you’ll be helping to shed light on this very important – and often highly debated – topic. Whether you’re a sustainability expert or just beginning your journey – your feedback is invaluable.

See also:

Mapping Carbon Emissions, SourceMap Paves Eco-Conscious Markets

Is Sustainability Fundamentally a Materials Problem?

New product design expert, Steven Eppinger would argue that it is. Eppinger, coauthor of the popular textbook, Product Design and Development and a professor of management science and innovation at the MIT Sloan School of Management, takes the view that “the secret [to sustainability] is to focus on materials.”

Why? While manufacturers often tend to focus on the sustainability goals and objectives that they can achieve at the operations level – energy efficiency, waste reduction, water conservation, etc. – there are real opportunities to cut costs, reduce environmental impact, and drive innovation – during the product design phase, according to Eppinger.

As noted in a recent article on the subject, Eppinger offers the following view:

“The way to think of environmental sustainability when it comes to design and product innovation is by framing it as a materials problem. It’s about the materials that we use in the products and the materials that are used to run the processes that make the products. The reason that product design has a big impact is that’s where the materials decisions are made.

If you want to have a product that uses only materials that can be recycled, you’ve got to rethink the product. You’ve got to change the design, which means new specifications and perhaps some difficult technical trade offs to deal with. If you want to use materials that are recycled in the first place instead of always using virgin materials, you’ve got to design the product differently so that can happen. If you want to reduce the use of packaging materials in operations, you’ve got to design the product differently so that it needs less packaging or no packaging; if you want to reduce the use of coatings and finishes, you’ve got to design the product so that it works properly and looks great without coatings and finishes. If you want to sell a product that your consumer can recycle, you’ve got to design the product to be easily disassembled and separated into available recycling streams.”

Ok. So it’s important to make smart design decisions with respect to materials during the product design phase in order to drive innovation and achieve sustainability goals – the question is, how can this be accomplished most easily? Are there capabilities built-in to today’s product design tools to help facilitate smart design decisions with respect to materials? Are there new tools on the horizon?

The short answer is a qualified, “yes.” The tools aren’t quite there yet, but they’re coming. Users can also expect to see a greater emphasis on not only sustainable materials selection but sustainable materials management in next-generation design tools. In fact, Autodesk's recently announced partnership with Granta Design, a organization which offers expertise in materials software, materials data, and materials databases, promises to take product design and development one step closer to this goal.

So, let’s review. As Eppinger summarizes it:

How can environmental concerns drive product design and innovation?

• Frame design and product innovation for environmental sustainability as a materials problem.
• How much material is used is less important than what material is used.
• Don’t try to eliminate environmental impacts all at once. Try to get a little better each time you design a product.

It’s all part of next-generation product design, a topic that is explored in greater detail in our upcoming research study, “Sustainability and the Product Lifecycle: A Report on the Opportunities, Challenges and Best Practices for Sustainable Product Design and Manufacturing.”

Do you have what it takes to design sustainable products? Or wish you did? Tell us more. By taking this short survey, you’ll be helping to shed light on this very important – and often highly debated – topic. Whether you’re a sustainability expert or just beginning your journey – your feedback is invaluable.

See also:

How Sustainability Fuels Design Innovation

Do You Have What It Takes to Design Sustainable Products?

Eco-design Gets a Boost from Autodesk, Granta Partnership

Nike Offers a FREE Gift to Product Designers

No, it’s not free merchandise – but for product designers with an interest in designing with sustainability in mind – it just might be the perfect gift. What is it? A design tool created to help designers make better-informed decisions during the earliest stages of product design – when it matters most.

More specifically, the Environmental Apparel Design Tool reportedly gives each design an overall score, and then allows designers to tweak specific aspects of their work to improve the score, according to Nike. Built over the course of seven years, and at a cost of $6 million, it’s hard to believe that the company is making a version of the tool available for public use – but it is.

And, it’s available here: www.nikebiz.com/responsibility/nikeenvironmentaldesigntool.

Designers can also register for upcoming webinars on the Environmental Apparel Design Tool at: www.nikebiz.com/responsibility/nikeenvironmentaldesigntool.

How does it work? According to a recent article on the subject, designers simply “plug in what materials they're using, how much recycled or organic content they have, any treatments being done, how much waste will be left over from cutting the design out, and some other details, and the tool gives the design a score, which can fall into one of the following categories:  'needs improvement,'  'good,'  'better,'  or  'best.'"  Sounds almost too easy. Then, again, perhaps a great deal of effort was put into the tool in order to make it easy to use. Keep in mind, that by testing the tool out, and providing your feedback, you can make it even easier to use, and more useful.

But it gets even better. In addition to the Environmental Apparel Design Tool, Nike will also be releasing its Footwear Design Tool, Material Assessment Tool and Water Assessment Tool in 2011.

Now, really – what more could you ask for? These tools are free, good for the environment, and developed to help designers create better, more environmentally-friendly products. So, if you’re involved in designing footwear or apparel, go ahead – treat yourself! The Environmental Apparel Design Tool just might be one of the best presents you get this year. It can help you design more sustainable products and help make the world a better place!

Do you have what it takes to design sustainable products? Or wish you did? Tell us more. By taking this short survey, you’ll be helping to shed light on this very important – and often highly debated – topic. Whether you’re a sustainability expert or just beginning your journey – your feedback is invaluable.

It’s all part of next-generation product design, a topic that is explored in greater detail in our upcoming research study, “Sustainability and the Product Lifecycle: A Report on the Opportunities, Challenges and Best Practices for Sustainable Product Design and Manufacturing.”

See also:

Nike Shares Environmental Scoring Tool For Product Design

Nike’s Six Million Environmental Design Tool. Now Yours. For Free.

Do You Have What it Takes to Design Sustainable Products?

Is it difficult to design sustainable products? (And by the way - what qualifies as a sustainable product anyway?) Does it require special tools? Does it involve special training? Will it change the way I design, or require additional steps in the design process? Can I still work with my existing suppliers or will I have to find new ones? And what about the materials or processes that I’m using to manufacture my products – are these sustainable? If not, what are my alternatives? And what’s all this talk about managing our environmental impact by measuring our carbon and water footprint? Or using an LCA (life cycle assessment) to help guide my product design efforts? How does all this impact my work?

If these questions sound familiar, you’re not alone… Today, product designers from across all industry sectors – from footwear and apparel to high tech/electronics and transportation – wrestle with these and other questions in their quest to support sustainability initiatives within their companies. And, right alongside these individuals are corporate sustainability officers, quality, environmental health & safety, compliance, and procurement professionals – who are also being held accountable for certain sustainability goals and objectives. It’s a challenging environment, to say the least.

But what we’d really like to know is - what’s happening in your organization? Is sustainability important? In particular, is it important at the product-level? If so – how is sustainable product design currently being tackled by your product development teams?

Tell us. By taking this short survey, you’ll be helping to shed light on this very important – and often highly debated – topic. Whether you’re a sustainability expert or just beginning your journey – your feedback is invaluable.

It’s all part of next-generation product design, a topic that is explored in greater detail in our upcoming research study, “Sustainability and the Product Lifecycle: A Report on the Opportunities, Challenges and Best Practices for Sustainable Product Design and Manufacturing.”

See also:

Sustainable Product Design and Manufacturing: Are We There Yet? (survey)

NOTE: This research study is being conducted by Four Winds Research, an independent market research and analysis firm dedicated to sustainable product design and manufacturing. Our research is focused on identifying the key issues and challenges facing designers and engineers today as they attempt to create sustainable products; understanding how organizations can effectively apply sustainability principles in product design and development both internally and across the supply chain; and the critical role that sustainability metrics, tools, and technologies promise to play in product design and manufacturing in the coming decade.  To learn more, visit our website.